Point of higher priced streamer?

On Shunyata, you make it sound like they only make $6,000 power cords. Which is far from reality. In fact, their current lineup, Venom NR v12 is an excellent power cord, at only $398. Obviously less, if you know the right people. Give it try, you will see (hear) for yourself.

I am fully aware that they make "entry-level" products. I don't have any issue with their products and think they are quite good. All of the other brands I mentioned also make lower priced products in the same category. My intent was to suggest that folks who do want to spend $6k on a power cord should take a listen to a few different brands first before making a conclusion for their application.

This is audio not rocket science. Even 24/192 is minimal data and and any number of bit perfect options exist. Wireless networks are more than sufficient to carry audio error free with retry. Again not rocket science. Data rates are way faster than needed to recover lost packets without breaks.


Your posts are conjecture, no more.

Respectfully, it seems to me that your post is coming from an arena of conjecture and lack of comprehension.

The question I was replying to was with specific regard to Roon. Roon uses an architecture that relies heavily on a robust network and anyone investing $500 in Roon software to manage their music library should consider the small investment to get the necessary infrastructure to hardwire their endpoint and Roon Core to the same network switch.

While from a pure data perspective you are not wrong, you are ignoring a bunch of factors, including the delivery protocols which are used to stream audio on the network in the first place, not to mention the inherent challenges of WiFi.

If a server (Roon Core in this case) is delivering real-time audio data over the network, it is using some method of UDP encapsulation (which they term RAAT) to send the audio to the endpoint. UDP can and does experience dropouts if sufficient attention is not paid to how the network is configured as well as what other devices may also be using the same datagram protocols on the network.

The above paragraph applies to a wired network. Wireless adds the complexity of an air-based physical medium (instead of a copper or fiber connector between the networked devices) which is prone to interference, signal loss, noise, improperly set timing thresholds, improperly configured channel bands, additional latency problems, etc.

Further, depending on the chipset in the device(s), WiFi can be limited to half-duplex transmission, meaning it can require twice as much network and processing resources to perform checksums of the packet data. This is less of an issue with 5GHz A/C bands and MIMO capable WiFi access points these days, but unless you are aware of what chipset your audio/streamer manufacturer is using for their WiFi implementation, it's certainly possible to still run into this limitation.

For someone with a single Roon (or other network endpoint) with an off-the shelf Asus/Netgear/TP Link router, WiFi should be fine for the endpoint, but the Core should still be hardwired.

Things get complicated really quick as soon as you add more wireless devices to the network, especially if they are competing for the same resources on the network.

Also, WiFi chipsets inside network streamers can add unwanted noise, depending on who designed the thing.

I had to laugh at your comment because I've fixed so many problems for people by switching them from a consumer-based WiFi connection for their audio streamer/endpoint to a hardwired connection because they were experiencing dropouts, and had many satisfied listeners. It's simply less hassle if you can hardwire when you can.

WiFi should be used for tablets, laptops, phones, etc. Permanently located, non-mobile devices with an ethernet connection should be hardwired whenever possible. It's best practice type stuff.

I believe “the” Audio2Design (previously posting under AtDavid , Dannad, and several other fake usernames) has met his match in Audiogon forums 🤭

IronLung: I understand your post on Shunyata, and I accept it. Please note that Shunyata never had any $6,000 power cords before, until a few months ago, when Omega was launched (and why not). Venom is “entry-level” alright, with “NR” being really envelope pushing IMO, but above it, there are several affordable tiers, such as Delta, Alpha, Sigma. Way before you get to your $6,000 stuff Omega.

I totally agree with you that people should take a listen to a few different brands first before making a conclusion for their application.

@ironlung Great info on ROON. I did not realize that RAAT was UDP. Anyways, I do have my ROON Core setup wired as you described.

Now that I am using ROONS's Convolution engine the usefulness of ROON is through the roof for me. ROON really delivered on what they promised 5 years ago. I bought a lifetime license for $450 back then.

@ironlung — excellent explanation about wired vs WiFi. This should be standard textbook reply to the ‘zeroes are zeroes and ones are ones’ crowd.