WiFi streaming — streamer vs. through iPad

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. 

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

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.

@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.

Airplay is a very inferior transfer mechanism.

A high quality streamer will sound the same with stored files, CDs, vinyl albums, and better on higher resolution streamed files (Qobuz has 1/2 million high resolution albums). To achieve this, you simply need to choose the appropriate components.