To begin, I am a physical (digital) media guy. I prefer owning my music as opposed to renting BUT it became apparent that if I wanted to listen to music - especially mixed in Dolby ATMOS - I had to stream music. I’m looking at you Apple Corp!!! Anyway, I have an Amazon cube that I purchased about 6 months ago running HDMI to my Marantz AV preamp (AV 7706) which does the digital “decoding” from the Amazon Cube via HDMI. I am now streaming Amazon music which detects what they AV is capable of and will play either the ATMOS or 192/24 stereo versions if available. The question of “streamers” as a stand-alone unit comes up because I see these in audiophile rags and higher-end stores. I just don’t understand what they do to justify the thousands of $ to spend on them that my current set-up doesn’t do. Is it the DAC? If so, running it HDMI to my Marantz would defeat that - if have to run it analogue out with a crap-ton of cables if I want the sound in ATMOS. Can someone educate me on the benefits of a streamer vs. streaming in the way I’m currently doing it?
Different network bridges sound different.
They aren’t just the sum total of their DAC.
I’ve just upgraded and there’s a definite improvement.
Of course the DAC is crucial. But the bridge also makes a difference.