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Alternatives to Mass Fidelity Relay?

I have an iMac with a wifi-enabled modem and recently bought the Mass Fidelity Relay device to play streaming music from my iMac to the conventional 2-channel system in my bedroom, which is 15' way from the modem. It sounds great when it works, but it is subject to all sorts of hiccups and momentarily interruptions. It syncs to the bedroom system ONLY when it good and ready, not when I want it to. I am ready to recycle it.

The MF unit evidently has a DAC built in, but I only have a need to stream jazz from the internet, nothing more. No need for audio capability. Any suggestions would be appreciated as to what a good replacement would be. Thank you.
whitestix

Showing 1 response by sfar

sfar's avatar
sfar
1,756 posts
 
A simple solution would be to stream from the iMac to an Airport Express unit and connect it to your 2-channel system.

There are two connection options. The Airport Express has a jack that is a combination analog and digital output. If you plug a 1/8" stereo mini to RCA L/R cable you can go directly to a line-level input on your amp.

For higher quality you can instead use a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable from the Airport Express jack to an external DAC with optical input. I use that setup to stream to an Audioengine D1 DAC in a garage system. There are lots of inexpensive DACs with optical input that should work well for your application.

If you're streaming from the internet radio stations in iTunes that's all you need but if you want to stream from other applications, like a browser, Airfoil software works beautifully.

Any of the Airport Express units after the 802.11g first generation work very well. Used 802.11n units are very reasonably priced on craigslist or ebay. Even the 802.11g units work fine for streaming but may get interference from portable phones or microwave ovens.
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