Dac-less streamer survey!

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Thanks for the replies guys. A lot of what you say i understand and I know why people chose a dedicated streamer over say a PC.
What I dont get is if the DAC is really where the sound quality comes from then why would someone pay say £2500 fir the Aurender N100 streamer. Are you saying that the streamer can make that much difference to the SQ.? Surely the quality of the DAC is the critical thing and the streamer fairly insignificant. By the way I am not arguing either way as I dont know, but this is something I have been unable to get my head round lately.

That's a good question...and if there was a consensus about the answer, probably a lot of traffic on Internet forums would disappear overnight!  There's a spectrum of opinions about this, ranging from "bits are bits" so any digital source is as good as any other provided they deliver the same bit sequence, to "everything makes a difference" so you'd expect to hear sound quality differences between streamers whether or not it correlates to anything concrete/measurable.

If you like to experiment and/or are on a continuing quest for the ultimate in sound quality, cost no object, then trying different streamers is a natural and enjoyable way to pursue the hobby.  On the other hand it's equally fine to say a Bluesound Node or Sonos Connect at £300-£400 (for example) will be a perfectly good source, and forget about tweaking.

It's a very personal thing, and you'll see different people on this forum take different stances.  Fortunately, while there are often discussions presenting different points of view, it's all kept very civil and good-natured.  I find it very helpful to have my preconceptions challenged now and then