Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems SB Touch

I'm sorry Ronnie, but you really are mixing up two different things, viz file types and communication modes. You can send any file type (lossy compressed like MP3, lossless compressed like FLAC, or uncompressed like WAV) packaged in network packets over an ethernet connection. In every single case, whatever the filetype, jitter is not an issue because the data is transmitted asynchronously. It is for this reason that M claims that the ID40 is better than SPDIF/SL as a means of getting data into the 808.3 as the latter is subject to jitter. This is nothing to do with what file type is delivered to the ID40 (provided it is lossless).
Ronnie, I really don't think so. We were talking about whether an ethernet connection to the ID40 which is inherently jitter-free would be superior to an SPDIF connection (ie SB versus Sooloos for my 808.3). (My hypothesis then was that the 808.3 buffering and reclocking would eliminate any jitter arising from the SPDIF link from SB to 808. As it turned out, I do hear a small difference between the SB3 and spinning discs, so I suppose some jitter does make it through the SPDIF input stage. But this has absolutely nothing to do with whether Sooloos sends FLAC or uncompressed files over the network.)

As I understand the various posts, people were putting forward and to some extent confirming the idea that ID40 is a superior input because it is connected by asynchronous jitter-free ethernet packets. I have never heard or read any authoritative source that states that FLAC is the file type transmitted by the Sooloos network from source to server. But even if they have said it, this is moot - ID40/808 will sound the same whether the decoding is done in the source or the ID40, because jitter doesn't start to exist until the ID40 clocks the buffered decoded data onto its bus.

By the way, just to confirm the statement that file type has no bearing on SQ (assuming sufficient processing power and network bandwidth which causes dropouts not jitter), my SB sounds exactly the same regardless of whether I decode on the server or client.