The Mach 111 is a “memory player”, (never saw it that way, but yes).
The Mach III is just a PC with a very specific build, nothing more. XXHE is the memory player i.e. it loads all of the music file into RAM (memory) before it plays anything. Some other software can be set to do this, but they don't really do it and they certainly do not do it as well as XXHE (nothing does).
Are all ‘dedicated audio PC’s seen to be, “memory players”?
OR, are you in fact saying, (in that you indicate ‘Tidal not really streaming’) that even the lowliest of PC’s or even laptops are in fact ‘playing’ as a “memory player “?
As I stated above, the Mach III is just a windows PC. How XXHE treats Tidal is quite different to other players: it does not stream the files (as in a continuous internet connection is required to download the music files); it plays only previously downloaded files and hence treats them exactly the same as normal music files stored on a hard drive that you may own so they sound the same as the ones you would have ripped from a CD or downloaded from elsewhere and stored on your PC. There is no internet connection to the Mach III at all.
So no, other computers and laptops are not memory players (only software can make a memory player), they are just computers like the Mach III, but hardware wise they are generally quite different to the Mach III.
Can it be considered that a downloaded high resolution file needs a high level audio PC as against say the device required to play from such as Tidal?
I'm not really sure what you mean here, but I will answer by saying that to get the best sound from digital all your files, be they from Tidal, a download site or ripped from cd's, need to be treated in the same way on the same hardware. The Mach III and XXHE is the best way I know to achieve this.
IOW, would it be fair to say, that with such as Tidal, that a piece of music would be ‘deteriorated’ to a much lesser degree, than would a downloaded high resolution audio file if ‘played’ using a laptop PC?
Regards
A laptop PC is non-ideal in so many ways regardless of where the music file comes from: it is a hardware problem. XXHE used on a laptop will improve the sound one gets from their speakers once some time is spent getting the software set up. Improve the PC hardware (eg. a Mach III) and the speakers will sound better again.
I hope that answers those questions John.
Cheers,
Anthony