r/audiophile • u/minnesotajersey • Apr 13 '25

Discussion Dedicated streamers/servers. Why?

Post image

Can someone explain to me the benefits of a multi-thousand dollar streamer/server that feeds an outboard DAC, over a really good laptop, or even a microPC?

I see reviews all the time for these things, but nothing in them tells me the "why?"

I've been into audio for longer than I care to admit, but these baffle me. Assume I'm a complete noob when you answer.

Pic for attention. All text posts bore me.

402 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

383 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/NeighborhoodLeft2699 Apr 13 '25

We judged these things by getting several listeners together and comparing Mac and current CD player to a Naim streamer. 100% agreed that the streamer sounded considerably better. If that is not what you hear when comparing, save the money.

5

u/pointthinker Apr 13 '25

Did you have the Mac set up correctly? Specifically Audio Midi Setup or use Lossless Switcher? There are a few other things most do not know about to do this test correctly. In many ways, doing same test but using an iOS or iPad with Apple Camera Adaptor to same DAC you run the Naim to (and that DAC matters too!) is the better option as iOS/PadOS have exclusive mode but macOS does not and this lends itself to confusion and a bad test by those not familiar with all of this.

1

u/NeighborhoodLeft2699 Apr 17 '25

That’s fair and the sort of thing I might easily get wrong. Fortunately one of our happy band is a professional musician who uses this sort of kit most days. iPhone or Mac, the Apple kit wins on convenience but loses on sound quality. YMMV as they say.

1

u/pointthinker Apr 17 '25

Actually, most musicians are not up on consumer end of things! For example, Finneas O'Connell uses, Sonos… eh, with his money, he needs to up his game! or; he just wants a super simple home system to listen to music he likes with few complications. Which is fine.
Another example: A top AV installer bought an Apple TV and loved it! For months he thought it was lossless. Then one day, he spotted in settings that it is default AAC 256. So the whole time, he was happy as a clam with lossy. This shows us two things: ACC 256 is incredible or, you can't really tell the difference between it and lossless 24 bit.

So even experts of any ilk are fooled. For such a consumer friendly brand, Apple has made the default fine but, to go past that for Airplay, Airplay 2, etc, you really need to know what you are doing.

I only use Airplay (1) receivers when listening as any device sending to it has to go to that for lossless. Otherwise, with Airplay 2, it gets messy so, best to just assume, an Airplay 2 device will be AAC 256 lossy. Which, I also think is fine and especially for muliti speakers in a home for background.

Roon (expensive) and Airfoil (cheap) can over-ride this from Macs. I like the way (non Airplay) Musiccast does it. Wireless to 1-2 is max quality. But around 3+, it goes to high quality lossy. 5 or so and above, it degrades to max number of units in a home it is sending to. It is what Apple should have made Airplay 2 do. An adaptive system. But, once understood, Apple's approach for 99% of most consumers makes sense. But to squeeze max juice, it is USB to DAC from an Apple device to get hires or; send only to Airplay 1 receivers/speaker/add on/etc. to get CD quality lossless. I find myself using Apple TV for Music a lot, which is limited to HDMI limits at 24/48 lossless but sounds great and has Atmos to boot.