Do I Really Need a Dedicated Streamer?

No, you don't need one, and no, quality will not increase. Even a $7 Apple DAC's noise level is beyond human hearing.

@jssmith If you don't mind me asking, what streamer or streamer/dac are you using these days?  I had somebody get pretty upset (not here) when I asked them what they were using after they had a similar take on digital streaming gear.  They had said it doesn't matter and any cheap one would do and when I asked what they had, they had a fairly pricey streamer.  Seems a bit hypocritical but what do I know?

Anyone who says a cheap streamer sounds just  as good as anything else hasn’t heard a good one or doesn’t have the system or ears to be able to tell the difference. The difference between a Wiim or Node and something like an Innuos Zenith or Aurender N200 is night and day, and if you can’t hear that level of difference, we’ll, that’s just sad. Ignorance is bliss.

Streamers do not sound alike but stick with well known quality products these days and it’s hard to go wrong. Much harder than say with most any popular media format that preceded streaming.

Dacs….also much much better for much much less these days but again each may sound different. Some quite a bit! Hard to find any good quality one (based on measurements) at most any price though that will sound flat out bad.  I have a $80 portable DAC I use when out and about and it is very very good (as advertised). That is progress!

DCS has a new SOTA 5 box 6 figure cost DAC. DCS has always been known for its cutting edge DAC technology and having heard their products I agree. Would love to hear that one on a system capable of delivering all the goods.

@tubeguy76

S.M.S.L Sanskrit 10th MK II

It’s the best measuring cheapest one that looks good in my rack. Cost about $120.

My other system uses the DAC of my Paradigm preamp because it supports Play-Fi. Doesn’t measure as well, but still beyond the capability of human hearing.

As to the you don’t have the equipment or the ears posts ... been hearing that stuff for over 35 years since I took my first two blind tests and saw the golden-ears crash and burn. Learned how human hearing measures and human psychology works. Read Harmon Kardon’s data and stopped trusting anyone’s opinion and started trusting the facts.

And yes, DACs can sound different if the analog section is programmed to sound different. But that is a design flaw. You can see how this is done in the book Schitt Happened. The proper conversion algorithm was figured out long ago. I’ve programmed several types of conversions myself. There’s almost never a reason to deviate from the standard algorithm.

Oh, and my "steamer" is $179 Windows laptop and a $30 Echo streaming Amazon Music HD.