on the cheap


I am looking for suggestions for an inexpensive streamer for my sister. I mean a couple hundred bucks. Does anybody make such a thing that would not have to be hooked up to the internet but would work via wi-fi or bluetooth? AND also have a built in dac. Stereo is not her life like some of us. The simpler the better. Would not have to be new. It would be nice also to have the ability to have cd storage. Is it also possible to not have to be run with tidal and be controlled by an app?

thanks

dpm2340

@mahler123  WiFi IS Ethernet, 100%. it simply uses a different Layer 1 Transport. Regardless if it is coax, twisted pair, fiber optic, or wireless, if it uses the Ethernet protocols for the other Layers 2 and 3 of the stack, it's Ethernet.

@panzrwagn 

 

From wikipedia

"Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in Local Area Networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN), and wide area networks (WAN)"

 

From Tech Target

"Ethernet helps plug a desktop or laptop into a LAN for speedy data transmission via cables"

@mahler123 @knock1 I am not confused. I've only been working with Ethernet for 40 years, longer than Wikipedia (founded in 2001) or Tech Target have even existed. I started working with WiFi (wireless Ethernet) in 2000 when I created the wireless strategy for a very large Seattle-based coffee company as a means of connecting kiosks back to the main store, and then as local WAPs to encourage customers to stay longer (and buy more than coffee to go).

Wi-Fi is a type of wireless Ethernet. Ethernet is a wired technology that connects devices in a local area network (LAN). WiFi technology uses radio signals to transfer data and wired Ethernet connections use a physical twisted pair ethernet network cable. Any other differences between these connections arise from this basic difference. What they share is the use of an Ethernet frame, a data link layer protocol data unit, and the use of underlying independent Ethernet physical layer transport mechanisms, one being wired, the other wireless. In other words, a data unit on an Ethernet link transports an Ethernet frame as its payload, regardless of the underlying physical media. Above that are the Layer 3 protocols like the now ubiquitous TCP/IP. You may want to read up on the OSI 7-Layer network model to help you understand these basics. 

 

Language changes over time.  These days when people say Ethernet, they are referring to having a component that is tethered to a Ethernet cable.  WiFi refers to lack of such a cable.  Whatever the definition was when you started in the IT industry back in the days of dial up modems, these definitions have evolved, as language does, over time.  If you are the only person in the room speaking pre Elizabethan English, chances are not many will understand you, even though you think you are speaking correctly.  And since absolutely everyone else here knows and accepts the common usage of the terms Ethernet and WiFi, I see no further need to discuss this with you