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Confused ? What's the difference between :-

AudioAl said:
Being a bit of a numpty , What's the difference between a Dac and a Streamer ?

Be gentle with me on these new fangled things :D
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Pretty simple, a DAC simply converts a digital audio signal into an analog one. A streamer plays externally hosted files over network. A streamer doesn’t necessarily contain a DAC and can be purely a streaming transport... which requires a separate DAC to be listened to.
 
AudioAl said:
My digital is
i Mac , optical cable into a Wadia DAC , into a line imput on my amp and I can listen to music , NO streamer that I know of

Confusing even more is this , I have seen devices that have a hard drive that you can record music onto and the units have a viewable menu , What are these called ?
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Music servers generally... although some of them are completely standalone units that can’t be used as a server for other devices... I’d call these hard disk music players personally.
 
Amber Audio said:
Yeah like I said up thread his iMac is acting as the streamer - no iMac no sound off YT out of his DAC
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Yep, I hadn’t read all through the comments, I just answered the original question. It’s a cost effective solution if you already have the iMac for other purposes, if not necessarily practical for a listening room/living room. I use a DAC connected to an iMac on my desk though, and it sounds excellent for not a lot of money.
 
A streamer is like a turntable/arm/cart...and a DAC is like a phono stage (except it converts rather than amplifies)...

Confusingly, a lot of DAC/streamer combos are not clearly described as such but this is what they are.

A DAC converts a digital signal into an analogue signal which you can feed into an amplifier. Like a turntable with no record, if you don't feed it, nothing comes out of the other end.

You need to feed the DAC with a digital signal, like you need to put a record on the turntable.

You can get music into a DAC in (at least, but let's keep it simple) three ways:

1) You can buy an album and store it in your computer or on an external computer drive of some sort - variation1. This could be a download or a CD you "rip" to your computer (or other) storage. Computer plugged into DAC, way to go. In this case the computer is your music store (album collection) and streamer; it's like your turntable and phono stage.

2) You can buy an album and store it in your computer or on an external computer drive of some sort - variation 2. You plug your computer or external drive into a "streamer" like the Bluesound Node 2; while this has an internal DAC, many people simply use it to get music from their external drive to their separate DAC and from there to their amp. Your computer/drive is where your albums are stored, the streamer feeds them to your DAC which is connected, as yours is today, to your amp.

3) This is the weird one. You rent your music instead of buying it, like you might use a library instead of a booskshop. You sign up to a streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, etc) and pay your monthly subs. While you do this, you can access a huge library of music, like having the biggest record collection in the world, ever. Selecting your music on your computer or smart device (start another thread!), you "stream" this rented music to your DAC which feeds your amp.

Someone will find a hole in the analogy; no analogy is perfect. But this might help. If it doesn't, I'd suggest you just buy more records. :)
 
Confusingly, "a streamer" has come mean a lot of different things in detail. And a streamer may contain a DAC (a Digital to Analogue Converter) or it may not. If it has no DAC it needs to connect to an external DAC.

Adding to what several others have written, this as my attempt at a very compact summary of streaming and its elements.

A streaming system may comprise some or all of the elements below. They may all be separate but items 2 to 5 can be combined in various ways into a box called "a streamer".
  1. A streaming service (e.g Qobuz, Tidal, ...) which is a source of music files somewhere outside the home which sends digital streamed music onto your local network
  2. A file server which is like a streaming service, but is local and under your control. It sends digital streamed music from your own music files onto your local network
  3. A network bridge which connects your local network to your DAC and streams digital music files from your local network into your DAC
  4. A DAC which converts the digital streamed music it receives to analogue for your amplifier and 'speakers
  5. A Control point which talks to the source(s) of digital music files and tells them which files to you want to stream
Some streamers have a built-in DAC with analogue outputs, but some don't and they have to send a digital output to a separate DAC. Some streamers have both options.

Some streamers have a built-in control point to select the digital music file to stream and show its artwork on a display. But often they can also be controlled by a custom app on a mobile phone or on a computer; or they can be controlled by a generic browser.

Some streamers have a built-in file server for local music files but others take files from a separate file server on your network, or from an outside streaming service, or from some combination of sources.
 
John Phillips said:
Confusingly, "a streamer" has come mean a lot of different things in detail. And a streamer may contain a DAC (a Digital to Analogue Converter) or it may not. If it has no DAC it needs to connect to an external DAC.

Adding to what several others have written, this as my attempt at a very compact summary of streaming and its elements.

A streaming system may comprise some or all of the elements below. They may all be separate but items 2 to 5 can be combined in various ways into a box called "a streamer".
  1. A streaming service (e.g Qobuz, Tidal, ...) which is a source of music files somewhere outside the home which sends digital streamed music onto your local network
  2. A file server which is like a streaming service, but is local and under your control. It sends digital streamed music from your own music files onto your local network
  3. A network bridge which connects your local network to your DAC and streams digital music files from your local network into your DAC
  4. A DAC which converts the digital streamed music it receives to analogue for your amplifier and 'speakers
  5. A Control point which talks to the source(s) of digital music files and tells them which files to you want to stream
Some streamers have a built-in DAC with analogue outputs, but some don't and they have to send a digital output to a separate DAC. Some streamers have both options.

Some streamers have a built-in control point to select the digital music file to stream and show its artwork on a display. But often they can also be controlled by a custom app on a mobile phone or on a computer; or they can be controlled by a generic browser.

Some streamers have a built-in file server for local music files but others take files from a separate file server on your network, or from an outside streaming service, or from some combination of sources.
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Excellent
 
If it's all too much, just use your phone.

Either analogue headphone jack on the phone to analogue amp, or digital USB to DAC.

In the first case, the phone is both the streamer and the DAC.

Only problem, you have to get up off the sofa to change tracks. Unless you use Spotify connect and control the phone with another phone...
 
This is a good thread, as I didnt know what the difference is either? I use my tablet and go through my dac ( via schiit eitr ) into passive pre amp..I have to get up and change the songs manually..does a streamer mean I can change songs etc from my chair? Making me even more lazy?
 
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