That’s simple enough, but how do we stream music? As mentioned, we have to choose a different program. Now imagine you just bought a Bridge, stuffed it into your DAC, connected it through an Ethernet cable to your home router.

Classic setup, takes all of 5 minutes to make work, easily duplicated on Windows machines as well. If I want to manage music selections from my listening chair, rather than my computer screen, I use Apple’s free mobile program Remote on my iPad (which connects over WIFI to my Mini). I open iTunes, launch Bit Perfect, select my track and play. Mac Mini sitting close to the DirectStream DAC, tied together through USB. But how do we easily and simply take that one step further, connecting by Ethernet to enjoy the benefits of greater isolation? It’s as simple as changing a program. I described USB as the simplest connection for computers and DACs in yesterday’s post. Still, we can get there without much pain. But, as we’ve come to know in these posts, nothing’s perfect and there’s no free lunch worth eating. There’s nothing better than Ethernet for isolation and sound quality. Its chief benefits of one touch play and placement freedom are overshadowed by perhaps it’s biggest advantage: better isolation than USB, I2S, coax or AESEBU for connected music sources. The Bridge connects home networks with DirectStream and PerfectWave DACs. We released Bridge II today, and you can read about it here. I just noticed today’s the last day of July and it saddens me. I so adore summers in Colorado I am reminded to enjoy what’s left! Hope you’re having a good summer as well.

Usb 2 vs usb 3 vs ethernet