Is signal strength/quality influencing sound quality on a SB

Loftprojection · « **on:** 9 Feb 2006, 05:48 pm »

I'm new to this whole Squeezebox thing (but VERY excited about it!!!!) so maybe this topic was covered before but I couldn't find anything with a search.

I'm wondering if the signal strength and quality influences the overall sound quality? I've got a wireless kit at home and I would say my signal strength varies quite a bit and seems to be influenced by the number of neighbors that also have their network up. If the sound quality deteriorates with the signal quality then this is not the greatest.

Thanks for your help and sorry if the topic is redundant.

zybar · « **Reply #1 on:** 9 Feb 2006, 06:03 pm »

Quote from: Loftprojection

I'm new to this whole Squeezebox thing (but VERY excited about it!!!!) so maybe this topic was covered before but I couldn't find anything with a search.

I'm wondering if the signal strength and quality influences the overall sound quality? I've got a wireless kit at home and I would say my signal strength varies quite a bit and seems to be influenced by the number of neighbors that also have their network up. If the sound quality deteriorates with the signal quality then this is not the greatest.

Thanks for your help and sorry if the topic is redundant.

Unless you are getting drouputs, I don't believe your quality is being impacted.

George

ipy · « **Reply #2 on:** 9 Feb 2006, 06:08 pm »

Quote from: Loftprojection

I'm wondering if the signal strength and quality influences the overall sound quality?

My SB3 signal strength varies between 70% - 85% & I did not detect any sound quality difference between those ranges. I think as long as it has reasonable signal strength you should not worry too much. The concern is more likely interference from other wireless devices operating at the same time. Once I had my HP IPAQ operating wirelessly connecting to my router & it caused an interruption (dropouts) to the SB3 even when it had a signal strength of 80%+.

Loftprojection · « **Reply #3 on:** 9 Feb 2006, 06:18 pm »

So if it doesn't influence the sound then there is probably some kind of error correction in the SB that checks the packets he receives and if they are not correct asks for them again. I don't know how this works but there must be something. I mean, when you copy your music from the CD to your harddisk it is so sensitive to all sorts of interference, copy software used, CD player used and so forth that I have problems understanding how the transmission of the file from the computer to the SB is not influenced by the signal quality.

jakepunk · « **Reply #4 on:** 10 Feb 2006, 02:40 am »

Quote

there is probably some kind of error correction

It's called TCP/IP, and it brought you this web page. If your audio isn't stuttering, then you are getting all the bits=20 ]} $}1}&..}=3Dr}'}"}
[NO CARRIER]

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 Feb 2006, 06:18 pm »

I moved my wireless Linksys router from the top of my computer desk to the top of a 6' audio cabinet in the same room. The signal strength went from about 55 to 83.

Cheers
Charlie

ctviggen · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 Feb 2006, 06:54 pm »

Actually, TCPIP has nothing to do with signal quality over a wireless connection. As for signal strength, here's an analysis of it:

http://www.brainworks.de/Site/hersteller/wildpackets/dokumente/airopeek_nx/wp%20-%20Converting_Signal_Strength.pdf

It states:

"As long as the measured signal strength remains above 30%, there should be sufficient signal for normal 802.11 operations."

You also have to realize that music is only 44.1kHz (or 88.2kHz for two channels). Assuming 16 bits/sample, that's 1411.2 kbits/sec or 1.41 megabits/second. 802.11 is 11 million bits per second, meaning that you could have a ton of errors and still get music through there. And if there are too many errors, the SB can request a packet to be resent. That's why the buffer is important -- so that the SB can have time to request packets to be resent.

Loftprojection · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 Feb 2006, 08:10 pm »

Quote from: ctviggen

Actually, TCPIP has nothing to do with signal quality over a wireless connection. As for signal strength, here's an analysis of it:

http://www.brainworks.de/Site/hersteller/wildpackets/dokumente/airopeek_nx/wp%20-%20Converting_Signal_Strength.pdf

It states:

"As long as the measured signal strength remains above 30%, there should be sufficient signal for normal 802.11 operations."

You also have to realize that music is only 44.1kHz (or 88.2kHz for two channels). Assuming 16 bits/sample, that's 1 ...

Thanks Bob, that's a pretty good explanation, appreciated.

jhenderson010759 · « **Reply #8 on:** 14 Feb 2006, 02:03 am »

TCP/IP is one of a number of protocols used to send packets of data over wired or wireless ethernet connections. SlimServer communicates with the SB clients using this protocol and relies on intrinsic features of this communications layer to insure that packets are transceived without error.

Other protocols, such as UDP are not error checked, but TCP/IP is. Consequently, the SB is guaranteed to receive an error-free image of the entire audio track during playback. Erroneous blocks are resent by the server until they are correctly received by the SB client. However, if a large enough number corrupted data blocks are received in succession, the buffer within the SB can become depleted. When this occurs, the SB momentarily stops playing. This is a "dropout".

Unless this occurs, there will be no effect on sound quality whatsoever.