Wi-Fi Fidelity?

Wireless does not degrade the signal, but the answer to your second question is more complicated as it depends on which components you are talking about. DACs vary widely in how well or poorly they implement USB, and wireless servers also are not all the same.

Thanks Drubin.

That's good to know about Wi-Fi in general. Of course the components will be a factor - I just wasn't in the know on wireless fidelity. The whole "direct path" objective with wires - now, all this...air, in between the components. Too weird!!

Some interesting comments on wi-fi from Ayre's Charles Hansen in this Positive Feedback feature, in his answer to question 6:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue41/ca_hansen.htm

Strange food for thought!

Wi-Fi doesn't degrade the signal, just make sure you have a strong wifi signal. The dropouts would be very annoying.

Wi-Fi connections are not directly involved in the Digital to analog conversion process and therefore do not affect the sound.

A Wifi connection is just a means of feeding the bits to another device or devices that provide the clock and DAC needed to perform the actual conversion to analog sound.

You can get dropouts though if the Wifi signal is too weak or obstructed because this will prevent the bits from being fed into the conversion process fast enough to keep the sound going.