Streaming music is more popular than ever and you already own a device that can do it: your smartphone. However, there’s a big difference between your iPhone or Android and a dedicated music streamer, and it’s one anybody with a good ear would notice.
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The first difference has to do with the quality of the Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC). Most smartphone manufacturers — specifically LG and Samsung — have made a concerted effort to put better built-in DACs into their smartphones, but they’re still relatively terrible. Dedicated music streamers, by comparison, have superior DACs and other internals that allow them to retrieve the music files more seamlessly and without losing as much data. That means higher-resolution audio.
Most dedicated streamers or servers also offer a multitude of connectivity options for both wireless devices, Ethernet-connected computers or NAS drives and CD players. They act as a hub for your entire digital music collection. With their internal DACs, you can also plug them directly into an amplifier or active pair of loudspeakers. Accessing your music collection is made easier through a dedicated control app like Roon or BluOs.
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Finally, dedicated streamers offer better streaming support. Even though there isn’t one digital playback device that supports every single streaming service, format or codec, most of these streamers come close. Manufacturers are continuously updating their products with support for new formats such as MQA, higher bit/sample rates and new streaming services like Qobuz; there are now dozens of products that are Roon-ready devices if you are considering that playback/library management platform.
Deciding which streamer to buy can be confusing but our picks offer the best options for both the music listener with thousands of CDs or streaming subscriptions such as Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz.
