Wi-Fi Fidelity?

"According to Ayre's Charles Hansen (nice link Ablang) Wi-Fi sure as @#$! does degrade the signal and your entire audio system via the RFI it generates in ALL lines. I wish I hadn't read that...wow, the whole low-level microwave constantly left on in your home scenario is depressing."

Wow, that sure just opened up a huge can of worms!

WiFi is everywhere as are cell phone and microwave frequencies. They really can't be avoided (unless you're remotely isolated enough which is a possibility). I respect Charles Hansen and his opinions but this one is reaching a bit IMO.

For me the problem with computer audio is that one standard has not presented itself as the best and as Charles mentioned you have to deal with isolating noise from the computer as well. There are a lot of good options out there between USB (BTW - Ayre licenses Wavelength technology), firewire, ethernet, and wireless. For me, wireless and computer noise won't affect me as I've addressed the noise on the line issue (either from WiFi or switching power supplies). What I'm more interested in is which format sounds will offer the best results.

Since this stuff is developing and evolving at a rapid pace, looks like I'll be spinning CDs and LPs for a while longer.

Sometimes its important to just look past the technical mumbo jumbo and trust your own ears. If it sounds good, it sounds good. My wireless squeezebox, for example, provides excellent sound. It seems that sometimes we let technical papers or opinions of others convince us that what we hear in our own systems can't really be as good as we think it is.

"..and trust your own ears. If it sounds good, it sounds good."

Amen.

There is no loss of fidelity sending signal over wireless. The only potential issue is whether the connection operates fast enough to get the bits to the destination fast enough to be available when needed. If it doesn't, you will get dropouts.

Ethernet is the best transport medium, either WiFi or wired, for audio data.

This is a system-thing, not a device or protocol thing. Some systems may be sensitive to RFI, but for other reasons. In particular, ground-loops provide very nice loop antennas to pick up RFI. HF currents in these ground loops can be audible. Get rid of the ground-loop antenna and you will likely have no noise from RFI. To assume that RF affects all audio systems is erroneous.

My system has no ground-loops, so RFI has absolutely no effect, and my personal system is one of the most resolving systems on the planet.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio