jcfergus

A simple, inexpensive approach would be to use Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil application. It would stream to the AirPlay capability in your receiver, and for the remote system, you have many choices. An Apple Airport Express ($99) driving powered speakers or an inexpensive Class D stereo amp with unpowered speakers. Or any other Airplay-compatible speaker setup. Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi and a DAC or amp HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) from a company like HifiBerry. The only limitation is that AirPlay is constrained to 16bit/44.1kHz. I have a combination of these devices throughout my house, garage and patio. It's pretty nice having the same music streamed throughout, and I can control it with my phone or tablet. The bubble server wouldn't be needed. Jim Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

Very good article. I started listening to KFAT in about 1978. I was a KSAN listener at the time. Terry McGovern mentioned on his morning show that some callers mentioned some weird radio station that was just below KSAN on the dial. KSAN was 94.9 and KFAT was 94.5. I checked it out and never went back until they were off the air. I would say that listening to KFAT was a life-changin experience. It opened up a world of music I had never experienced and still listen to today. I had been listening to a station out of Los Gatos, KLGS, which was also an effort(?) of Lorenzo Milam. A friend that had his 3rd class phone license had a late night show on weekends and we used to hang out at the studio. I didn't realize the connection until much later. Anyway, thanks for the reminisces. I have only one question. How do I get a recording of "Little Bird". It was played often by Gordy and was recorded by Steve Goodman, I think.

What started as a question is now a solution that may be of value to others. I am using an USB to S/PDIF converter (Peachtree X1) that has both coax and optical outputs to drive two different devices simultaneously. One is limited to 24/96 input, the other supports 24/192. The converter does no sample rate conversion. It just passes through the sample rate the computer provides, which by default is 24/192, at least in my setup. I'm assuming this is because the computer senses that it supports USB Audio Class 2.0 which has a maximum sample rate of 192kHz. So one device works, one doesn't. The converter cannot be configured by the user. The Solution: The sample rate of a connected USB Audio device can be configured in Audio MIDI setup in /Applications/Utilities. In my case, I was able to set it to 96kHz, allowing both digital devices in my system to work.

Update to post #531: - I've replaced the M-Audio CO2 with a Peachtree Audio X1. This eliminates a wall wart power supply and uses the USB Audio rather than the TOSLINK optical output. - I'm using the DACMagic in the living room connected to the D2 via TOSLINK optical cable. - The problems with the AudioEngine D2 turned out to be a bad TOSLINK cable, not a wireless transmission problem. It now works flawlessly and behaves the way I'd hoped.

My approach has been similar to Chris' (excepting the costly cables), in that I use a dedicated modem and separate network components. My network would probably have more separates but for an interesting experience with Apple network devices. I, too, use Comcast as my ISP. The service is up to about 120Mbps on good days. I have a purchased, DOCIS 3, Arris TM822 modem. This provides a gigabit Ethernet output which feeds a gen 5 Airport Extreme. I have chosen to use the built-in router and switch and feed both of my Macs with Ethernet directly from that switch. The third port feeds a stand-alone switch that provides service to other devices such as printers, other computers and a remote Airport Express used to distribute music and extend the wireless network. This is via bulk CAT5E strung through the attic space. I use Ethernet when possible. A note about the Airport Extreme. Before I purchased it, I had run through 3 or 4 different wireless access points from various manufacturers trying to find one that would work with AirPlay and the Airport Expresses. I use the AEX devices at several locations in the house for music distribution. I spent about a year trying to determine why the AEXes would drop their connection with Mac serving music. They would work for 1-2 hours and then go dead. Only a cold reboot would restore functionality. I finally purchased an Airport Extreme and all is well. I suspect there is something that is transmitted by the Airport Extreme that keeps the AEXes awake but haven't had the tools to confirm that. It was 100% repeatable, however, so I am sticking with the Airport Extreme. I run the wireless network on a fixed channel at the end of the channel allocation on all bands. I don't have data that says this is better, but preventing the wireless AP from hopping around as it chooses seems like a good idea. Once everything was running perfectly, of course, I decided I needed to upgrade beyond 16/44.1. I have a decent 2-channel system in my living room that I wanted to feed with high definition audio. Rather than moving the computer to the system, I decided to move the bits to the system and acquired an AudioEngine D2 wireless transmitter/receiver. For those unaware of it, it has digital and analog inputs on the transmitter and digital and analog outputs on the receiver. It runs a proprietary protocol on 2.4GHz to transmit 24/96 digital audio and is claimed to have the smarts to avoid local 802.11 network traffic. When it works, it's great. In my case, this just didn't work reliably. Some days it work flawlessly. Other days, it cut out constantly. Apparently, because the wireless access point and AudioEngine transmitter were both in the same room. The only time the D2 worked without a problem is when I powered down the Airport Extreme. I spent a year trying various methods to prevent interference, but nothing reliably fixed the problem. This is no dig at AudioEngine. Their tech support was responsive and did their best to help, including replacing the original unit I bought. I have given this path up, although I really like the idea of being able to distribute 24/96 music wirelessly within reach of the wireless link. I continue to use the Apple-branded network devices without an issue. My next step with getting 24/96 to the living room is through a digital audio CAT5 cable extender. This converts the digital audio to a format that can be transmitted over CAT5 ethernet cable and converted back at the receiver end. It's relatively inexpensive (~$110) if you already have the CAT5 in place. I don't know about the quality. That remains to be heard. Jim

Most interesting! Thanks for the tip.

An Airport Express works fine, but is constrained to 16bit/44.1kHz. I've been trying to get a high quality, high definition connection between the iMac and the living room. The AudioEngine D2 supports 24bit/96kHz audio files. I can take the TOSLink output and feed a DAC or use the internal DAC (there are both analog and digital outputs). By using BitPerfect with Apple Lossless high def files in iTunes and the D2, I can (when it works), get high definition audio without having the computer adjacent to the hifi system. This improves the WAF (wife acceptance factor) and is very convenient. I can control the program material from my phone or tablet anywhere in the house. I'm likely to just buy the Vanco system and try it since there doesn't seem to be anyone with a similar setup. I'm actually a little surprised there isn't more interest in this kind of a setup. It keeps the living room system really clean and very little different than a conventional 2-channel setup.

I'm using a 5th gen Airport Extreme. I've configured the radio mode for 802.11a/n - 802.11b/g for manual channel selection, using channel 11 for the 2.4GHz band and channel 161 for the 5GHz. I also have an 2nd gen Airport Express at the other end of the house set up to extend the wireless network. It's connected via Ethernet to the Airport Extreme and serves 2.4GHz on channel 1 and 5GHz on channel 36. I've set most of the various devices in the house to prefer the 5GHz band. While I have Ethernet in the living room, I'm not aware of any means to get the output from iTunes onto Ethernet and back out. That was the reason for using the AudioEngine D2. It transmits the audio signal over it's own proprietary, closed wireless network and converts it back to digital or analog audio. The 802.11 wireless network in my home is only a problem in that it operates in the same band as the D2 and though the manufacturer claims that it has the ability to find a clear band to operate on, this apparently doesn't always work. It may be, as I was told by one of Apple's wireless engineers a few years ago, "a best-effort connection", with no expectation that it will work 100% of the time as a cable connection does.

I should clarify. The Vanco system uses Cat5/Cat6 cabling but it doesn't appear to be Ethernet in the conventional sense as a network protocol. It is a simple, point-to-point, apparently, proprietary connection using network cabling. It is limited to 330'/100m. Jim

My digitial audio server (iMac) resides in one of the bedrooms (office) in my house and of course, the audio system is elsewhere (living room). I having been trying to graduate from using Airport Express for this connection to benefit (or at least determine if there is a benefit) from higher def music files. My first attempt has been with an AudioEngine D2 wireless system to connect with BitPerfect on the source end. Although I've followed their guidelines on placement of the transmitter (away from other 802.11 wireless devices, setting the 802.11 network to channel 1 or 11, etc.), I still get sporadic cut-outs. Sometimes it makes the music unlistenable and other times I may get a single cut-out during hours of listening. There is also some weird noise that I can't really quite hear, but seems to come and go, that is never present when playing material directly on the audio system, such as from a CD or LP. This may simply be a lower impact result of a bad connection that doesn't occur as a cut-out. While the folks at AudioEngine have attempted to help, I'm not confident that wireless is the way to go. I found another product made by Vanco that converts digital audio (coax or TOSLINK) to something that is are transmitted over ethernet and then converts back to usable digital audio at the other end. It's very inexpensive (~$100), but I'm thinking I may end up with a different set of problems than I've already got, but more subtle and difficult to resolve. Does anyone have experience with such a device? On paper, it seems like a really good idea as it supports up to 96kHz bit rate. I'm just a little suspicious that something this inexpensive has some downside I haven't thought of. Thanks Jim If you want to see my audio system, it's posted here.

I wish this was still the case. I continue to have sporadic issues with the D2, ranging from barely audible noise to complete and almost continous cutouts. Very erratic.

Interesting thread. I voted Ported... , but like others have commented, that seems to over-simplify things. I've listened to many speakers over the years that I've really liked, including DQ10s, Magneplanars, ESS/Heil AMT, Quad ES and JBL L300s. I'd have any of them because to me, they sounded musical. Regarding the use of a high powered amp with your Advents, while the Dynaco ST35 or other simple amp maybe attractive from a vintage and an apparent power matching perspective, my experience is that sealed enclosures benefit from having plenty of reserve power. For a long time, I had a/d/s/ L-880 monitors (acoustic suspension enclosure) driven by a Sony ES receiver that was rated at 80W RMS per side. I thought it was just fine. But the most sigificant sound improvements I think I've ever made to my system was when I replaced the Sony with an Adcom preamp/amp combo (GFP-555/GFA-555II). It was totally unexpected. The improvement in bass definition and clarity was REALLY obvious. I wasn't listening any louder but suddenly, the string bass in a jazz cut sounded like a string bass that was in the room. I believe this improvement was because the amp was providing a significant amount of reserve current available for transients that the Sony just couldn't muster. When I put them on 24" stands (heavy iron with spikes) I got another, similarly significant and surprising improvement in the bass. As to damaging the speakers with high-powered amps, loud is loud. You may actually cause more damage to your speakers by driving them hard with a low power amp that is into clipping than by using a higher power amp that isn't clipping. If you were driving highly efficient speakers like most ported systems, it wouldn't likely be a concern, but the Advents are not known for efficiency. The caveat is if the amp fails. I lost one of the drivers in my a/d/s/ when a failure in the Adcom amp dumped DC directly on the output. The fuses protected the tweeter and mid-range, but it cooked the voice coil on the woofer. The other possible damage could come (I'm just speculating here) from the transients (pops) I get in my digital system, if you also experience them. I have powered monitors with digital inputs that are connected to the digital optical output from my iMac through a format converter (optical to coax). When I start a song from iTunes, I almost always get a big pop on the speakers. I haven't looked at it on a scope, so don't know how significant it is. Jim

I LOVE the JBLs. If my wife would tolerate them in the living room, I'd probably try replacing the Paradigms with the larger JBL monitors, although I don't know if speakers designed for near-field use work well in larger rooms. The JBLs just sound so natural to me. This is not to say I'm not happy with the Paradigms. There is enough similarity in the sound of the music through both systems as to not create aural conflict for me. The primary reason for the DEQ2496 is to compensate for a 10db hump from about 100-300Hz in my living room. Without compensation, it makes most music sound extremely boomy, almost like having BIC-Venturi speakers. I'm fairly constrained to a specific layout, so there is no real option to tune the room acoustics by speaker and seating location. I don't really like the idea of so many D-A and A-D conversions, but I haven't come up with any practical solution that blends both analog and digital inputs at the listening end. I've come up with a couple of solutions, but they're pretty clunky from a usability standpoint. I'm not really seeking a lab in the living room. I want to be able to listen to and enjoy the music without a lot of fiddling around, and my wife needs to be able to use it, too. Jim

I use an iMac (2010) as the music server, running Mac OS X 10.9 with iTunes 11 and BitPerfect 2. Most of my CDs are now ripped in the ALAC format and I have some high def downloads in 24/96. The optical output of the iMac drives a M-Audio CO2 Converter via TOSLink optical. The CO2 is kind of nice as all inputs and outputs work simultaneously, allowing it to be used as both a splitter and format converter. The optical output of the CO2 drives an AudioEngine D2 transmitter and the CO2 coax output drives the JBL LSR-4326 monitors in the office. I'm using an USB port to drive a DACMagic Plus which is currently being used only as a headphone amp. The D2 receiver is in the living room with the analog output driving a Musical Fidelity A3.2CR preamp. The Arcam CD92 CD player analog output is connected to the preamp rather than using the digital output, as I like to be able to play the few HDCD discs I have decoded for HDCD. The Music Hall MMF-5/Goldring turntable goes to the phono input on the preamp. The preamp drives a Behringer DEQ2496 which is used to tame room acoustic issues. This drives the Adcom GFA-555II which are connected to Paradigm Studio 100 v.3 speakers. I had been using the DACMagic as the DAC for the D2 receiver, connected via TOSLink optical cable but I'm trying to simplify the chain, so am trying the AudioEngine DAC to see if I can tell the difference. So far, the verdict is still out. I also drive three different AirPort Express units which are connected to other audio systems in the house. These include a hobby room with vintage gear, home theater system which also drives the patio and the garage. These are connected via Ethernet or WiFi, depending on the location. The one anomaly with this system is that BitPerfect won't seem to allow Airplay to function concurrently with a 24/96 output. If I drop BP out of the stream, all the wireless receivers work well and I get 16/44.1 everywhere, but if I enable BP, AirPlay is disabled. While this is probably OK from a serious listening perspective, the UI seems to allow it to be configured to all work simultaneously. In the office is the source ... And in the living room is the output. FWIW, I did have some wireless connection problems with the AudioEngine D2. By moving the WiFi router/access point across the room (office) from the D2, these problems seem to have gone away. Right now, things are fairly stable.

Martin Mull is reported to have said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."