Wi-Fi Bandwidth with Hi-Res Audio

Answered
ric982

So basically I'm looking into streaming services and trying to see if I'm going to get into Wi-Fi bandwidth issues.

My currently installed Node 2i is showing on Bluos>Help>Diagnostics that I have a weak signal (-73 dBM). I've seen it as high as (-69 dBm). However, it is working fine playing CD audio from a local library that is compressed with ALAC and Radio Paradise is working fine. There is also a Roku in the same location that is working fine for 1080p video. The modem is a Comcast XB6 so I might have some options to upgrade to their XB7 which may have more power, or I can attempt to optimize placement some more for better signal level, but the distance is likely not going to change.

I'm curious about whether I've got enough Wi-Fi bandwidth in the above situation to deal with lossless 192/24 or 96/24 streamers. Do you think the Roku link above is indicative of sufficient bandwidth? Is there any free source you know of that can run at this level for testing purposes? I'm guess they would stream either ALAC, FLAC, or MQA. I know most services provide a 30 day free trial, but before I pick one and start that, I'd probably like to have some idea this will work so I can spend my 30 days previewing music rather than fighting network issues.  I'm leaning towards Tidal, but I have some secondary issues with MQA - one of my stereos has a 192K/24b DAC without MQA - but I'll save that for the DAC forum.

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Comments

6 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    So glad to hear you are asking the right questions.

    Check out this article about how much bandwidth you need from our www.bluesound.com/network101 tips section.

    https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360048507294

    And yup -73dbm is not going to be great for Hi-Res Audio

  • ric982
    • Edited

    So read the article you referenced and also - How To Improve the Signal Strength to your BluOS Player - sorry I didn't find these first. Interestingly, my wi-fi modem was sitting on a 40" tall metal file cabinet. Just moving it away from the file cabinet got me as high as -63dB. More to do here...

    Another question:

    Is the Node 2i's internal wi-fi antenna oriented such that the best reception would be with the front of the unit pointing towards the modem?

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  • ric982
    • Edited

    Another way to look at it:

    Uncompressed 192K/24b, stereo, is 9.216 Mb/s.
    Lossless compression would worse case reduce this some - maybe 20-40%.

    I did some speed tests on my modem and wi-fi.
    The modem's on a 1 Gb/s plan.
    The speed test to the gateway tested at 116% of plan (1160 Mb/s)
    The speed test to my iPhone sitting next to the Modem was 82 Mb/s.
    The speed test to my iPhone sitting on top of my Node 2i was 48-59 Mb/s.
    Both phone and Node 2i are running on the 2.4 GHz band.
    These were download speeds which I assume would be the appropriate bandwidth for an audio stream.

    Seems like I should have plenty enough bandwidth for 192K/24b even with weak signal strength? Am I missing something?

    0
  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Nope not at all - we add a margin of error because we unapologetically do not alter the audio so require uninterrupted streams. We also take into account grouping and what else is happening such as the kids watch The Mandolorian on Disney+ while you are enjoying hi-res Audio in the other room.

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  • ric982

    Thanks Tony for confirming my understanding. Yes on variances - internet workload can slow things down and home use varies with number of streams, type of stream, and effectiveness of compression. And some of us worry about Comcast's public hot spots on our routers stealing our bandwidth. I will assume you have enough buffering to deal with latency due to multiple isochronous transfers on an 802 network.

    A few more quick questions if I can impose on you once more:

    If I have two (or more) Node 2i's wi-fi connected to a router, but only use one account to login to a streaming service (like Tidal/Qobuz/Amazon/Spotify), is that treated as a "single account" for billing purposes ? (Say "yes" please :-) )

    If I have two (or more) Node 2i's wi-fi connected to a router, all playing the same source material from a media streamer or local library, does that create a multi-cast connection at the local router to the Nodes? If not, what?

    If I have two (or more) Node 2i's wi-fi connected to a router, I Bluetooth connect to one Node, and tell all Nodes to play from that source, does the connected Node forward the Bluetooth stream to a multicast connection at the router to all the Nodes including the connected Node? If not that, what?

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    In short Yes, Yes and Yes

    Bluesound Players work in a hive mentality. When streaming Bluetooth, start your group with the Player BT Paired as the first or primary player in the group.

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