Improving sound quality of streaming setup

With a reclocker like Synchro-Mesh, you could use a stock Sonos, squeezebox or AppleTV.

Only after gutting and modding the piss out of them (ala Boulder)....

There is a misperception of the Z at work here. It is a highly modded entity with its own master clock, dual power supplies (one of the clock), proprietary shielding, etc, etc. According to the designer, it is a low jitter affair. The French audiophile who turned me onto it used to own an Empirical Audio offramp along with a highly modded Squeezebox, and the Z thumped it. He also did shootouts with Weis, Alpha Berkley, etc, etc. The Z was found to be superior. Dan from dbSystems has developed a plug-in the hacks Airtunes to circumvent the downsampling to Apple Lossless during transmission. I own it and it is much better than stock Itunes and even Pure Music.

You can tweak the unit further by putting in a synergistic fuse, and floating the transformer on audiopoints. I have also pondered using the Bybee music rails to lower the noise floor further.

WiFi is still limited in what it can transmit in terms of file type (RB only as far as I know). Hopefully Apple will uncork it soon. Its only a matter of time.

Since audio is an endless, open-ended experiment, you could always try Steve's new product and see if it improved things....

I also made the AE sound pretty good, but there limitations of the chip being used in there, namely the PCM270X.

Mine uses a chip from Marvell. I do not know the chipset used in the Sonos or Logitech, but I cannot imagine they are any better.

There is also the fact that Apple encodes the stream to ALAC.

There is a workaround. See above.

Steve, you promote the use of multiple wifi transmitters in conjunction with your Synchromesh device (Apple TV, Express, Sonos, etc). Why does it matter which device is used if it is reclocked?

Like everything else in audio, I think sound quality can be influenced just as much or more by the quality of the parts and their implementation. The digital noise floor on the Zardoz (now La Rosita) is very low (<-102dB), much lower than any CDP. It also has a proprietary power supply. All that matters IMO.

Disclaimer: I am no way affiliated with dBSystems. Just an end user....

I see.

Steve, any early opinions on DSD? I have some buddies who are raving about it....

Mas1951, your findings are no surprise. My first introduction to wireless was via the Sonos. It is an excellent product.

I have used the Zardoz since 2008, and I believe wireless is the shizzle. They are too many gremlins and too much fiddle factor in using a computer. I just wish they would uncork it so hi rez was possible. I have been told that is coming. If we can stream video content, why not....

For streaming audio, I'd think a used, tube-modified ModWright Transporter would run circles around the Zardoz.

With emphasis being placed on the word "think."

Friends of mine who owned the Transporter, which is/was a fine product, either sold it due to sonic thinness, or had it modded with a tube buffer ala Modwright and later sold it to chase other computer-related offerings with more flexibility with files types (hi rez).

Again, cannot wait for hi rez streaming.