Point of higher priced streamer?

@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. 

Data transmission over wifi is perfectly capable. There was nothing in the "explanation " to refute it. If "ones" were not "ones" and "zeroes" not "zeroes" binary digital language wouldn't work. Noone disputes there are differences in streamers the point is are these differences audible after being sent through any modern competently built DAC? 

I am 100% SURE there are sonic differences but like anything else in Hi-Fi, is it worth north of $10K vs south of $0.5K ?  Only you can answer that question of value.. Just like automobiles:  Toyota /Ford SUV's are excellent (@ around $50K)  yet there's the Rolls Royce Cullinan (@ $400K +).  I am sure RR is "better".. If all that matters is it is better without regard for cost, RR should be selling hundreds of thousands of units of the Cullinan.. But they are not.. They are selling around 5000 units.  Bottom line, we have options and it all depends on your preferences and pocket book. 

Iron lung,

You are distorting reality to suit your desired outcome. IF there were packet sized dropouts in audio due to UDP/WiFi then you absolutely would hear clicks and pops and breaks. If that happens you know you have a problem. It’s not a matter of well maybe my WiFi does not sound as good. It works or it does not.  Noise in chipsets is just noise in this discussion.


Starting with wired the typical home network has near 0 data loss. Effectively 0 wrt audio usage. WRT wireless the streaming protocols build in bufferering and retry. Data loss absolutely occurs but streaming protocols handle that on packet and encapsulated data sets. If you had a dropout you would have clicks and pops just like your have stuttering on video streaming or block artifacts from incomplete data. It is very obvious when data is lost.

I laugh at your comment ironlung, because you telegraphed the thinness of your knowledge and position when you said you switched out WiFi for wired due to DROPOUTS. Not a perceived loss of quality but DROPOUTS.