Does A streaming transport affect sound quality?
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We should define what digital (we are talking about the transport) “sound quality” means, how should we measure it and the threshold that would determine if the “sound quality” passes or fails the test.
S’rsly does the internet really need another one of these threads?
The search function is up there 
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For this and maybe other topics as well it might be a good idea to create a fact based kind of (pinned) article (comment function turned off) to bring basic knowledge to people who really want to learn, without the need for spreading completely false ideas to this wonderful field of music listening.
Reading similar threads about SQ drives my and others’ brains crazy. Even injecting hallucinations from ChatGPT and the like tells a lot about the huge lack of basic knowledge about digital audio signals as well as language (not knowledge) models like ChatGPT.
So, in a way everything is already said about this, true or false, BTW, everyone is strongly invited to use the search function before creating new threads.
Furthermore, some at least ignore/deny the nature of (scientific) facts, the constant pressure on the HiFi industry, the increasing preposterousness of marketing, the natural imperfection of all senses in a biological system, the psychological phenomenon of seeing problems despite their absence, the impossible to create a set of gear delivering the unaltered sound experience of a live concert into your room, at your listening position for your ears, and so on and so forth.
BTW, everyone is totally free to believe in whatever they like. However, some beliefs are better kept in a single mind 
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Oh my God. What’s with all these threads in the last two weeks, is the forum under a new kind of DDOS attack?
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And the product we all love and protect produces the Roon Titan 
Enough said I think 
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But many of these threads are full of ChatGPT hallucinations, aren’t they? I can’t tell. I may be hallucinating 
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Yes it does.
And they continue to reduce money for education. So things will get even worse in the future.
Welcome to idiocracy!
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@John_A_Leighton
This weekend, I have done blind tests with my son (how has very good ears.
We blindtested two streamers, and we could pick out each time which steamer was playing (over the same DAC). I was 100% sure that it would not be possible to make any distinguish between the two sources, as they both put out the information in a digital way, but I was wrong. We focused on a specific hit on the hi-hat in a specific song. We could hear that the position of one streamer was very specific, where on the other one, it was on a slightly other position but not so precise.
So a streamer, for me, can make a different in sound, even if it is all digital! YMMV.
I do not want to launch the next verbal war between believers and non-believers, but this is my experience of this weekend
Kind regards, Frank.
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Please tell us more, e.g.
- Blind or double-blind testing?
- Both streamers feeding the same input on the DAC, or different inputs?
- Which streamers and which DAC were you using?
Thank you.
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I cannot emphasize it more or better … Thank you very much for putting not just the quote in words so well!
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Oops, you used a streamer not a digital transport.
Some may suggest these are two different things.
My interpretation of a streamer is that it pulls audio content from online sources (like Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz, internet radio) or local network storage (like a NAS) and also has streaming software, user interface (app or screen), network connectivity (WiFi/Ethernet), and often a DAC. My example here would be a Blusound Node or WiiM Pro Plus etc.
A digital transport is a more specialized device that outputs only digital audio, typically to an external DAC. And you push digital music files to it. My example here would be a Raspberry Pi running RoPieee.
Open to discussing other opinions.
A streamer could be applying DSP that you are unaware of. My example here would be a WiiM Pro Plus as with its internal DSP active, it doesn’t show up in Roon’s signal path.
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Hi Mr; Flibble,
In that case, I was comparing two “digital transports”. And they sounded different. Not day and night, but repeatedly.
Kind regards, Frank.
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No, period.
Unless it’s broken.
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“Transport” in recent days also refers to compact sort of CD players/drives (mainly) used to deliver digital output from an audio CD. Here, as long as the original digital data is not altered by the “transport”, the output is 1:1.
But this is true for any type of CD player using unaltered digital audio output. But sometimes it may be difficult to get confirmation on 1:1 output.
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It’s been said probably 100 times before on these fora, but if you use an RME ADI 2 DAC, you can use its bit perfect test to determine whether or not your digital transport is doing things it shouldn’t be doing.
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In my most subjective experience: definitely.
I have compared my Roon Nucleus plus with my former music server based on a Win7 pc and a new music server based on a Win11 pc with optimized latency settings playing the files directly from the program cache. All units have the albums stored on identical SSDs. The Win 11 music server sounds far better. Compared to the perceived differences in sound quality (same DAC of course connected via USB) the differences in sound quality between different (five figure and three figure) DACs I had on hand were not significant at all.
Do you mean transport connected to DAC via USB or Nucleus connected to DAC via USB? In the second option, there is no any involved transport.
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All music servers including my Roon Nucleus plus were connected to the DAC via USB. No LAN connection to the DAC! Doesn’t LAN produces all kind of unwanted noise entering the DACs?) Same results when using an additional DDC (USB to SPDIF) featuring opto-galvanic isolation!