Do I have to use a streamer/renderer to play music from an NAS?

10psec is a bogus spec IME.  It's generally the specification for the oscillator before it's installed into a circuit.  In the circuit, the jitter from that 10psec oscillator usually translates to 500 psec, sometimes even more.  I've measured these things on my bench many times.  It takes an experienced, educated designer with clever tricks to get 10psec of jitter from any device, including a USB converter, Ethernet converter or a reclocker.  Nobody else comes close to 10psec that I get from all of my products.  7psec from my Synchro-Mesh.  I continually have customers and other vendors bringing over things to test on my bench.  All disappointing.

No matter what your digital source is, the jitter can be lowered by using a Synchro-Mesh reclocker and a good BNC cable.  If you DAC does not reclock, this will still improve things, just not as much .

As for USB, I recommend this regenerator with LPS:
https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1 

Even with USB, the best scenario is usually an outboard USB converter with LPS feeding a BNC coax to your DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve,

Thanks for the info.

Johnnie

Having been down this path a few years ago, I realize how confusing it can be.  I have a QNAP NAS, installed Asset UPnP as well as MinimServer on it; both work well.  I use my Oppo 205 as the digital hub since it decodes almost anything you throw at it.  I have the Oppo connected to my Parasound P7 preamp.

There are various DNLA apps you can use to direct the music to your Oppo or whatever preamp you have.  Oppo has an app.  I also use the Creation 5+ app.  If you have Linn front end digital gear, then by all means use the Linn apps.  Sadly they don't work with my gear. 

I also briefly used a SimAudio Mind player, worked well, well built, but it's stereo only.  

@ kumakahn.  Again, thank you. Many ways to get there. I didn’t know about the Zen Mini. I like the specs for it. It seems to match the RC-1590 better than the Vault II. The Zen Mini can handle DSD, as does the RC-1590.

Have you made a buying decision?  

Audioengr wrote:"Most of what makes digital sound good has to with low jitter, and I mean really, really low jitter, a few picoseconds. It's ALL ABOUT JITTER, period."
I never say never or always, but i pretty much agree here. If you think about reproduction, each sample requries two points, plus smoothing/filtering.  We have spent 35 years focusing on ONE point, voltage (bit depth) and pretty much ignored the other (timing).  Over ten years ago i added a PLL (or two) to my cheap-o transport ( A CD player) and made a large leap forward.
Remember that jitter has many fathers too - noise, threshold detection, blah, blah, blah.  I know nothing about Steve's stuff, but it certainly seems to have the right design objectives in mind.  I have also had very good results with a relatively cheap Schiit EITR (USB - SPDIF).
G