Quote from: burnspbesq on October 21, 2013, 02:03:09 PM

Quote from: wildstar on October 21, 2013, 09:09:01 AM

If I understood this correctly, AirPlay and DLNA require transcoding unless the data is already in a supported format (for an embedded device it's better to just transcode everything). So with this you're never listening to the original audio, it's always transcoded. Makes it useless for hi-fi use, in my opinion.

I'm pretty certain that's not correct. The way I'm using it is not invoking either AirPlay or DLNA. The transferred files are on the drive in the original format, whether that be AIFF or ALAC.  Millions of Mac/iTunes users have transcoded billions of FLAC files using a variety of software, and AFAIK there is no reliable evidence of degradation of sound quality attributable to transcoding.

You're welcome to your opinion, but I don't think it's well founded. The data and my ears both tell me something different.

Huh? They're not stored transcoded. They're transcoded on the fly on playback (streaming).
If they're not transcoded then they should by bit identical to a local copy on the device and thus cannot have "lack of air" in comparison, as it will be the exact same data.

Note that the term "transcoding" includes compression to a lossy format, it's not just "flac<->alac".

My guess is that the device streams everything at 44 kHz 16 bit PCM, since this is supported by both DNLA and AirPlay and is "CD quality".

If you have any evidence to support that guess, let's see it, please.

Here's what we know.

All currently shipping iOS devices, including the iPad Mini that I expect to primarily use with the Wireless Plus, can play AIFF and ALAC 44.1 and 48 sample rates and 16 and 24 bits.  This is beyond dispute, unless you think both Apple's posted specs and Cirrus' data sheets are lies.

All of the files I have stored in memory on my iPad Mini are 44.1/16 or 48/24 AIFF or ALAC. The iPad Mini plays them at their native resolutions.

All of the files I am transferring to the Wireless Plus are 44.1/16 or 48/24 AIFF or ALAC. the iPad Mini is capable of playing them at native resolutions.

Contrary to what appears to be a mistaken assumption on your part, The Wireless Plus is not functioning as a DLNA renderer or an AirPlay device. It is functioning as a WiFi hot spot. There is no dispute that WiFi can stream audio at the iPad Mini's native resolutions.

Are we on the same page now?

As far as your assertion that the same file played from memory and streamed over WiFi must sound the same, that is theoretically true but ignores real-world constraints on the performance of WiFi devices.