Streaming for Dummies

Well, probably a valid concern. But music streaming doesn’t use nearly as much bandwidth of video streaming. The better the streamer, the less susceptible to drop outs.

I am not in the habit of waiting. Good time to start and gain experience. If fiber isn’t far away, then all the better. My streamers work when my iPad will not refresh.

If your system is not close to your router so you can run an Ethernet cable, then you can use a wall wart wifi extender and plug into that. WiFi receivers inside streamers are notoriously unreliable, even good ones.

It’s so inexpensive to try streaming today, even if you are not confident your network will be able to support it. The WIIM Mini costs only $89 on Amazon and the WIIM Pro is only $149. You might even find either, second hand, for even less. The WIIM Mini is not "state of the art" for sound quality, but it is SUPER easy to set up and use. The WIIM Pro supposedly has much better sound quality using it’s internal DAC vs. the Mini. Same set up, operation, etc. Also, since it’s Amazon, try it and if it doesn’t work for you, send it back.

Oh, and I've never had a dropout in the 2 years I've owned a WIIM Mini. Not once. 

Fantastic information. I’m the type that doesn’t like to wait either, so I’m going to do some experimenting

Do remember you get what you pay for. I have owned streamers from $200 to $22K and, in general, they incrementally sound better the more you invest. They are like every other piece of audio equipment. They need to be carefully chosen and of equivalent quality to the rest of your gear to get the most out of it. That is not to say one cannot play with an inexpensive streamer… but it’s not going to sound like a good one. I seem to always end up,with all components (streamer, DAC, phono stage, preamp… ) around the same investment level in the end.