Maintaining lossless (24 bit) audio wirelessly

[Nimrod79]

Hi all, looking for some advice please. I have just taken the plunge and bought a Buffalo Terastation NAS to store my itunes collection in lossless format. For convenience, I would like to avoid hard wiring my MacBook to my AudioLab MDAC but have concerns over loss of quality if I stream the audio wirelessly. Does anyone have any experience of maintaining a lossless (24 bit) audio signal (or better with HD formats) and can you recommended any gadgets to assist with this or any alternative solutions altogether (I have heard of people buying a macbook mini for this, but have spanked most of my money recently on new speakers, so am looking for a more cost effective solution )

Thanks in advance, Tim

 

[abacus]

Go to the review pages of computer magazines and read up about the various routers/switches, as they test in different types of environment to see how reliable the signal is, and then just buy one that matches your budget and environment. (Routers/switches are part of Computer network systems not Hi Fi systems, so you can pretty much ignore the reviews in Hi Fi mag's as it’s unlikely they will have the equipment to test them properly)

There will not be any difference in sound quality whether wired or wireless (There both digital) however without a reliable signal you will just get dropouts, hence the preference for hard wiring.

Don’t forget home plugs as well which use your mains as the network cable and may suit you better than wireless. (And NO, Mains networking makes no difference to the sound either)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[ngibbs]

Go to the review pages of computer magazines and read up about the various routers/switches, as they test in different types of environment to see how reliable the signal is, and then just buy one that matches your budget and environment. (Routers/switches are part of Computer network systems not Hi Fi systems, so you can pretty much ignore the reviews in Hi Fi mag's as it’s unlikely they will have the equipment to test them properly)

There will not be any difference in sound quality whether wired or wireless (There both digital) however without a reliable signal you will just get dropouts, hence the preference for hard wiring.

Don’t forget home plugs as well which use your mains as the network cable and may suit you better than wireless. (And NO, Mains networking makes no difference to the sound either)

Hope this helps

Bill

+1

 

[nopiano]

Alternatively, you can wirelessly stream from your MacBook to a Squeezebox Touch, and thence wired to your DAC. The SBT is discontinued as of late 2012 and typically sells for about £200 on UK eBay. It will do everything wirelessly if you have good signal strength, but obviously you can use Ethernet cabling if you prefer.

i don't yet use a NAS and some seem more or less compatible, so I suggest you research that. There are Logitech and other forums with lots of info.

 

[Nimrod79]

Thanks for all the friendly advice everyone, much appreciated.

 

[stevebrock]

is there any reason for not wanting to hardwire from your MBP to your DAC?

I use an optical cable from my MBP to my Rega DAC with stunning results - I will go as far a saying it outperforms my CDP through the Rega DAC so this tells me that Im losing info in my Transport.