What will a streamer add?

[drdkey]

I have a D250 that I originally had connected to the Moon MIND but the app was cumbersome and unreliable.I have abandoned the MIND. I went with the streamer originally on the advice of my audio dealer. I then tried AIR and found it too unreliable and frustrating although the sound quality was amazing. I have since gone with a mac mini/ separate HD using a Belkin Gold USB cable to connect to the D250. I blind tested the sound using Belkin Gold versus AQ Carbon vs Nordost Blue Heaven. I had several friends over with high end audio systems and they all picked the sound with the Belkin Gold USB. I was shocked at the difference in the interconnects sound quality. I have Magico V2 speakers and I am very happy with the SQ in my set up versus AIR.  I went with the mac mini as I was looking for sound quality but also cataloging of music and the easy functionality of the iTunes interface.

So how does the sound quality of a Mac mini via USB compare to AIR Ethernet?

When you listen to Norah Jones " Come Away with Me" ,in Hi Res 192, you can hear the pedal on the piano move against the velvet and as she sings you can hear her tongue move off the roof of her mouth. The soundstage is perfect and it may just be the quality of this recording but it fills the room and gives you the sense that you are hearing a live performance right in front of you. The ease of use of running everything from my iPad is irreplaceable.
I can get the same quality with Air Ethernet but it can be buggy and has music dead space(the music just stops) at the most inopportune times. I don't get this with the USB connection which is always reliable.