Better DAC or better Streamer

Streamer.

DAC. This thing does the actual work. Streamer is just a small computer. I am all ears waiting for theory how different CPU affects network protocol packet delivery. There is no ’jitter’ on the net. Or how that 'linear power supply' affects code execution. Like if there are 'errors' in CPU with switching supplies lmao.

@mikhailark 

There is no ’jitter’ on the net. 

https://www.alpha-audio.net/background/de-bron-is-allesbepalend-druk-jitter-de-kop-in/

@mclinnguy - where is Net there? Article is about analog - SPDIF to DAC connection. I am talking about streaming which is Internet transfers. There is no bit stream from server to you. Bits travel in packets out of order.

@mikhailark Chord DAC/Mscaler stack expects a digital signal it can understand. There’s no built in network renderer. 
The streaming gizmo OP is using processes the data it received via Ethernet, converts it to the format a DAC would understand according to its specified bit rate and the rest happens inside the DAC. 
Depends on the type of interface used between the streamer and DAC, the data will either be clocked by the streamer (spdif out) or by the DAC (USB). and that’s just part of the processing chain.
If you believe there’s no jitter anywhere in that interface you should probably not provide anymore thoughts on the subject until you do your research. 
 

So…in the digital source setup everything matters starting from the Ethernet cable that feeds your streamer, to the rendering and processing to analog stage and output.

While you’re right that the DAC will bring an improvement, a better streamer would too. There is a different degree of improvement but it’s an improvement nonetheless.