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AVForums Super Veteran
Having used digital steaming for audio playback since around 2000 I'm very comfortable with it and whilst being aware of some of the arguments for tweaking the underlying operating system to improve sound quality I've never really given it a second thought, principally on the basis that the transport's only role in life is to get a bit perfect audio steam to the DAC for playback and modern DACs are not nearly as susceptible to jitter as was the case some 5-10 years back.
As streaming is becoming more mainstream with most HiFi manufacturers and a slew of boutiques offering steaming devices it seems the inevitable happened - audiophiles started buying into the message that you need to tweak your transport to get the best out of it - the arguments being centered on reducing jitter and electrical interference purportedly being passed to the DAC with the audio stream. The first tweaking I came across was for the Squeezebox Touch (essentially a micro computer running Linux), whereby a host of operating system settings were changed to lower CPU usage, decrease latency, tweak network performance, reduce electrical noise etc. etc. Since then a cottage industry of tweakers with expensive hardware and software solutions promising audio nirvana has emerged and I see people falling for it hook, line and sinker - buying the tweaks and the hardware to get the best out of the tweaks, often for silly money.
I would like to hear the thoughts of those among us that have tried these kinds of tweaks (were there any discernible differences, if so, was/is it an improvement, was your testing sufficiently rigorous so you did not know whether you were listening to tweaked/untweaked) and those that have the technical know-how - are these tweaks deserving of any credence, or is this just a matter of snake-oil vendors moving with their market?
As streaming is becoming more mainstream with most HiFi manufacturers and a slew of boutiques offering steaming devices it seems the inevitable happened - audiophiles started buying into the message that you need to tweak your transport to get the best out of it - the arguments being centered on reducing jitter and electrical interference purportedly being passed to the DAC with the audio stream. The first tweaking I came across was for the Squeezebox Touch (essentially a micro computer running Linux), whereby a host of operating system settings were changed to lower CPU usage, decrease latency, tweak network performance, reduce electrical noise etc. etc. Since then a cottage industry of tweakers with expensive hardware and software solutions promising audio nirvana has emerged and I see people falling for it hook, line and sinker - buying the tweaks and the hardware to get the best out of the tweaks, often for silly money.
I would like to hear the thoughts of those among us that have tried these kinds of tweaks (were there any discernible differences, if so, was/is it an improvement, was your testing sufficiently rigorous so you did not know whether you were listening to tweaked/untweaked) and those that have the technical know-how - are these tweaks deserving of any credence, or is this just a matter of snake-oil vendors moving with their market?
