But @jss made no claim that daisy-chaining was to improve “sound quality”. Indeed, all of my endpoints are at least two switches away from the server in my home. This is for practical reasons.
I’d like to think I am open-minded, but Diretta’s claims are pretty meaningless, and quite frankly read like so many texts on exotic cables, that stay just the right side of advertising law.
We are talking about the digital domain again, and the “target” is the DAC, and this is not an “analogue part” as Diretta claim.
I think this sums things up nicely.
Note that ALL of the above is purely in the digital part of this signal path, and claims about a bad cable, noise, ground loops can not affect it, because digital is built on mathematics, and not the realities of electricity. Either it arrives there good and verifiable, or it does not. This binary good or bad nature of a “reliable digital stream” is what drives the “bits are bits” guys nuts when audio guys talk about digital streams being affected by anything.
The claims about noise, ground loops, or whatever else is purely in how that digital stream is interpreted into analog, which is not a digital process. That stuff can not be verified – thus all the trouble. This is what drives the audio guys nuts when the “bits are bits” guys tell them they are old and not versed in information theory.
But, Diretta is just another digital process.