Looking at moving up to the DS Junior from a Cambridge Azur 851. Since the Directstreams do not have wireless options, has anyone used a Orbi Mesh Wifi with one of the satellite units near the audio equipment allowing for an ethernet connection? Wondering if there are unforeseen problems with this work around.
Welcome to the fora!
I don’ know all of the kit makes up your signal path so the following may be worthless to you. That said, my digital files (rips and downloads on my iMac along with Roon Core serving up Qobuz and Tidal on-line libraries) have never sounded better than they do currently. My signal path is Wi-Fi from the iMac downstairs in the kitchen to upstairs in a bonus room to my router where the Hi-Fi system is. Roon and JRiver Media Center are the music files managers/software I use. I run Ethernet from the router to a pair of TP-Link media converters to provide “galvanic isolation.” Ethernet from the second media converter to an Ethernet switch with an iFi power supply that is reputed to have lower noise, is the next segment. Next is Ethernet from the switch into a Pink Faun LAN isolator plugged into my Ethernet Bridge card on my PS Audio DAC (again to provide galvanic isolation between the device that is connected to the network and the network itself). This set up is stable and very quiet. Maybe some of these tweaks and kit might be of interest to you. Maybe not, depending on your signal path. Long-story short (too late, I know), I am employing Wi-Fi and Ethernet to get the bits from my computer to my DAC and this has resulted in my best sound to date. I don’t have any experience with an Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi net, but as long as your network is stable, I think you should be fine. Absent the introduction of noise into your digital stream by some means or another, I can’t think of a theory that would suggest Wi-Fi to Ethernet would in anyway be inferior to a wireless connection. I hope there is something of use to you in this rambling. Cheers.
Yes the DS models work with mesh WiFi modules.
Thanks folks. I’ll try the straight from Orbi to DAC and keep the galvanic options in my back pocket if needed
This is exactly the configuration I run. Orbi wireless router with a satellite unit that I connect via ethernet to my AQVOX switch, which only supplies Internet connectivity to my music server. I run a GigaFOILv4 between my AQVOX switch and my music server.
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