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How do digital streamers affect sound?

oioi

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hi, im new to the whole audiophile world. I just watched this video by Jay's iyagi. In it he says the following:
this is the Aurender N20 streamer which means that it doesn't have any DAC or preamp or anything else built into the unit it's a solo pure streamer now first and foremost the thing that I really like about this unit is that it sounds absolutely amazing to me. First of all when I hooked it up in my system I found that the base was more dynamic, things were more crisp and detailed and the sound stage both width and depth improved in my system in a quite drastic way from let's say something like the ever solo A6 or the A8 for example and this is particularly important for me because personally for me you know I always say that CD players sound better than streamers to this day even though you know streamers are way more convenient I find CD players to still sound better dollar for dollar. But of course I value the convenience and especially as someone that reviews gear and speakers it's important for me to be able to play any music at any point in time right away and be able to test that in my system

Can anyone explain like im 5? Does this streamer re-do the mastering to correct the lack of sound stage and clarity the recording engineer left behind? Does it send different digital data to the DAC then what it receives from internet or a computer? Also is he referring to CD players without a DAC here? Those would do an even better job at this?

I'm lost.
 
Does this streamer re-do the mastering to correct the lack of sound stage and clarity the recording engineer left behind?
No.

Does it send different digital data to the DAC then what it receives from internet or a computer?
It may, depending on design and user configuration.

Also is he referring to CD players without a DAC here?
I think he's referring to the digital output of various CD players, irrespective of whether they also have a DAC built-in.

Those would do an even better job at this?
No. But he may prefer the mastering of CD releases to those found on streaming services.
 
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hi, im new to the whole audiophile world.
WARNING - The "audiophile community is dominated by nuts! ;) This is one of the few rational-scientific resources. HydrogenAudio is also OK. (HydrogenAudio is built-around blind listening tests.)

See Audiophoolery.

First of all when I hooked it up in my system I found that the base was more dynamic, things were more crisp and detailed and the sound stage both width and depth improved in my system in a quite drastic way...
The guy clearly isn't doing proper blind listening tests.
 
hi, im new to the whole audiophile world. I just watched this video by Jay's iyagi. In it he says the following:


Can anyone explain like im 5? Does this streamer re-do the mastering to correct the lack of sound stage and clarity the recording engineer left behind? Does it send different digital data to the DAC then what it receives from internet or a computer? Also is he referring to CD players without a DAC here? Those would do an even better job at this?

I'm lost.

Measurements will tell you whether the streamer is destroying the bits or not. Not all SPDIF outputs are created equal: see here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ric-budget-usb-to-aes-converter-review.59663/
 
Hey, welcome to ASR.

@staticV3 gave the straight answer as usual.

The editorial answer is that many reviewers, probably this guy, genuinely believe audio gear is magic (although they don't say it in so many words) and can change sound quality in specific ways even when there is no physical way the sound could do that.

In terms of unwanted changes to the sound, I think the worst you can expect from a streamer is resampling, which will typically be totally inaudible. It might change the volume. If there is DSP it might do something to the sound in terms of tonality, but not unexpectedly. The streamer just will not produce "a sound" unless it's explicitly meant to.

They go around saying stuff like "bits aren't bits" because they've convinced themselves small changes in the waveform carrying a digital signal also sound pleasant, or unpleasant, somehow*.

These same people steadfastly believe that cognitive effects on hearing only affect other people, and everything they're collectively hearing is definitely real and not placebo.

These people are wrong, and if you are confused about what they're saying, that's a good sign, because it makes no sense whatsoever.

*Even if a digital signal gets corrupted, it doesn't change the tonality or soundstage or anything like that. It gets noisy or it gets dropouts or whatever. Subtle changes in tone/quality would require filters of some kind to work on the reconstructed signal, not just random bit flipping! They seriously just have no mental model of digital audio whatsoever.
 
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