Streamers in 2023 - Discussion, Impressions, etc

I see lots of people complain about stability, so I think I think I'm just lucky with mine.

After my Allo USBridge Sig died, I went with the zen stream as a replacement. I plugged it in and it has just worked (as a roon endpoint)... but I've never updated the firmware or anything else on the Zen Stream (I've probably had it close to 2 yrs at this point - purchased used off of ebay).

 

Just going on what my friend uses (the guy I have mentioned here a few times that builds tube amps and preamps as well as Pass ss designs). He had a Zen Stream and also had issues with it.

He also had a pi 3 with a fancy Allo Signature (?) USB hat and separate power supplies.

He now uses a Pi4 with the stock USB and a nice iFi power supply. Sound is better than the older pi with the fancy usb hat. This is used as a end point and uses Ropiee which has been pretty much rock solid. This is fed by a networked Roon branded core which replaced a high spec PC and he also said the Roon device was an upgrade.

 

Honest question, not trying a flamewar, but is it possible that streamers were born when 5-10 years ago almost all affordable DACs had crappy USB interface, while PCs had noisy power supplies? Both are solved now. Clear about USB interfaces with galvanic isolation and reclocking. Then, find the reviews of the electric noise in the modern gaming power supplies. Some of them are hardcore audiophile noise less for about $130. They just forgot to market themselves as audiophile.

 

I am using rPi4 connected to Chord Mojo 2 via usb.
I've ordered JDS Labs Synapse which will fix potential noise issues and according to GoldenSound, Mojo 2 is "immensely resistant" to jitter.
So, what exactly would I get if I were to buy an expensive streamer and only use it as a transport?

 

The Intona 3 USB isolator sounds better than the JDS synapse, that's one way if you want to invest, but I would get a better DAC first.