Sound quality differences in streamers

@sns 

DACs can filter noise in the following ways:

1) jitter - if they reclock signal, they do so to eliminate jitter

2) power supply - DACs typically have filters at the power supply.  Extent depends on design.

3) analog output - most DACs have filters to separate analog signal from digital noise.

Bottom line, there is a wide variance in the extent to which DACs are susceptible to noise generated from a streamer.  That’s one of the reasons why not every persons’svexoerience of a specific streamer will be the same.

I too have a custom build, while I've built/assembled or modified both general and audio only streamers, one I'm presently using was built/assembled by one of the most senior and respected audiophilestyle forum members. This particular unit was a proven standout compared to some of the top flight off the shelf streamers. Eventually this design surpassed by the Taiko Extreme clones which last time I checked were considered to be best diy design possible. The latest Taiko, Wadax, probably some others go beyond any custom build. These custom builds generally use Enterprise level components, low noise, latency (meaning speed) and precise clocking is the goal. My particular streamer, based upon a Windows motherboard, as do most of these custom builds, requires very specialized lps as Windows motherboards use a variety of voltages for various functions. I'm presently running JCAT Optimo ATX lps, $6200 last time I looked, this took it way over top of previous attempts at lps via a variety of external lps powering modified internal switch mode power supplies. And then there are choices of operating systems, I'm running Euphony OS which disables virtually every non essential function of a normal Windows motherboard. And there are a variety of PCie cards from JCAT, Pink Faun, others for optimized network, usb, I2S interfaces, these can also be powered externally via lps of your choice. Cool thing with custom builds is you get to hear what individual components add to the mix, everything matters. Understanding what's important in custom builds will allow one to understand how streamers work and why they're so important to the streaming chain. For those interested in learning from the experts and designers of streaming equipment the Audiophilestyle forum is an invaluable resource.

“Anyone who’s compared a $400 streamer to a $2k+ streamer will tell you there’s a very significant difference between the two.”

That's a laughable fallacy—there are numerous counterexamples.  Here is one. 

@lanx0003  Well good for you — you found a few examples so you must be right. 🙄  There are people who “believe” cables don’t make a difference, but the majority experience otherwise.  Likewise there are hundreds here who’d strongly disagree with you, and you’re in a huge minority that should tell you something.  But you keep banging that drum and using whatever crap streamer you have and the rest of us with good systems and ears who can hear the difference will live on happily. 

@soix 

actually, just on that one thread I sent the link on, there were at least 15 members who expressed some variation on the view that their are minimal differences with streamers above a certain threshold, or that they were not able to discern a material difference between an expensive streamer and a modestly priced system.  I’m guessing that’s at least 30% of the participants in that discussion.  There were another 20-30% of participants who didn’t have enough experience to know one way or another.  So just because you refuse to listen to your colleagues doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  They’re just typically not as loud (present company excepted, lol!).