Wireless solutions are not the slightest bit limiting, I regularly stream video and music from mine and vistors Laptops to my Apple TV and Airport Express and we've loads of customers who do the same and others using PS3s. Music streams more easily because it requires less bandwidth. If you're having trouble, it'll be your installation not the system.
Lossless is lossless, there are no benefits in using FLAC, only disadvantages, but they suit Audiophiles having trouble coming to terms with Computer Audio as has been used on the Pro Side for more than 20 years now!!
I don't think there is a conspiracy to keep computer audio out but I do think the relationship between various Manufacturers, Magazines and retailers has had that effect. It's not deliberate but it has happened.
When I submitted the original ADM9s for review to WHF, they did get five stars, but they were not tested with an Apple computer as we requested and as I was promised they would be, but with a £1500 CD player that, according to the review, had a worse DAC. Why? The whole point of ADM9s (9.1s now) is to get rid of separates because that's what everyone wants to do! This I believe is the quandary that faces magazines and shops alike.
In our opinion the shops, magazines and reviewers are hi fi enthusiasts, they love to tweak, the acumulate boxes and to sample cable changes etc. So do Audiophiles, but they too, are going the way of the dinosaurs! This is not what people are interested in anymore, or not in reasonable quantities anyway.
We found a marked reluctance in hi fi shops to take on ADM9.1s too. One actually said and I quote: "We don't want more for less, so you can
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for a start Mate - I'm making hay 'en oi!" The hay was multi room and hugely expensive servers now surpassed by the likes of Apple TVs.
We're small and we don't care because, when demand went through the roof for AVI on the nineties, we had real worries keeping up and even greater ones financing the growth. Nowadays customers don't need much persuasion to stay out of shops, so we're selling substantial quantities online and not having money worries. We've just had our best year for ten years!
It is true that some streaming devices have analogue outputs that are not as good as the best CD players, but they do all have good digital ones and Sonos sell substantial quantities of ADM9.1s to their customers when the highest sound quality is required. The Sonos wireless system is flawless and it's analogue outputs or Amplified Modules are extremely good for the money, or for that matter, good enough for many people to be happy to replace expensive separates systems with them. Sonos are seeing growth right now, when all is doom and gloom and others are laying people off.
Another problem that everyone is shying away from here is price. In order to hang on to market share and to provide retailers who make infrequent sales with a living, margins have grown and are far greater than for normal consumer electronics. This in part explains why there is such an enormous and increasingly unacceptable price gap between the two (and also the Pro Audio market too). The other problem is that some specialist companies are terribly out of date and using old fashioned, slow, expensive and potentially less reliable manufacturing techniques, which makes it difficult for them to compete with those that are up to date.
Finally it is very important to understand that for most electronics manufacturers on the Pro or consumer side, DACs are just part of a system. The ones in an iPod will be as good as the best you can buy and the total cost of all the bits, including the power supply, for the best you can make will be about £30-£40! The Pretty box is what pushes the price up high and not the bits that makes the sound. There is no reason why the Beresford should not be as good as any if it is properly implemented.
I'm petty sure that if one of the specialists released a stand alone hi end DAC now, it'd probably get a good review from the hi fi mags, but the cost of manufacturing it would be on every Forum from here to Pluto! Look what happened to Naim when they used a www.mini-itx.com for their server. The whole world now knows how to make one for less!
The present situation is that TV, computers and Sound are combining quickly, they latest catalyst is On Demand TV and people's atittudes are changing too, most are now interested in interior design and light airy and spacious rooms. The image of hi fi is black boxes, geeks and of being marginalised and people don't like to be thought of that way, so their hi fi is being sold and recently more quickly than many in the Industry have realised yet. look at the second hand market and you'll see what I mean.
It puts the staff of WHF in a difficult position, they are decreasing hi fi and they are upping TV and PMP coverage, but they haven't yet realised that the perfect music, Video, Movie, Photo and Youtube server is what everyone wants and that Apple and PS3 are the market leaders at the moment.
I'm afraid the old fashioned hi fi separates shops don't have enough computer savvy and they aren't adapting quickly enough to the current pace of change. This is because they are enthusiasts for a dying hobby and not business people. Creative's comments were suicidal IMO.
Anyone who has been following www.computeraudiophile.com will know just how quickly Computer Audio is taking over. Things will never be the same again IMO.
Ashley
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