[zareliman]

Hi Headfiers:

Lately I've been searching for a wireless audio setup.
AFAIK there's 3 technologies, Bluetooth, Wifi (UPNP, DLNA) and 2.4 Ghz wireless.
Bluetooth is lossy so it's worthless for me.
Wifi looks OK, just a little bit cumbersome (ideally requires an android phone to control).
2.4 Ghz I don't understand at all.

It seems that this 2.4Ghz technology is kind of an umbrella term for various things using that frequency range.
I know there's protocols to send digital signals through 2.4 Ghz (although I can't find any bandwidth) and there seem to be analogue radio protocols as well.
I just can't find specific info in any product using this kind of technologies, I only find marketing claims about range and sound quality but without any numbers or formats.

This sennheiser headphones use 8-FSK Digital, no idea about it.
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/digital-headphones-wireless-home-audio-over-ear-rs-185

Then there's this things:
https://www.amazon.com/SainSonic-PAT-330-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver/dp/B00D77JY6O/ref=pd_lpo_23_lp_t_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XSBJCZ1DRPD961F5EZY8

https://www.amazon.com/Nyrius-Transmitter-Streaming-Wirelessly-NY-GS10/dp/B00FB1NTP6/ref=pd_lpo_23_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XSBJCZ1DRPD961F5EZY8
 
https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver-Subwoofers-Surround/dp/B00SJ49ZJQ

Any information is appreciated.

 

[castleofargh]

AFAIK wifi operates at 2.4 or 5ghz. 
 
if you can use wifi, it's like using internet streaming and there should be no problem for lossless streaming. about bluetooth, the latest standard should have enough bandwidth for lossless music, but the operational distance still won't rival wifi and I have no idea how many devices use the latest stuff.

 

[zareliman]

  AFAIK wifi operates at 2.4 or 5ghz. 
 
if you can use wifi, it's like using internet streaming and there should be no problem for lossless streaming. about bluetooth, the latest standard should have enough bandwidth for lossless music, but the operational distance still won't rival wifi and I have no idea how many devices use the latest stuff.

Bluetooth 5 hasn't been launched yet, there's only an announcement claiming 8x bandwidth (than BT 4 ?). They expected late 2016 for launch but it seems it will be launched next year. So it might become a viable choice by 2018. If you meant BT4 aptX I don't consider that lossless, the data rates don't back that statement at least and the codec is proprietary so we really don't know for sure what's going on there besides marketing claims. If they had found a way for lossless redbook CD compression from 1411 kbps to constrained 352 kbps they really discovered some crazy stuff and computer science papers would be all over the place trying to figure out that magic. I believe that lossless redbook CD can be compressed to a maximum of around 45%, there's something called kolmogorov complexity and I think it applies here. There's AptX "lossless" but they themselves say it's lossless "except when the data rate is not enough", so it's hybrid.

Yeah wifi operates at both those frequencies but I think protocol is key here. I wouldn't just assume all this wireless microphones, transmitters and headphones are lossless, specially with the price ranges, lack of any claims about effective data rates, some of them intended for AV vigilance. At most you have some indication about it being analogue or digital over that frequency range. The only common denominator is that all 2.4Ghz stuff I've seen has much higher range than BT.

 

[GRUMPYOLDGUY]

2.4GHz is just a frequency. Good luck sending any data with a CW at 2.4GHz (okay, maybe you could mickey mouse something with pulsed CW). Modulation, symbol rate, etc. determines max throughput. And the RF transceiver is at a much lower layer than anything remotely related to audio playback. What you're really asking is if some 2.4GHz transceiver is capable of data rates high enough to stream lossless in real-time. The answer is it depends on the RF bandwidth and how the transceiver uses it.

 

[Roseval]

I wonder what you want to obtain with a “wireless” audio setup.
 
The wireless transmitters connect two systems, hopefully transparent (most of them do have analog in en analog out, don’t know what happens in between) but basically offers the same functionality as a wire, connecting only.
 
UPnP/DLNA is a completely different thing. It is a protocol allowing AV components to exchange information.
One of the options is to use a smartphone as an interface.
You browse the collection on the server and take your pick.
You can play it on the server or any other UPnP compliant device or even on the phone itself
 
Likewise you can use streamers at several locations in the house, all pulling the audio from a server e.g. a NAS.
 
As it works over the network, you know for sure all communication remains in the digital domain.
If you configure it right, you will have the source playing without lossy compression.