jinjuku
I think the responses will tend to fall in to two camps: those who own an expensive streaming device and will want to give it praise and then those who don't and will want to hurl stones. There's a small group in the middle that have sound vault devices that don't cost a bunch, but still provide great function.
I am a computer straight to an AVR with a brand new DAC in it user. I wasn't starting from scratch so it seemed the best, most economical path. I had several MAC computers at my house, I had AVRs, so I made the marriage. It works fantastic. I perceive no shortcoming compared to a media streamer.
I did audition in a showroom a couple of those expensive streaming devices. I listened to a Linn Majik DSM streamer. They go for about $5,000 bucks. It sounds great. But, so does a computer--->AVR with a DAC. It will manage a music library. So will an AVR--->DAC if you do the work. They look sweet sitting in your rack with the other components (no sense doing anything other than components if you're spending $5K for your streamer).
I don't know of any particular advantage of a well built streamer over doing it with a computer and external DAC except the streamer is all hardware and perhaps is easier to maintain over time. Computers have software and apps and that means regular SW maint and updates and patches. The media streamer does updates with firmware on a much more drawn out schedule. For someone with no computer skills, a streamer may seem less trouble.
I would be interested in other opinions. This is just my own opinion. The sound vault folks have a strong solution too, and they are affordable.
You make some valid points, and I think a key word is that a streamer may
seem less trouble.
My main HT rig is also where my main Tower PC resides. It has been there for 15 years, I was waaaaay ahead of the curve on that decision. Hooked to the AVR via HDMI, controlled with a small keyboard/trackpad combo. Works flawlessly. My tower is also nice, but it is not one of these flashy gamer rigs, it is a very utilitarian look (just how I like it).
My man cave 2 channel rig has a RPi streamer. I have a high quality (audiophile
) DAC HAT for it, but I hit some difficulties during my configs and haven't gotten back around to getting it all working properly yet. However--there is a HUGE advantage on the RPi setup where you feed the DAC input directly off of the I2S protocol! That is absolutely the most desirable topology for several reasons.
However, I also have a Emo XDA-1 DAC, so I am simply feeding that the RPi signal via USB as a stop-gap until I feel like working on the DAC HAT again. (I despise USB connections of any type for several personal experience reasons).
Another HUGE advantage of the RPi is that the software is all open source and has an excellent support community. I also really like that I can interface that device with any other device on my network with a browser, I can simply type the IP address into the browser and control the RPi streamer from any decive.
So, if you have any desire to tinker and learn, and save some coin along the way, I cannot over-recommend the RPi for these types of applications (and many, many others too, i.e. my retro arcade cab!).
EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I²S
I²S (Inter-IC Sound), pronounced eye-squared-ess, is an electrical serial bus interface standard used for connecting digital audio devices together. It is used to communicate PCM audio data between integrated circuits in an electronic device. The I²S bus separates clock and serial data signals, resulting in a lower jitter than is typical of communications systems that recover the clock from the data stream.
