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

@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.

I stream from my PC to a DAC and then my amp. I looked at posts from this site saying how great streamers were and bought an Aurender N20 with a T+A DAC 200. I had each of these set up on different inputs into my amp and was able to switch quickly between the two. I heard no appreciable difference between the two set ups much less anything that justified the $11k the streamer/dac cost. I've gone to other audiophiles' houses to listen to their set ups and been to an audio show and I still favor what I've got.

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

so now a different story.. our back and forth has never been about the what ( better clocking and noise reduction) but about the why it works.

people like you are the main reason I rarely participate in these forums. You say something, then when you are called on it, you change your story. You ignore what you said before and act like you never said it.

Fact: You said the "processor doesn’t have to work as hard" and "has to do less processing."

Fact: I said I agree the DDC is effective, it is just that your "work less hard" explanation makes no sense..I said you can’t say what "work" the processor is doing or say what "less processing" means so your WHY it works makes no sense. Not that it doesn’t work.

Fact: Now, since you can’t defend your why, you change your story and focus on the what instead of the why throwing in "better clocking" and "noise reduction"

Now that you have thrown it it into the mix, I agree it is completely logical that better clocks and noise reduction may play a part. But you changed your story.  It still doesn’t validate your statement about less processing or less work for the DAC.

I never offered an explanation why because I don’t have one. I just agree that it works and know that your explanation made no sense.

So again, people like you are the main reason I rarely participate in these forums. You are incapable of saying "I was wrong" so you keep changing your story in an endless quest to avoid doing so.

Apologies to the rest of the group

It has been fun but you keep changing your story so......

Good Day