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WiFi streaming — streamer vs. through iPad

I’m currently streaming Qobuz in my HeadFi rig to my DAC via my iPad via an upgraded dongle and USB cable and was pretty happy til I hooked up my CD transport and realized it sounds much better than than streaming.  After speaking with some folks here I’ve since realized I need to get a dedicated streamer hardwired to my router to up my streaming performance, but I’ve got a couple situations where going hardwired won’t be possible and will be forced to use WiFi.  My question is, if I’m using WiFi would there still be a sonic benefit to using a streamer (I’m planning on getting an iFi Zen Stream BTW) versus going wired through my iPad or will using WiFi completely nullify any sonic advantages the streamer brings?  Thanks for any thoughts/advice. 

soix
mike_in_nc
1,163 posts
 

If your WiFi is strong, it should not be a problem. Fidelity is the same, WiFi or Ethernet. What is different is that with weak WiFi, one can get dropouts and lost connections.

I have two streamers that have both WiFi and Ethernet, and neither one sounds different via WiFi than it does on Ethernet.

One is an Auralic Aries G1; the other a Raspberry Pi 3 with Allo DigiOne card and external WiFi dongle. The latter I would think to be similar to the iFi unit.

I don’t know if you are considering one, but I did not have good luck with a powerline Ethernet connection, tried and discarded years ago. It would not make a strong, reliable connection.

And yes, for some reason I don’t quite understand, a directly connected tablet has never produced sound for me nearly as good as either of the streamers.

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,005 posts
 

BTW, I don’t use Roon so that’s not an issue.

 

Even If I didn't have ROON I would plug my streamer directly into the Mesh node.  As mater of fact I have both the ROON server and the Streamer plugged into the Node as I sometimes switch over and listen directly from the Streamer when I want to compare SQ. 

audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,019 posts
 

How are you streaming through the iPad? Is that not wifi? I don't get it.

ghdprentice
7,388 posts
 

OP, I would just use the same company that makes your router… if Netgear get Netgear… if Linksys get Linksys.

If you later want to improve a bit get an EtherRegen to go in between the extender and the streamer. But good streamers isolate, cashe, and make up for signal deficiencies.

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

@soix

The iFi Zen Stream is a great streamer, you will enjoy it. It does Wi-Fi very well, but I have mine hard wired and connected to an extender. But before that, the Wi-Fi worked great.

Now, to get the best sound quality, get yourself an external hard drive and load all your music on it, connect to the Stream via the USB port, and use the iFi app to play your music. This eliminates the need to use AirPlay, which is the biggest degradation in SQ. If you have Tidal, it also has Tidal Connect for best sound quality directly through the Tidal app.

If you use AirPlay, you are going to defeat the purpose of a dedicated streamer IMO.

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