The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it may be difficult to road test a RedNet. All the same, my answer to your questions is, "Yes - it is all in the RedNet." That is - you can buy a RedNet 3 or a D16 AES and realise immediately the SQ advantages lauded on this thread. The differences, including cost, between the RedNet 3 and D16 AES are explicit recently on these pages and elsewhere. Whatever DAC you have, a RedNet box will demonstrate to you its credentials. I had an Yggdrasil - the SQ was great - but the RCA/Phono spdif input jack was faulty and that was discovered only after painful investigations. Anyway, I far prefer its replacement, the Dangerous Convert-2. The Convert-2 has a good Clock and, so, I use it as Master instead of the D16 AES. At half the price of the Yggdrasil you can have a Gungnir. If your budget is lower yet, any good DAC that will do as it's told wrt to SR up to just 192 kHz is fine. Whilst rb2013 gives us plenty to chew on wrt cables etc - you can run any old ethernet cable from your PC (or even a UPnP arrangement such as I have) to the RedNet. The cable from RedNet to DAC matters - but modest ones do a great job. The rest is down to your back end. I won't replace my Snell Type A IIIs until they die - because I love them and they love me. Talking of that kind of thing, my wife agrees with my /10 ratings previously described, she doesn't mind that the RedNet is red, she authorised my Hi-Fi loan to myself and we still sleep in the same bed.
Another way of understanding my previous post is on a bang-for-buck footing. In its day, the LP12 / Ittok / Troika was a benchmark. Without spending silly money, or exploring esoteric alternatives, it was about as good as you could get in the 1980s. If I sold it now I could get, maybe, £1,500 let's just say. The Linto is another £500. So £2,000 on a vinyl source gets you 6/10. The D16 AES and Convert-2 were well over £3,000 combined - so in a sense it's inevitable that together they generate 8/10. But that still surprises me. As we all know, loudspeakers (like dogs) resemble their owners. My Snell Type A IIIs are good looking, precocious, bright and admittedly just very slightly forward. Accordingly, they are merciless with digital feeds. USB never got past the Snells without having to excuse itself, but that is not true with the RedNet and Convert-2 - the Banshee has left the building. You can spend £5,000 and more on an LP12 now. I doubt I would do that; however, I can see that if I heard one - or owned maybe a certain kind of refurbished Garrard rig, I might want to play a record instead of the computer! Finally - there is the convenience factor. I can sit at my coffee table and play anything I like in my huge remote library almost without lifting a finger. My wife stops short of bringing my coffee to me whilst I am in reverie. OK - actually she does that too.
. I just find it out and thought it may be interesting to RN 3 owners. 
