Question Dedicated streamer vs echo link optical out.

Zebede1980

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Jun 14, 2020
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Hello,

I am currently planning a new system, and there is something I think I must be missing!
I purchased an echo link with the plan that it could output the over the optical link to my dac/amp to provide a top notch signal. However I have been learning about streaming devices and seen how much you can spend on them and I don’t understand why the are so much better if the signal from the link is the digital signal anyway and the dac is doing the work? Logic dictates that the signal is being processed before it even leaves the digital out, but what processing does it have to do?!?
I am sure this is just my ignorance but I can’t seem to find an answer!!

Thank you in advance.

Joe.
 

Gray

Well-known member
Hello,

I am currently planning a new system, and there is something I think I must be missing!
I purchased an echo link with the plan that it could output the over the optical link to my dac/amp to provide a top notch signal. However I have been learning about streaming devices and seen how much you can spend on them and I don’t understand why the are so much better if the signal from the link is the digital signal anyway and the dac is doing the work? Logic dictates that the signal is being processed before it even leaves the digital out, but what processing does it have to do?!?
I am sure this is just my ignorance but I can’t seem to find an answer!!

Thank you in advance.

Joe.
Controversial subject Joe.
Nobody seems to doubt that the DAC 'does all the work' as you say and has the biggest effect on the sound.
But people debate the importance of the streaming device (often those that have paid the most money for them - funny enough).
I use the poor man's streamer, a Raspberry Pi. It sends bit-perfect streams to an external DAC.
Sounds good enough to stop me wondering what I might be missing.
But, according to some, being bit-perfect is not the whole story.
 
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Zebede1980

Well-known member
Jun 14, 2020
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Controversial subject Joe.
Nobody seems to doubt that the DAC 'does all the work' as you say.
But people debate the importance of the streaming device (especially those that have paid the most money for them - funny enough).
I use the poor man's streamer. It sends bit-perfect streams to an external DAC.
Sounds good enough to stop me wondering what I might be missing.
Thank you! That is interesting!
may I ask what the poor mans option is? What I have listed above or something else?
 

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