Future of systems and music?

Jeeves; Very interesting read, based on reviews of sometihng on these lines from some other forums, I am planning to put a wirelees music thing as well;)

Since I am not in Bangalore now, I had converted a lot of my CDS into apple lossless format on my iPOd and am using that as a source into my hifi (From the line out in the dock). I find it all there, soundstaging, and quite an acceptable tonality (Which was the most surprising)

So instead of using the DAC in the ipod (Which is bound to be constrained) an Airport express based wireless stream at home should give great results . ie ipod+PC putting on a Digital Wireless stream into a airport express which feeds it to a high class DAC .

From stereophiles measurements, the Airport express does a great job of getting the bits intact to a DAC hence should be a Great transport

Will keep you posted on this.. am keeping a lookout on used AEs on ebay these days

Arj, some questions.
Is Apple lossless available only on Apple or is it possible even on Windows?
Second pl explain in lay terms how each is connected with or without wires! Not easy for me to understand!
I have a wireless router for my broadband..AE is different?
Thanks!

Let me try to see if i can put it clearly. The basic thing we are doing here is that the traditional CD Transport and its link to the DAC is being replaced by a wireless transmitter and receiver. hence only digital data is ransmitted which is nearly lossless.

It is not really a router hence works exclusive to your current broadband. but it can act as a hub (From what I understand) and hence extend the range of the router

It works on Windows and Mac and the prerequisite is the below

1.Wireless card (Or centrino) and
2. iTunes (i think version 4.7 onwards supports AE..anyway its a free download !)

The link for data flow is as follows ( The components in bold are the ones which would have been part of a traditional CD transport

1. PC/Mac with iTunes-> Wireless digital out via wireless card

2. Wireless Digital in -> Airport express -> Digital Toslink cable to DAC -> InterConnects to Amp-> Speaker cable to Speaker

so what is happening is that iTunes is reading the music file and transmitting the same as Digital wirelessly. (Hence inmy case the Ipod is just being used as a Hard disk. In the future If this looks good I plan to have a dedicated high capacity hardisk to store my CD rips . this also means if you have LPs/tapes High resolution digitised versions better than cd quality can be stored)

What Airport express is doing is only receiving it and passing it on to the DAC. This is what Stereophile measured and found to be the exact same as the music file.

Hence now we have the exact same file being sent to the DAC (Now since the best cable is no cable at all..have we found the perfect digital cable ?)

the AE does have a analogue out as well ie it has a built in DAC..but it is the same as what is present in the iPod hence its output would be no better.


What we end up doing is a better transport than most entry/mid level as vibration control should be much better IF no other CPU internsive activity is being done by the computer at the same time.

There is another device ie Squeezebox2 by Slimdevice.

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html

this is more than 2 times the cost of a AE but has a display ie you can see which song is being played, q remorte control, as well as has the ability to connect to the net by itself and play internet radio. it also has a opensource code where a lot of applications are being written to extend its functionality

This uses the broadband router for internet radio etc

Interesting times we live in:)

Hope I have been able to clarify ?

I have a friend who plays all his music from his laptop wirelessly thru the same gaget which is connected to his amp and thru to the speakers. The gaget is made by "Roku". The sound is pretty good and just so convinent.

yeah the Roku Soundbridge is on the same lines as well

There is another way to hook up your iPod / Computer to your AV receiver wirelessly.

You could use the iTrip FM transmitter. It connects to your iPod and transmits your music as FM at any frequency you choose. All you need to do is to tune in your AVR to that frequency and you are on...

I do agree that the quality will not be as good as digital transmission, but then the cost is also significantly less. Also you can use the same transmitter to connect your iPod to car stereo.

iTrip has a reallly bad coonectivity..too many losses. prefer wired to that a remote control + dock for the ipod is only marginally higher cost than the iTrip.

iTrips sound has more crackles than a really bad LP (The idea here is not to wirelss stream music but to do it lossless and get better resolution than a CDP)

Thanks Arj!
Need to assimilate that!

Hi Jeeves

Bought the Airport express today and spent the better part of the day setting it up. The darn thing is not that easy with Windows especially since i already have a wireless DSL adding it in cause a quite a bit oif pain (I think the Roku soundbridge and the Squeezebox are so much more user friendly)

But once done its really good. I can see the impact of a good transport now. Details being dug out to an amazing degree (My source is a Laptop connected to my ipod with Lossless music) and separation between instruments are very clear. I am seriously considering a Network capable Hardisk as a future transport.

Hav been re-listening to all my music for the past 3 hours and still cannot get enough of it.

The AE is connected to my DAC via optical. right now it is direcly going into a SI T amp from there ..but very soon will have a pre amp connected in as well.

Am really kicked about the whole thing today

Arj its all a bit over the top for me right now, but if you are enjoying it I'm happy!
One day someone perhaps Prithvi will actually put together something like this that I can feel, touch and see and understand!
Rgds
Jeeves

Arj
check this out!

http://www.olive.us/p_bin/?cid=home

Good one..Just a matter of time before more innovative products keep coming in. But I think it would be bit on the overpriced segment (Although could not find a price)

I was also thinking in terms of this

http://www.iomega.co...&bmUID=1130939270506

What this is, a a Wireless Network hard Disk. place it anywhere in you home and your Laptop/PC can connect to it wirelessly. not just for Music but also any other data. hence use any PC, connect to this to rip/Burn/PLay songs via a device like to the AE/Roku or Squeeze Box

OR

this
http://www.apple.com/macmini/gallery/

The options are large enough to be confusing !!!!