Dedicated Audio Streamer vs Laptop

2016-08-05 11:30:30

Hi Guys

I have been scouring the internet for opinion regarding dedicated audio streamer vs laptop as source.

For example:
Laptop -> dedicated DAC -> Headphone/Speaker
Audio streamer -> dedicated DAC -> Headphone/Speaker

Which one would provide better quality audio? Any experience on this?
Right now I am using my laptop and using its USB output to questyle CMA600i to Grado GS1000e. I have been pondering about the worth of getting a dedicated audio streamer such as Pioner N-50A. I would like to hear some comments on the difference or maybe there is no difference at all.

Cheers

Re: Dedicated Audio Streamer vs Laptop

Reply #1 – 2016-08-05 12:09:32

The only difference will be the interface. The advantage of streamers is that they're convenient to control, packaging everything in one place, and sometimes have fancy features like the "spotify connect" the mentioned Pioneer streamer has.

Still, purchasing expensive dedicated streamers only to route the digital output to yet another piece of hardware seems utterly futile in the age of cheap single board computers like the raspberry pi. If you'd prefer the user experience of that class of device I'd recommend getting a new iteration of the raspberry pi and installing the Mopidy daemon, using the alsa gstreamer sink with your dedicated DAC set as the device. This kind of setup will let you have a web and mobile phone app controllable streamer with access to NAS, spotify, youtube, google music and locally stored data, with excellent playlist handling. That said, you should probably check whether your DAC is supported by linux first, by running a live usb off your laptop.

You should only really buy the streamer if you find your laptop inconvenient and either your DAC isn't supported by linux, you don't have a day to spare to setup mopidy, or you think the Pioneer is so pretty it justifies the cost for your usage.

Re: Dedicated Audio Streamer vs Laptop

Reply #2 – 2016-08-05 16:23:48

If you don't mind having to keep your laptop on while you play music, the laptop's mouse'n'keyboard interface is usually more convenient. If, however, you just want music without a screen glowing at you, that's a different matter.

I like to doze off late at night with an old radio comedy, documentary or interview playing (or Test Match Special, if England are playing abroad in the right time zone), so I just use my portable player or Kindle Fire plugged into an analogue input. That way, I'm not kept awake by the light from my latop's screen.

During the day, however, I prefer to have access to my whole library and don't mind the laptop's screen being on.

You have to ask yourself "do I really, really need this extra component?" or should I spend all that money on music?

Re: Dedicated Audio Streamer vs Laptop

Reply #3 – 2016-08-05 16:55:04

I like Revo's Superconnect "table radio": Built-in speaker has decently flat on-axis response down to something like 150 - 200 Hz, and it has a TOSLINK output too. Inside, I'm sure it's just a tiny PC + amplifier + DSP but someone has sweated out the details to making it work with a custom OLED display and buttons, and packaged it nicely.

But for better or worse, it relies on a database of "radio stations" provided by Frontier Silicon. And as far as I can tell, if Frontier takes their database server offline, you're pretty much out of luck.