hi fi set up streaming through the air

[schmitzer]

hi i plan to purchase  a hi fi shortly after listening to systems and researching i plan to go with the cordette gem from cord electronics, using it as a usb DAC from my macbook, (my macbook will then stream the music from a wireless external hard drive, the time capsule),

 then Roksan Kandy K2 amp and Quad 22c speakers.  

 

i am concerned whether there is any loss of quality when streaming wirelessly from the time capsule to the macbook, i have read about jitter, is jitter a concern when playing files real time, if the signal is being sent through the air? if this is the case is it worth buying an external hard drive to connect directly to my macbook?

 

also just to clarify jitter is a timing issue and data can't actually be lost when considering the file is being sent through the air? i mean from a storage perspective?

 

When i used the bluetooth function as apposed to the usb out, on the cordette gem on the demo in the shop (not streaming music from time capsule to macbook) the signal did'nt seem right and sounded terrible compared to usb, (and i think my macbook osx leopard supports A2dp). but great through the usb, i wandered if the same thing might happen when streaming music through the air, or is that different to streaming via bluetooth to the gem from macbook. any informtion or sources would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

[usernaim250]

How much is the Chordette? Have you auditioned it yet? It looks like a neat product. Their bigger gear produces some of the most beautiful cd sound I've heard.

 

[schmitzer]

im in britan so £390.50 was the quote, yes it really did sound like cd quality, my friend has a hi end chord electronics pre amp,power amp and cd player and he was really impressed with the sound of the cordette! , essentially coming from a macbook

 

[darrenwm]

I didn't think the Gem was great, but the DAC Magic is. I would go for the latter with an Airport Express.

 

[Roseval]

Wifi or wired won’t have any impact on jitter.

In both cases you are not sending audio signals but just a file from one device to another.

As it is a file over a network, it will be transmitted bit perfect.

In fact there are claims that transmitting over a network is even a better than traditional protocols like SPDIF because all the input is buffered and therefore input jitter free.

 

Bluetooth: bandwidth is very limited, the best you can get is a high bit rate MP3, lossless won’t fit into the limited bandwidth. BTW: there is no Bluetooth protocol supporting lossless

 

 

[schmitzer]

thanks for that both questions answered succinctly. cheers.

 

[Ashley James]

FWIW worth the big move is for wi fi and keeping computers out of site and mind unless it's a Laptop or Netbook. Bear this in mind when you buy DAC and if possible get one with an Optical Digital input that will work with almost any source.

 

Ash

 

[audioengr]

"i am concerned whether there is any loss of quality when streaming wirelessly from the time capsule to the macbook, i have read about jitter, is jitter a concern when playing files real time, if the signal is being sent through the air? if this is the case is it worth buying an external hard drive to connect directly to my macbook?"

 

No, this is only data being transferred. There are not jitter concerns here. The only concern is latency, which is keeping-up with the data stream so there are no drop-outs, and this should not be an issue.

 

"also just to clarify jitter is a timing issue and data can't actually be lost when considering the file is being sent through the air? i mean from a storage perspective?"

 

Data cant be lost because this is a network connection. If a bad transfer occurs, it is discarded and retried.

 

Jitter is only a concern in the path leading up to the D/A converter and in real-time.

 

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

 

 

 

[schmitzer]

Jitter is only a concern in the path leading up to the D/A converter and in real-time. Ok thanks so it won't matter so much that im streaming audio to the mac just when out from the mac to dac, got it cheers, thanks to everyone really appreciated