Ones is ones, zeros is zeros

From time to time I prove myself wrong about something. For years I have been a firm devotée of the "bits is bits" approach to digital audio. The thinking goes along the lines that any audio component that passes the ones and zeros along unmolested is going to sound just like any other audio component that does the same thing. Other differences elsewhere in the chain might make a difference, but if the bits are the bits, then that's all she wrote.

Which means that you can use a $45 Raspberry Pi box to act as a Roon endpoint to move the digital data along to your DAC, and what emerges will be precisely the same as if you had used a $4500 Lumin digital transport. You might get better looks with the Lumin and certainly better casework, but when all is said and done, there can be no differences in sound between the two.

Which sounds totally reasonable. Except that digital transports — i.e., those that pass the digital data along but do not process it otherwise — can and do make a difference in the overall sound of one's system. I proved that to myself not long ago when I switched from a Bluesound Node in digital passthrough mode to a WiiM Pro, also in digital passthrough mode, to pass along Roon's digital data to my jim-dandy Yggdrasil+ DAC, thence into my Bryston BP-19 preamplifier and paired Tyr monoblock amplifiers, then to the lordly B&W 803D jobbers.

The system just didn't sound as good with the WiiM. There was something lacking, something a bit thin, something a bit cardboard-y. I listened long enough to ensure that I wasn't just fooling myself into hearing inferior audio just because the WiiM Pro costs 1/3 of the Bluesound Node. I put the Node back and got the sound that I'm used to and happy with.

So I went one more step by acquiring an Eversolo T8 digital network transport. This one doesn't have a DAC inside, so there's nothing to bypass. It just passes along the digital data, acting not only as a Roon endpoint but also streaming from a bevy of services, such as Tidal and Qobuz, on its own. Once I got it connected and started listening from my Roon server I realized that this was even better than the Bluesound Node.

So why. There's no logical reason for it. Except that there is: the T8 is designed to keep any stray electric blips or bloops strictly away from the digital datastream. It also ensures excellent timing via a femtosecond clock. Considering that the Yggdrasil+ DAC also works over the timing of the stream, I get double-checked rock-solid digital timing without so much as a scintilla of jitter or any such other problems. So, yes, the data stream is still all those 1s and 0s. But I get the distinct impression that their timing is improved. Maybe I'm just reading that into my experience; the T8 costs twice as much as a Bluesound Node, after all. But I don't think so.

Another advantage to the T8 over the Bluesound Node: it can accept DLNA and UPnP datastreams, which the Node cannot. Which means that I can use a T8 to stream from JRiver Media Center, which is still my preferred software for accessing my ginormous home audio library, while I use Roon for almost everything else. Since JRMC can send data directly to the T8, I'm not beholden to my computer's USB connection when using JRMC, which in general I prefer not to use for audio unless absolutely necessary.

This was a bit of a techie-sounding post. But sometimes one has to get into the weeds a bit with something. I've been playing around with network transports for some time now, between the various Bluesound Nodes I've used, the WiiM Pros, and a particularly disastrous experience with the glitzy HiFi Rose RS130, a premium-priced bit of kit that died after two weeks of light usage and got itself returned for a full refund. I don't know if I want to pop for even more higher-priced network transports like the Bricasti or one of the higher-end Lumin jobbers. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the T8 doesn't pull a HiFi Rose and poop out on me.