Discerning a difference between streamers is difficult...only me or common for all?

One interesting thing I found in my quest to lower the cost of my gear was that my worst DAC, the Benchmark DAC3B sounds better with the $10 USB cable from Benchmark. I use the DAC3B a lot with a tube headphone amp. It sounds great.

I have been on the streamer/DAC roller coaster for the past year.+  From Cambridge, to Bluesound, to Eversolo, to Schiit, to PS Audio.  I ended up with Innuos Pulse fed by the Innuos Phoenix USB with Cardas Clear cable and a Bricasti M1S2 DAC.  Each step I found some improvement (so did my son and wife).  The Innuos Sense App is also a pleasure to utilize.  I would consider upgrading in the Innuos family, but I have not been able to hear an improvement with their Statement or NG lines over the Pulse/Phoenix combo.  The M1S2 will probably be upgraded when Bricasti issues an upgrade in a few years.

This hobby should be about finding the system that provides you with the upmost musical experience, not what others, whether they are professional reviewers, hobbyists, or friends, think or say. Too often this hobby is not.  So do not create stress for yourself regardless of whether others tell you they can or cannot discern differences between streamers.  It appears you have been diligent, exploring a number of excellent component streamers and reaching a conclusion on the one that satisfies you.  The fact that your choice is a lower cost option, or is published as not best in class, is not significant.  What is significant is that it blows your hair back.  Be happy.  My recommendation is to use the savings to immerse yourself live musical performances and listen to the real “absolute sound”.

Only last week, at a friend’s house we did a comparison between the streamer of a Hegel H590 vs a WiiM Pro Plus streamer. The WiiM was fed into to the Hegel via Optical and Coax at different points. The DAC used for all three instances was the Hegel’s. 
We also requested his wife- who likes to listen to music but is not fussed about the equipment at all- to give her opinion as to what sounded “better” to her. She couldn’t see which component was being used- not in her line of sight.

All three of us voted the WiiM as easily besting the Hegel’s streamer. We were very surprised. On coming back home (to Dubai, from NY where this took place), I bought a WiiM Pro Plus.

In my experience it’s all about system dependency. Personally I have found a significant positive difference with Aurender N20 and Grimm. Several others didn’t make an impact to justify the additional price vs my NUC i7. Even if the Aurender and Grimm made a significant difference, I didn’t feel that being big enough and decided to stay with NUC and rather add a Farad 3 with Shunyata power cable. I’m happy this way and I don’t feel the need to add another expensive box.