playGo : 24/96 wireless streaming device that works with iTunes

[Hypnotoad]

A friend of mine suggested a new product that doesn't seem to have picked up any audiophile discussion yet: the playGo by Bicom.

 

http://playgo.us/playgo-products/playgo-usb.html

 

It wirelessly transmits from your computer to your stereo but does not use a standard WiFi network, instead something they have created. Because of this you need a usb transmitter as well as the receiver.

 

The cool things about it:

1) You can use iTunes or any software that will see the device.

2) It does 24/96 audio

3) It does digital ouput as well as its built-in dac

4) It has built-in jitter reduction that sounds like it could be good (see below)

 

The drawback I've found:

1) It automatically upsamples to 24/96 and this cannot be turned off -- it has to do with how it wirelessly transmits.

 

The website is clearly aimed at more casual audiences (great: I want more people to find high-end audio approachable). I have been emailing with Ekin Binal, the president of Bicom, this morning to get more details. He has always written back within a couple of hours! He agreed to let me post the conversation here.

 

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Thank you for contacting us regarding playGo.

The clock regeneration circuit used in playGo is based on a TI SRC4193. In actuality there is no jitter because of this asynchronous sample rate converter which is referenced off of a 10ppm crystal oscillator. This is the same type of audio clocking circuitry used in high-end systems from Bryston and Meridian.

 

Please keep in mind that we offer a free 30-day in home trial so you can

give it a shot risk-free. Keep us posted if you have any other questions.

 

Kind regards,

 

Ekin Binal

President

BICOM, Inc.

 

 

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Hi David,

 

We appreciate the interest.

 

playGo is a new brand so it’s just getting out to reviewers, stay tuned for lots of new reviews in the coming months. However, we are all true audiophiles here at BICOM – we are the audio design team behind zöet which was developed with THIEL Audio. And we have numerous audio architecture designs for a number of very high-end audio manufacturers over the years.

 

Answers to your questions below in italics.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

EKiN

 

 

Hi Ekin,

 

A few more questions:

 

1) From what I've read, the other major cause of noise from a transport is from the power supply. I assume it is a switching power supply. Would there be a good, easy replacement linear power supply?

 

Yes you are right on that a linear supply is best for audio components. Even though we use a switching supply externally we feed that to a internal linear voltage regulator. So the audio components are all running off a linear supply, even the RF radio is running off linear voltage. However, you may still want a linear external AC/DC adaptor – there are a good number available online but there is not one specific one we have tested with – 7.5V DC and 750mA is more than adequate, make sure the tip is + and you should be good to go – but it’s not necessary at all!

 

 

2) Has it been tested to provide bitperfect digital output? It is important to me that this has been verified.

 

We transmit bit perfect lossless audio over RF. Just like Meridian, Bryston, Bel Canto, Ayre, and other high-end audio manufacturers we perform a complex sample rate conversion before outputting the audio – this upconverts all audio to 96 kHz / 24 –bit, this is how the jitter is removed and noise floor moved. So technically we create more information than there is there so technically it’s not bitperfect – it’s technically higher resolution than the source material.

 

 

3) I would be using this from my laptop, sitting on my couch. Could I use a longer usb cord than the one provided (perhaps 1.5 meters) to keep the transmitter on my coffee table?

 

Yes you could definitely do this.

 

 

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FYI, there is a 25% discount available to our Facebook friends through September 11th – www.facebook.com/playGo.