Paul's Posts — 08 September 2012
By Paul McGowan
I got a request from one of my readers to post a few columns on streaming audio and so this will be the first of several that cover that much talked about subject.
First let’s cover what is streaming audio because there’s a lot of misconceptions about it. In its most fundamental definition streaming audio would be any digital signal sent from a source to a player. This definition would include a CD player or a transport/DAC combo as we stream the digital audio data between the two pieces of source and player. If we broaden the definition to include a computer then the same applies when you play a track of a CD on your computer’s disc drive and render (play) it on the internal or external DAC of the computer.
I think most people would define streaming as coming from some sort of computer and being delivered to some sort of DAC. Examples would include everything from a Sonos system which streams audio from either your computer, the computer in a NAS or the giant computer in the “cloud” (internet) to their network enabled DAC/loudspeaker combo, to a USB connected DAC or the PS Audio Bridge.
However you officially define streaming it’s clear that what it means to most people is a DAC connected to either a computer, NAS or the internet.
Tomorrow we’ll cover the world’s lowest cost, simplest streamer.
Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers
Related Articles
Share
About Author
(1) Reader Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Soundminded
I think it’s important to look at how streaming fits into the bigger picture of sound recording and reproduction. When the technology changed from purely mechanical to include electrical signals that are either stored and retrieved in another form or transmitted and received whether through space or wires the concepts of information channels and distortion were born. We normally think of sound (rightly or wrongly) as an analog phenomenon. The storage/retrieval and transmission/reception of the electrical analogs of sound are simply an intermediary. They are judged (technically at least) whether they are electromechanical (phonograph records), electro-optical (CDs), electromagnetic (tape, wire recorders, and hard drives) ultimately based on analog distortions no matter how they arise or where in the chain. All distortions created from the conversion of analog signals to digital equivalents whatever the system, processing within the digital domain, and conversion back to analog can be seen as resulting in analog distortions.
The math for understanding these distortions and instruments for measuring them have been around for a very long time. That understanding is excellent and so are the means to measure it in the real world. Digitally created distortions may be unfamiliar to those whose experience is confined to analog because they are not usually characteristic of most purely analog systems but they still manifest themselves as analog distortions eventually.
I think streaming refers to the process of transferrance of signal from one point in a circuit to another or from one electronic system to another.