Improving sound quality of streaming setup

Agear - I also made the AE sound pretty good, but there limitations of the chip being used in there, namely the PCM270X. Crummy chip. There is also the fact that Apple encodes the stream to ALAC.

I have had the Zardoz from another customer here, so I know it.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

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....

"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?"

It doesn't matter, except for Apple WiFi, which encodes ALAC. Still a lot of customers use it with Apple TV.

Steve N.

IMO, an external DAC would definitely be helpful. Just keep in kind that you will need to pipe digital in and out of Airport Express. I assume that you are using the AE as a wireless receiver for your pre, so the DAC would go between the AE and your preamp. The AE is going to limit you to 44.1kHz resolution, so if I were you I wouldn't spend a lot on a DAC.

I can add to this discussion with my experience. I am using synco-mesh with a sonos zp-90 along with red wine’s tube based NOS isabellina DAC to stream from a music library of ripped cd’s using dbpoweramp to flac on a NAS, and MOG music service. I have compared this to two very well reviewed DAC’s that retail for twice the price of the synco-mesh isabellina combination, using USB and jrivers media center. In both comparisons, the USB alternatives provided more noticeable pin point imaging, but I could never warm up to the sound. It became artificial after a very short while of playback, and after time I could no longer listen for long periods. The isabellina is a lush sounding DAC, sweet with wonderful tonality. I can only explain the addition of the re-clocker, as snapping the sound scape into focus, and providing an enhanced sense of ambient retrieval. Sonos is a joy to use. A wonderful interface that makes browsing music very easy. Streaming is a gift to the arm chair music lover, but for me it took time and patience to achieve a more natural sound from the digital source. For my sensibilities, the synco-mesh/NOSdac combination provides for a beautifully relaxed natural sound, without question superior to any the other alternatives I have tried, and this is from files ripped from standard redbook Cd’s that provide a whole world of music variety.