Airfoil: Bit-perfect playback?
Jun 6, 2008 at 8:38 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

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Hello,

Many are the times I've browsed to these forums, though this is my first post.

My question is: Does anyone know whether Airfoil is transparent to the audio output of whatever given app? So, iTunes streaming natively (with "Airtunes") to the Airport Express is bitperfect; would streaming iTunes (or Foobar, suitably configured, or whatever else) through Airfoil also be bitperfect?

That's my question -- I might as well include a little background.

I'm a linux user and I've been using raop_play to stream my flac collection from Amarok to my AEX. The AEX runs to my Benchmark DAC1 via toslink. The difference between this and bitperfect playback using iTunes to stream the same music in Apple Lossless format is stark -- I can pick it every time, blind. (Amarok + raop_play is substantially more bassy, making it a give-away.)

I'm working with a few people trying to get the raop_play code fixed, but that's not going to happen too soon, I fear. So I'm stuck with vmware and, for the time being, iTunes. But iTunes is a total drag -- and I'm sure there are other Windows players I'd much prefer (recommendations for bitperfect playback and configurable metadata will be most appreciated!) I know Airfoil will interface with any Windows app and my Airport, and I know several people here are using it happily; but I wonder if anyone has captured a stream from the AEX sent with Airfoil to compare it with the original file? Has anyone check to see that it's bitperfect?

Apart from the obvious convenience of being able to use other media players, this would also save me from the task of converting my 500Gb+ flac collection to ALAC!

Thanks, &

Happy listening!


edit: In case anyone's interested, the code that reads FLAC can be seen here. The conversion to PCM is happening here. Thanks to Nils, the raop_play project maintainer, for pointing this out to me. Line 382 defines a bunch of pointers, one of which is "pcm_resample".
 
Jun 27, 2008 at 12:53 PM Post #3 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by jimb0 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Did you get anywhere with this?


Nope. I got a Squeezebox 3! -- It's by far the best thing I've found for my system/listening/life for a long time.

Cheers!
Simon
 
Jun 27, 2008 at 11:00 PM Post #4 of 14
Welcome to Head-Fi and I like that your first post is listed second and your second first.
wink.gif


Anyway the SB3 is a great streamer and a pretty good damn DAC for that matter.
 
Jul 7, 2008 at 3:19 PM Post #5 of 14
Airfoil on my iMac OSX 10.5.4 is bit-perfect to my 11g Airport Express using optical out to my receiver. Easily confirmed by playing a DTS .wav file with Cog.app.

I have not found a way to get bit-perfect using Airfoil on my PC (Windows XP SP2, SB Audigy 2). My SB audigy seems to insist on resampling when using other programs than iTunes. iTunes gives me bit-perfect playback but no FLAC playback... but then it's not using Airfoil. :p

But I have more testing to do so i'll try from one of the other PCs at home as soon as I get some more time.
 
Jan 19, 2009 at 7:54 PM Post #6 of 14
Does anybody know if Airfoil is bit-perfect on Windows? iTune sends bit-perfect stream to Airport Express. I am looking for a solution to stream bit-perfect music from Foobar/Winamp to Airport Express. Airfoil supports it but the question is if it is bit-perfect?

Can anybody please confirm if Foobar works with the latest Airfoil release?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Random Access /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Airfoil on my iMac OSX 10.5.4 is bit-perfect to my 11g Airport Express using optical out to my receiver. Easily confirmed by playing a DTS .wav file with Cog.app.

I have not found a way to get bit-perfect using Airfoil on my PC (Windows XP SP2, SB Audigy 2). My SB audigy seems to insist on resampling when using other programs than iTunes. iTunes gives me bit-perfect playback but no FLAC playback... but then it's not using Airfoil. :p

But I have more testing to do so i'll try from one of the other PCs at home as soon as I get some more time.



 
Jan 20, 2009 at 9:05 PM Post #7 of 14
I am not aware that the Airport express has any capacity to actually receive analog stereo input. I believe that pretty much all the "streaming" is done digitally, and is decoded with a DAC device either in the Airport Express, or at a downstream DAC.

Don't know that it would be any different in Window, at the transmission end. I don't have a clue as how the kmixer fits into Airfoil on the PC.

There might be some analog signal transmission devices, but they are all proprietary, and will not work with other devices. Signals sent via ethernet, or wireless ethernet will all be a digital bitstream that can be decoded by standard devices.
 
Jan 21, 2009 at 5:42 PM Post #9 of 14
No difference in sound bw itunes or Airfoil when i listen it using airport express and an external dac.
Wifi digital data seems to be identical.
Airfoil works great if you don't want use itunes.
 
Mar 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM Post #10 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicserve /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I still did not get an answer if Airfoil is able to stream bit-perfect music to Airport Express from Foobar/Winamp on Windows.


Yes it is. I use Winamp / Airfoil on WinXP Lenovo laptop, what I receive is bit-perfect signal from Airport Express. Tested it by recording the digital stream from Airport's optical output using iRiver H100, then comparing the two .wav files (played and recorded) in EAC. They were identical.

Hope it helps
wink.gif
 
Mar 27, 2009 at 4:42 PM Post #11 of 14
^ That seems like a confirm to me. Thanks!
biggrin.gif


...and welcome to Head-Fi!
 
Mar 27, 2009 at 6:44 PM Post #12 of 14
Thanks for your reply. It is great to know.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Teo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes it is. I use Winamp / Airfoil on WinXP Lenovo laptop, what I receive is bit-perfect signal from Airport Express. Tested it by recording the digital stream from Airport's optical output using iRiver H100, then comparing the two .wav files (played and recorded) in EAC. They were identical.

Hope it helps
wink.gif



 
Apr 5, 2009 at 9:00 PM Post #13 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by Teo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes it is. I use Winamp / Airfoil on WinXP Lenovo laptop, what I receive is bit-perfect signal from Airport Express. Tested it by recording the digital stream from Airport's optical output using iRiver H100, then comparing the two .wav files (played and recorded) in EAC. They were identical.

Hope it helps
wink.gif



Thank you, Teo!
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:30 PM Post #14 of 14
I just tested Airfoil with the following set-ups:

- iMac running iTunes > Airfoil > Windows XP machine with a Chaintech AV-710 soundcard (flashed to Prodigy 7.1) > Toslink > Cambridge Audio Isomagic S-700 (HDCD capable)

- iMac running iTunes > Airfoil > Macbook Pro > Toslink > Cambridge Audio IsoMagic S-700

According to other posts HDCD indicates a bitperfect signal. In both situations the HDCD led on the Isomagic switches on when playback volume on the iMac is set to 100%. If the volume is set below 100% the HDCD led switches off.

This seems to enable using any computer with a bitperfact digital output (coaxial, Toslink, USB or Firewire) as an ethernet transport for a DAC?
 

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