Dac-less streamer survey!

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And interesting, in my view, that Devialet chose to make Phantom their second product rather than one of "these" which would seem to be a natural.

So either they are out to diversify their customer base, or they think there is no money to be made here, or that this type of sourcing is not the end game, or they are just wanting to be "Apple aligned", ... or maybe they are doing one to launch at Munich?

I think their aspirations towards the volume market are the important factor here.  An audiophile streamer may have higher-volume appeal than the so-called Expert series amplifiers, but it's still a very limited market.  Phantom takes them into a much higher-volume "lifestyle multi-room audio" market by competing with Sonos, Bose, B&O (?), etc.  My guess is that their next major product, whenever that arrives, will continue the trend.