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?
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I use a shield plugged into my dacMagic to my McIntosh amp. USB audio player pro and tidal and my personal library on Plex all figure out the proper decode flags per track and it works just fine. A network streamer just looks cool imo but functionality wise I would only ever want to use one of I didn’t also have my tv in my listening room
Yeah. Don’t get drawn in by the price. A streamer is a streamer. As you suggest the DAC bundled in the streamer can make a difference. And there are screens. Different outputs.
I use a Raspberry Pi 4 over asynchronous usb into my Audiolab 9000a and it works perfectly. I also have a WiiM Pro I stream to and then go optical to the same amp. Both sound identical.
No need to spend big money on a streamer.
I was with the same question and also kept managing my Yamaha musiccast based streaming to the Yamaha RN303 amp. It doesnt support Amazon Music HD. And I wanted the amp with the DAC to directly connect to all the streaming services. Going with Wiim Pro Plus to get that convenience.
I run Apple Music, to WiiM mini, to schiit modius, to marantz all analogue receiver+monitor audio silver 100. Sounds fantastic.
With better streamer (pure digi transport, not talking about DAC’s or other functionalities that may be integrated), you may get the following benefits that may (or not) contribute to better sound quality potentially:
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Better optimized software / operating system / firmware for audio playback
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Higher quality inputs / outputs
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Higher quality power supply
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Higher quality isolation from interference sources
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Higher quality clock signal - depends on your connection, but it’s important for example for SPDIF outputs
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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.
As a digital transport, no network audio player is worth thousands of dollars, especially since performance like the following could be had for $35USD:
That’s a Chromecast Audio’s digital output feeding a well engineered DAC. However, even it’s analog output is transparent:
Beyond a CCA, RPi or WiiM Mini, one is paying for additional features, support and aesthetics, because high fidelity is inexpensive to obtain with digital audio. So high fidelity in fact, that many people totally satisfied with nothing more than one of the three I’ve mentioned in systems costing thousands. Ex. CCA has been my choice since '18 and will continue to be well into the future barring an equipment failure.
I had a CCA which was fine, but had dropouts due to my network setup. It would also only output Qobuz at 48, not up to 96. I think it could go up to 96, but I couldn’t get it to work.
I ‘upgraded’ to a Wiim Pro, which allowed a more stable WiFi connection and I could get it to output 96 and 192.
Sometimes things just get out of date.
Too long to read. I’m short, it’s your but rate