Any audiophile use computer (MacBook) as your audio streaming source?

I run Ubuntu Linux on a $125 PC I got from Amazon.  My music library is on a USB drive I hang off of it.  Of course it can stream.  Linux is free.  The Clementine music player looks a lot like iTunes, but I run JRiver for about $30.

I always laugh at all of the people with their $5000 streamers and such.  More money than sense.

I completely agree with the first part, I said several times that I agree a DAC can sound better fed from a DDC. What I said was .... your conclusion that it does so because it doesn’t have to work as hard or has to do less processing has no factual basis so stating that these are the reasons has no basis in fact…I never had any problem with the conclusion that it sounds better. My problem is your statement about WHY it sounds better.

@herman Ok, well fine then. If it’s not the better clocking and noise reduction that makes a DDC make a DAC sound better as both you and I agree that it does, then what exactly is it? Magic fairy dust??? C’mon man. You’re running outta logical options here. It’s either clocking, noise reduction, or magic fairy dust. And as to @sns contention that it’s mainly the i2S connection that’s absolutely bogus. Many people here have experienced significant sonic improvements using a DDC without using i2S, so that argument holds no water whatsoever. Your turn, and please add something tangible rather than it just has to be something magical and as yet unidentified that makes a DDC work other than clocking and noise reduction cause I’m all ears if you got it. Where is your magic WHY if better clocking and better noise reduction isn’t enough for you? Occam’s razor — the simplest (and most logical I’d offer) explanation is usually the best one, unless you have something else.  I mean, what the hell else could it possibly be???  

@herman

 

so all you all can just move along, nothing new to see here. There is NOTHING anybody can add to this conversation that isn’t posted in 1000 other threads here and elsewhere

You will never find the answer here or on any forum. The ONLY way to determine the answer for YOU is for YOU to try it.

Agreed, but I am not sure the OP knows what to try.

I don’t have a clue when it comes to digital, but here is a good writeup where the CEO explains some of the measures a top-notch streamer manufacturer takes in order to produce good sound: That is the procedures/steps taken to ensure signal integrity before it is fed to the DAC, so the DAC in turn can seem to do a better job. I think I am right in stating with a quality server/streamer and a quality DAC a DDC is redundant.

Oladra

It is a poor idea to have the equivalent of DDC function in a separate box with a cable in between. Such function should be packaged as close as possible inside a dac directly before the conversion occurs (negligibly short signal path). In fact, a couple of dac manufacturers do just that.

It is the Denafrips marketing wanting to sell another box (ddc) that started this goofery. 

When you have 15 different boxes wired together to play a song (separates extravaganza), it will sound more and more magical, right audiophiles? NOT.

If the usb in DDC is superior to the usb in your streamer you have a pretty poor streamer. As for I2S in general, many of the best streamers don't even offer it, they concentrate on usb and in some cases  AES/EBU.

I agree with deep_333 in that downside of ddc is separate box, more cables, more parts to travel through which may have their own sound signatures, greater probability  of noise being introduced, this goes along with the straight wire philosophy. The  solution is to have both streamer and dac with optimized matching input and outputs.

I also previously owned Singxer SU6, it was not superior via usb or I2S to the extremely modded Mac Mini I was using at the time, this via usb.

As for I2S being the defacto  scheme or output I've seen countless reviews in which people found usb, aes/ebu superior. Certainly it is understandable why in theory I2S should be superior (no extra conversion step, dedicated clock line), in practice this doesn't hold. I find it interesting that Linear Tube Audio Aero dac, an R2R dac getting great reviews doesn't even offer i2s, and you'd think this to be even more important with a ladder dac, the idea being timing extremely important to these relatively massive banks of resistors.