Any hopes for network audio in highend system?

[Windows X]

I thought USB is struggling hard just to be able to play finely in highend audio system but it took far worse for network ones. I heard a few from popular brands none sounds alive. Dull and lifeless and not much of difference from listening to internet radio performance.

 

Forgive me if it sounds offensive but that's honestly what I and many people I know feel when experience ones. Let me list some from what I can remember here.

 

"I got a call from my friend saying this ones is no good despite being very expensive."

 

"It sounds normal. Just like car audio."

 

"Could you recommend any good software because ones from company sounding so bad." I asked him to try connecting storage directly to player through USB mass storage connection and that's how he plays the music.

 

"This ones has very good sound network audio player.....what? Network is used only for controlling?"

 

"I auditioned some cool system using highend NAS, highend ethernet cables, and highend server grade router. When I asked him to play my songs from SSD portable drive with some <$10 USB cable, its performance silenced the owner. We didn't talk much and went out for dinner."

 

Those are from my friends. Some called me, some texted me and some are my friend's story with me. I thought USB Audio already have a hard time making good music playback but may not be as hard as network audio.

[Audio_ELF]

Naim ... Linn ... Chord ... Krell ... Burrmeister ... dCS ... Auralic

[Windows X]

I heard most of them and none could come even close to consumer's USB Audio system for products supporting both USB and streaming.

[MikeJazz]

I heard most of them and none could come even close to consumer's properly optimized USB Audio system for products supporting both USB and streaming.

 

I heard recently the krell streaming and worked quite well delivering to a system of devialet and wilson sophia 3's.

Could not complain...

[MikeJazz]

I heard most of them and none could come even close to consumer's USB Audio system for products supporting both USB and streaming.

 

By the way, very few products (I guess you mean dac's) support both USB and Streaming. Which ones are your referring to?

[Windows X]

I guess friends' direct experiences wouldn't hurt so I'll say some for storage comparison. This isn't about USB Audio at all just to be sure.

 

Ayon S5: comparing streaming media from nas with usb mass storage from portable hard drive. This is storage comparison and USB portable drive is a win against NAS. it became my friend's reference over his NAS.

 

Weiss MAN301: one Weiss dealers told me highend nas system is way better than firewire/usb. One weiss user told me he prefers using usb/firewire storage over nas and look for decent docking station to connect.

 

If Toslink is is the least highend for linking most digital transport/dac, nas could be the least highend for linking most client/storage. You can buy expensive toslink cable but it can easily be overpowered by industrial aes/ebu cable or coaxial ones. Just like a highend nas could easily be topped with good quality of e-sata/usb/firewire storage.

 

That's my 2 cents.