For TCP not a problem, for UDP…
Indeed, but Roon hasn’t used UDP for ages, RAAT works over TCP.
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Its very easy and natural to draw conclusions like that, and yes jitter in ethernet is not related to jitter in audio. However, there are often side-effects that can affect sound quality, related to the inner working of sender/receiver chips etc.
Here is an example: the effect of a good clock in a USB streamer. Naturally, that clock won’t affect the clocking of the audio-data since that is done in the DAC for async USB. And it will be bit-perfect data either way. But still the clock in the streamer matters, and quite a lot. I upgraded the clock in my streamer to a Crystek CCHD and the difference was quite huge, similar to upgrading the DAC.
If you don’t think clock in streamer matter, borrow an Innous USB Reclocker and test yourself.
How can the clock in the streamer matter when it’s outoputting an async stream to the DAC. Can you give me a solid, engineering-based explanation as to how it could make a difference?
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No I can’t, that’s just the point. I should point out though, which I forget earlier, that its the USB protocol clock, which is 24Mhz and not an PCM/DSD audio clock (i.e. multiple of 44.1 and/or 48)…
But sometimes we have to accept that we don’t understand why something makes a difference.
If I were to guess I would say that the receiver of USB has an easier job to handle a well-clocked signal, which leads to less overhead and less internal electronic noise, which in turn means the DAC clock gets more accurate.
This picture is true for everyone, even the most extreme specialist in a field. Worth keeping in mind 
If there’s no scientific reason for hearing a difference, then there are plenty of psychological reasons. In the end, it’s your money.
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Of course there are scientific reasons, its just that neither you nor me knows them. And have a look at the “What I know…” pictures, I have a feeling you would benefit from it
Besides, the Crystek CCHD clock costs $10, so I didn’t exactly go hungry because I bought it.
From your earlier post, I thought you’d bought an Innuos reclocker 
No, thats over my budget. But I have heard it and it does make a big difference, so its a good thing to test if you want to see how much USB protocol clock matters.
If nobody knows them, then they’re not scientific…
Not so sure about that, but no matter what you choose to call it, there can be valid reasons for something even if you don’t know it and can’t explain it. You can’t use an argument like “I don’t know how that would work” as a proof that you are correct (you can prove your own ignorance that way though)
Take gravity for example, it hurts like hell to jump from a roof top despite the fact that no one knows exactly how it works.
I know everything. I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know. That’s everything. 
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Physics explains gravity perfectly. Two masses attract each other with a force proportional to the gravitational constant, G divide by the square of the distance between their centres. Take the gravitational constant, G. Multiply it by the product of the mass of the two objects whose gravitational attraction you want to calculate and divide it by the square of the distance between their centres. The attractive force is is the negative of the above calculation:
So for gravity on Earth,
F= -G(Mm)/r^2 where M is the mass of the earth and m is the mass of an object at the Earth’s surface.
For planet earth, -GM/r^2 = ~9.8, so there’s approximately 9.8N of attractive force for every kg of mass at the earth’s surface. It’s not precisely 9.8 everywhere, because the Earth is not a perfect sphere.
By integrating F= -G(Mm)/r^2 from r to ∞, we can calculate the Earth’s escape velocity, i.e. how fast an object has to travel to escape terrestrial orbit. 11.19 km per second or 25,020 mph.
When you stand on a set of scales, the scales don’t measure your mass - they measure the FORCE you exert on the scales, and from the gravitational constant and your distance from the centre of the earth, they calculate your mass.
There’s almost nothing that science can’t expalin!
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I noticed the Linn Klimax DSM (recently released) has SFP slot.
https://www.linn.co.uk/us/network-music-players/klimax-dsm-1
It’s, umm, one of the more expensive network players I’ve seen though.
We are getting a little sidetracked right now, but science can explain the effect of gravity (like you posted), but not the “why” of it.
Back to HiFi: my approach is that if I hear a difference and can explain it, all is good. If I hear a difference I can’t explain (or don’t hear any difference when I expected one), I will be a little skeptical and listen a few days. By then the bias period is over (at least for me) and I can listen more objectively.
I also didn’t believe in USB reclockers until I tried one.
It’s an inherent property of mass.
Seems everyone is getting in on the fibre act these days…
Magnus, it’s funny that you use this metaphor, while it exactly illustrates your thinking error: if I don’t know, nobody knows. Well, surprise, surprise: what you don’t know, I do know (as a professor in electronics in Belgium). You just prefer to qualify your lack of knowledge as mystery.
Don’t know if you’re really interested, but I can always put my electronic courses at the university (which are now recorded due to corona measures) available to you. That small square might become a lot bigger, the middle too, and the third almost non-existent.
Ohh, I can promise you the third square is far from non-existent for you as well. But of course neither you nor me nor anyone else can know how big it is.
Your falling into a famous trap, thinking you know everything. Lots of people before have done that, for example Bill Gates who said that a PC will never need more than 12Mbyte of memory. Or Bell that said that everything worth discovering already was discovered. Or some boss in the 60 who said that there would never be a need for more than 4 computers in the world.
Besides, lots of manufacturers of DACs and streamers knows the importance of USB protocol clock, and can probably explain it better. We have a tech guy from Lumin at these forums, but I forgot his name. Maybe he can explain it?
You are missing my point though: my point is that a lack of a scientific explanation can never be used as proof that you are right, no matter how competent you are. At best it can be used to form a guess, i.e. I don’t know how that could affect the sound, so I think its not relevant.