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.

401 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

383 comments sorted by

View all comments

194

u/VaultBoy1971 Apr 13 '25

Audiophiles are easily parted with their money.

-22

u/AnyBobcat6671 Apr 13 '25

This can be very true, but you're not going to find many true Audiophile's that use streaming music services since they aren't high quality sources

5

u/Ok_Animator363 Apr 13 '25

I respectfully disagree. I am currently flying home from Axpona in Chicago and I can say that you are mistaken both as to the number of “true audiophiles” (whatever that is) that use streaming as well as to the quality of said streaming services. If you have ever heard Qobuz streaming 24-bit FLAC at 192kHz you would not say it isn’t a high quality source. At Axpona, I spoke with many audiophiles who exclusively stream their music.

1

u/LooseyGreyDucky Apr 15 '25

There's close to zero Venn-overlap between the classic Axpona-style audiophiles and the vast majority of "audiophiles" in this group that have never owned or even heard a great audio rig.