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Dayton Audio WBA31 Streamer Review

Rate this streamer

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 60 43.5%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 68 49.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 7 5.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 2.2%

  • Total voters
    138
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Wifi isn't good at all. Have you tried the Amazon 4K Fire Stick? It only works on WiFi. I have the Fire Stick working perfectly after way to many moving it around my room. However my Apple TV Box at twice the cost and a horrible remote worked better because it had a direct internet connection. Wifi is best used for visitors to your home.
FYI,you can buy a 10 dollar ethernet adapter to "hardwire" your Firestick.
 
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amirm

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I’d have to understand specifically why it is you believe Roon’s is the best protocol. From my own perspective, if it streams bitperfect gapless 192kHz PCM over wifi, using an app that provides instantaneous loading of huge libraries and immediate selection and searching, then it’s doing its job
???

Roon's architecture is completely different than this. There is a central instance of Roon ("core") that manages your library. All other instances communicate with it and provide a user interface but don't duplicate that functionality. This protocol is private (roon to roon) and is not what we are speaking of. But if we were, these other Roon clients are not mini-apps and such. They provide the full interface of the core on every device you use them on from Android to Mac and iOS. Other players like Jriver don't have this.

What we are speaking of is the "remote" connection. Roon core can send the audio output using its endpoint protocol which different companies can implement. The mechanism uses a push method to send just the audio data to the remote piece of hardware (DAC/Streamer). Implementation requires certification which brings reliability which others lack. Importantly, the streamer is "dumb" in this regard. It only handles audio pipeline. It does not need to have any user interface or intelligence. No "app" is needed. This is why you don't see a Jriver remote interface in many devices like you can find with Roon.

Since the implementation is software, I fault companies for not doing the bit of extra work to port it.
 

sarumbear

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Wifi isn't good at all. Have you tried the Amazon 4K Fire Stick? It only works on WiFi. I have the Fire Stick working perfectly after way to many moving it around my room. However my Apple TV Box at twice the cost and a horrible remote worked better because it had a direct internet connection. Wifi is best used for visitors to your home.
My experience is the opposite of yours. The speed test I posted above was done via Wi-Fi.

The router quality and set-up is important but otherwise Wi-Fi is very reliable. Why do you think companies that sells by the millions produce Wi-Fi only devices? The recent Apple TV boxes do not even have a wired option on the standard model.
 
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sarumbear

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All the numbers I've seen point to over 90% of homes having fast broadband in the US. Couldn't find one definitive source but they all seem to agree within a percentage point or two.
Then why is it that when I talk about connectivity someone comes up with its unreliability? Even @amirm!

That 24% figure must be broadband penetration by geographical area. We have a looooot of unpopulated space. Big deserts, plains, swamps, remote frozen tundra and forest in Alaska, etc. We do not run broadband out to those places. We've got 11 individual states bigger than the UK. Some of them have hardly anybody living in them. Alaska alone is like 6x the size of the UK and only 700K people live there.
This was my source. It was about fibre penetration as at that time in the thread I was talking about that.

According to the latest OECD data on the broadband penetration in households in the USA is around 80% vs UK at 97%. I do realise that it is difficult when there are lots of empty space to cross but still, that is the world super-power, The United States of America vs the dying empire of the not-so-United Kingdom.
 

rarewolf

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???

Roon's architecture is completely different than this. There is a central instance of Roon ("core") that manages your library. All other instances communicate with it and provide a user interface but don't duplicate that functionality. This protocol is private (roon to roon) and is not what we are speaking of. But if we were, these other Roon clients are not mini-apps and such. They provide the full interface of the core on every device you use them on from Android to Mac and iOS. Other players like Jriver don't have this.

What we are speaking of is the "remote" connection. Roon core can send the audio output using its endpoint protocol which different companies can implement. The mechanism uses a push method to send just the audio data to the remote piece of hardware (DAC/Streamer). Implementation requires certification which brings reliability which others lack. Importantly, the streamer is "dumb" in this regard. It only handles audio pipeline. It does not need to have any user interface or intelligence. No "app" is needed. This is why you don't see a Jriver remote interface in many devices like you can find with Roon.

Since the implementation is software, I fault companies for not doing the bit of extra work to port it.

With all due respect, you still haven’t said why Roon is better, for both functionality and sound quality, practically speaking. In that respect, it’s only more expensive…
 

JohnBooty

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Then why is it that when I talk about connectivity someone comes up with its unreliability? Even @amirm!
Why would people talk about broadband when it works? I think there's surely a selection bias here.

Perhaps audiophiles complain more often because they tend to be wealthier and older folks who've retreated to rural or semi-rural estates, like our dear Amir. :)

Generally, US broadband "seems" reliable enough to me. This is only anecdotal but I've been working remotely for 4+ years on rotating teams with ~5 work from home members each. Back of the envelope, that's about 5,000 people-days. Broadband connection issues are not unheard of but have never really been an issue. Typical practice is that most people who depend on broadband for work have 4G/5G hot spots on their phones as a backup for an extra $10 a month on their mobile phone bill or whatever. Of course, there is selection bias here too, because somebody who depends on internet access won't live somewhere with poor access.

The United States of America vs the dying empire of the not-so-United Kingdom.
We've got 1/8 the population density and 40x the land mass. The challenge is not twice as hard but more like an order of magnitude or two harder. The USA is wealthy but certainly not an order of magnitude wealthier!

This was my source. It was about fibre penetration as at that time in the thread I was talking about that.
Respectfully, I re-read the thread and... are you sure? More importantly, it was good to chat, always appreciate your posts.
 

sarumbear

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sarumbear

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With all due respect, you still haven’t said why Roon is better, for both functionality and sound quality, practically speaking. In that respect, it’s only more expensive…
If you try Roon you will see that its functionality is unmatched with no other player local or cloud (streaming). There is no other player that I know which can give you such rich metadata, like bios, album reviews, credits, lyrics, concert dates. Spotify is the only other player that can match Roon's recommendations but fail on sound quality. Not to mention that UI is exceptionally good.

You use Roon for metadata and recommendations, not for playing capability, which is a given for any player.
 

rarewolf

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If you try Roon you will see that its functionality is unmatched with no other player local or cloud (streaming). There is no other player that I know which can give you such rich metadata, like bios, album reviews, credits, lyrics, concert dates. Spotify is the only other player that can match Roon's recommendations but fail on sound quality. Not to mention that UI is exceptionally good.

You use Roon for metadata and recommendations, not for playing capability, which is a given for any player.

JRiver…
 

sarumbear

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JRiver…
You obviously have not tried Roon. JRiver is just a better Windows Media Player (now legacy) or iTunes. I'm not saying it because I'm a Roon user but I know what the app is capable of.
 

rarewolf

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You obviously have not tried Roon. […]

If you’ve been paying attention to my earlier posts then you would know I have no reason to. On the other hand, the price for Roon itself is enough to turn most of us around… least wise, those of us who put a priority on our library over gear or software.

I might even admit that Roon may be more polished than JRiver, but there’s not much JR cannot do, but if there is I’m not sure I have a need for it…
 

sarumbear

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If you’ve been paying attention to my earlier posts then you would know I have no reason to. On the other hand, the price for Roon itself is enough to turn most of us around… least wise, those of us who put a priority on our library over gear or software.

I might even admit that Roon may be more polished than JRiver, but there’s not much JR cannot do, but if there is I’m not sure I have a need for it…
I find it illogical not to like something without knowing anything about it. How do you spell clueless?

Unaffordable is subjective, which has no place in an objective test thread.
 

rarewolf

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I find it illogical not to like something without knowing anything about it. How do you spell clueless?

Unaffordable is subjective, which has no place in an objective test thread.

I didn’t say I didn’t like Roon. I said I didn’t need it, and you nor anyone else has claimed Roon offers a feature I need or even might want, and you are a case on point. That fact leads me to believe you are just as unfamiliar with JRiver.

The fact that I don’t want to afford anything is not subjective, but it is subject to my income, which is a pension, btw…
 

sarumbear

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The fact that I don’t want to afford anything is not subjective, but it is subject to my income, which is a pension, btw…
Not subjective but subjective :oops:

Anyway, enjoy your retirement. I will leave you in peace.
 

MaxBuck

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Wifi isn't good at all. Have you tried the Amazon 4K Fire Stick? It only works on WiFi. I have the Fire Stick working perfectly after way to many moving it around my room. However my Apple TV Box at twice the cost and a horrible remote worked better because it had a direct internet connection. Wifi is best used for visitors to your home.
I have no trouble using wifi to stream audio or video content, and it's not a particularly high speed wifi system. Typical speeds are about 120 Mbps download and 10 upload. My hardwire supposedly is rated at 300 Mbps.
 

sarumbear

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???

Roon's architecture is completely different than this. There is a central instance of Roon ("core") that manages your library. All other instances communicate with it and provide a user interface but don't duplicate that functionality. This protocol is private (roon to roon) and is not what we are speaking of. But if we were, these other Roon clients are not mini-apps and such. They provide the full interface of the core on every device you use them on from Android to Mac and iOS. Other players like Jriver don't have this.

What we are speaking of is the "remote" connection. Roon core can send the audio output using its endpoint protocol which different companies can implement. The mechanism uses a push method to send just the audio data to the remote piece of hardware (DAC/Streamer). Implementation requires certification which brings reliability which others lack. Importantly, the streamer is "dumb" in this regard. It only handles audio pipeline. It does not need to have any user interface or intelligence. No "app" is needed. This is why you don't see a Jriver remote interface in many devices like you can find with Roon.

Since the implementation is software, I fault companies for not doing the bit of extra work to port it.
That is how Spotify Connect works doesn’t it?
 

ZolaIII

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@sarumbear seams you didn't play with JRiver and are (subjective) biased regarding Roon which is fine with me.
Anyway JRiver is comprehensive media player with comprehensive DSP tool chain and I wouldn't compare it to Windows media player or it's clones (like MPC-HE).
However there are futures that are useful and embedded in JRiver that are both missing and hard to integrate in Roon like ISO 226 2003 (PCM only tied to internal volume control and out of the regular DSP tool chain called just loudness). I settled with JRiver for some time and happy with it. Didn't people prise Spotify for suggestions and discovering new music until they realised how bad it really is?
 

sarumbear

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@sarumbear seams you didn't play with JRiver and are (subjective) biased regarding Roon which is fine with me.
Anyway JRiver is comprehensive media player with comprehensive DSP tool chain and I wouldn't compare it to Windows media player or it's clones (like MPC-HE).
However there are futures that are useful and embedded in JRiver that are both missing and hard to integrate in Roon like ISO 226 2003 (PCM only tied to internal volume control and out of the regular DSP tool chain called just loudness). I settled with JRiver for some time and happy with it. Didn't people prise Spotify for suggestions and discovering new music until they realised how bad it really is?
I have used JRiver in the past but stopped as I am mainly listening via streaming. My comments are as objective as it gets as I am talking functionality; not sound quality nor usability. Meanwhile, you are only talking about playback but not about music. Roon is mainly a music database, naturally it also has a player and DSP, etc. that a modern player will have.

Comparing the JRiver to Roon by only talking about their playback facility is similar to talking about cars by comparing their tires! Tire is a required part of a car but not a defining part.
 

ZolaIII

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@sarumbear I mainly dropped with online streaming so it's useful to me like last winter snow. I do use local network streaming most of the time and JRiver shines there with embedded interface, full DSP tool chain and such. The reason for dropping online streaming; is lack of local or lesser known music, not complete catalogues for most authors, bad materials and such. I agree Roon is much better regarding integrated streaming services but I don't need it for that, not even if I returned back to it as I have streamer integrated in my amp (MusicCast) which still works better and simpler to me than round, around solutions.
Now answer me how will you integrate ISO 226 2003 in Roon?
 

Willem

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This test once again reminds me that I should be glad I still have a few CCA's.
 
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