2. digital
  3. 192522-149317

Everything matters

I have now been tinkering for 10 years with my streaming set up and the principal lesson learned is that everything matters. Think about it: from the wall outlet to the router to one or more switches to the streamer and dac, the latter three dependendent on clocking and all of them depending on cables and power supplies), it stands to reason that e.g. changing a USB cable is very likely to compensate for a weakness in the chain, that if addressed, would result in an overcompensation by that cable. Therefore I look at individual component or cable reciews with a very jaundiced eye. It is the performance in the context of the individual chain, that matters. As a result I have had numerous ethernet or USB tweaks, be the filters, isolators or processors, cables and LPSs in and out of my chain. For what it‘s worth, the biggest impacts ranked on SQ I experienced were from inserting 1. Etherregen, 2. LHY Audio UIP, 3. 10m clocking of Dac, UIP and Etherregen and 4. LPSs on router, switch and Etherregen.

 

My main point though remains that praising individual components irrespective of the digital chain is borderline meaningless

antigrunge2
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,692 posts
 

When your network tweaks cost more than a DAC I can tell you that you’re not on the right track.

Streaming quality is in the streamer and DAC first and foremost. No amount of switches or regens or filters or fiber optic converters will compensate for a crappy streamer feeding low quality DAC. Once your components are in order all you need to get the best possible performance is good digital cable, good power cord and quality Ethernet cable. That’s it. 

lucky_doggg7
130 posts
 

In the hobby of Hifi audio, the rabbit hole goes endlessly on power cords, power conditioners, XLRs, RCA, digital, and then there is the other endless money pit doodads in tweaks.  My Eureka moment was when I bought a Shunyata Sigma V2 power cord for my Niagara power conditioner.  Like the conditioner itself, the power cord into the wall outlet just makes everything just sound better, and in a meaningful way.  

My favorite tweak are Symposium's Rollerblocks and platforms.  Perhaps it shouldn't be head-scratching, but it sure seems a bit snake-oil-ish from a distance until you pop a few of those little devils below your front end components.  I was pleased with the - bringing things into focus - affect.  It just makes the good stuff you have, a bit better.  It's like sprinkling a bit of salt & pepper onto the cream cheese that's spread on a bagel, it just gives it more pop in flavor, hah!  

 

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
554 posts
 

There's the sign in the Chemist Shop that says: "We dispense with accuracy".

That's the fundamental proposition with streaming - it does not matter if packets get lost or corrupted, just get the next one down the line.

File transfers can be done perfectly, but streaming does not even try for perfection!

Come to think of it, nor does Ethernet.  Ethernet cannot even guarantee the timing of a single packet, let alone that it actually gets delivered.

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