Sound Quality is an inoperative concept with most Internet streams

Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

Posted by Tony Lauck (A) on September 2, 2014 at 07:28:55

In Reply to: RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless posted by Charlie8521 on September 2, 2014 at 06:26:20:

" I'm questioning if I'm loosing some sound quality by using the Wireless approach."

If you are using lossy compressed streams that come over the Internet or any music downloaded from the iTunes store the original encoding of the music is already poor. Unless you are getting obvious dropouts or glitches due to poor wireless reception there is no point in worrying about sound quality. With MP3, AAC, etc., the concept of sound quality is simply inoperative.

If you are streaming high quality material from a server on your local network then there might be an issue, depending on your equipment and its set up, particularly the location of all the wireless devices with respect to your audio components. Just having a wireless base station near audio equipment even if it's being used by other family members to surf the web may possibly degrade sound. (And if it is close to your body some suggest it may degrade your health.) The worst potential for sonic degradation comes when an audio component itself is running with wireless enabled. From looking at Linux process statistics, It's obvious that the wireless software can place a high load (more than what is required to play audio) on the processor. Cheap wireless adapters have very little actual hardware, delegating most functions to software on their host device.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - Charlie8521 16:41:04 09/1/14 (19)

RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - AbeCollins 19:54:22 09/1/14 (2)

Apple TV - Charlie8521 06:20:16 09/2/14 (1)

RE: Apple TV - AbeCollins 07:40:53 09/2/14 (0)

I solved the problem with a AC Power Line adaptor set... - Ivan303 19:34:14 09/1/14 (5)

Yes it works - Goober58 22:07:01 09/1/14 (4)

RE: Yes it works - Tony Lauck 07:33:26 09/2/14 (3)

Laugh! Speaking of the wife. - Goober58 09:57:53 09/2/14 (2)

RE: Laugh! Speaking of the wife. - Tony Lauck 10:30:22 09/2/14 (0)

RE: Laugh! Speaking of the wife. - AbeCollins 10:24:49 09/2/14 (0)

RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - Jaundiced Ear 19:04:05 09/1/14 (8)

RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - Charlie8521 06:26:20 09/2/14 (1)

Sound Quality is an inoperative concept with most Internet streams - Tony Lauck 09/2/1407:28:55 09/2/14 (0)

RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - Bob_C 21:34:02 09/1/14 (5)

You asked the same exact question I was going to - except that ... - carcass93 06:35:53 09/2/14 (0)

What do you mean by "better?" - Jaundiced Ear 22:17:57 09/1/14 (3)

I just thought someone would know - Charlie8521 06:37:22 09/2/14 (2)

RE: I just thought someone would know - AbeCollins 07:47:49 09/2/14 (1)

AbeCollins knows a lot about Macs - Jaundiced Ear 13:33:04 09/2/14 (0)

RE: 50 ft ethernet vs. wireless - Tony Lauck 17:45:53 09/1/14 (0)

Follow Ups

Sound Quality is an inoperative concept with most Internet streams - Tony Lauck 09/2/1407:28:55 09/2/14 (0)

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