Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I just discovered the long discontinued ChromeCast Audio has a toslink out!

How did I not know this?

Anyhow... hooked it up to a Windows machine and it's a little jittery, so hooked it up to an AudioEngine DAC and then to the Windows machine and it's clean... the anti-jitter of a good DAC and the cheap as chips ChromeCast Audio actually shines.

This is now my setup.

Do I hear the difference? Nope, of course not. It was good enough before and is still good enough, but still... optical to a good DAC now rather than the ChromeCast Audio DAC.

mine was wigging out the other day. really fucking annoying - i think it was spotify. it now seems to be better than ever. it seems to be way better from the laptop...

it automatically sends the best quality out from the toslink.

i have a borrowed passive preamp and a £50 pro-ject phono stage here to test an Audio Note IQ cart and it sounds amazing.

with this in mind - sense check. If I have an audiolab 6000A amp, which puportedly uses the same DAC as the 6000N streamer - and am using chromecast -> optical in, then 6000N streamer is going to be largely redundant in terms of sound quality, if I don't need any of the actual streaming features?

In theory yes.

And if you're using something like PlexAmp or Roon to do the casting then you'll be matching the 6000N capabilities anyway.

as I thought. bit more digging reveals that audiolab have also integrated the two now

Apologies, probably been asked a million times by now, but what are my decent/cheap ish options for streaming from my current turntable/amplifier setup to something like a Sonos speaker? I'd like to play vinyl in the living room and have it on a speaker in the dining room.

Not bothered really about Alexa/Google voice options or anything like that

I'd need a WiFi streamer? Is that correct? Cheers

after a bit over a month I am totally sold on PlexAmp and will not be renewing my Roon subscription:

pros:

• can access my music anywhere, not just at home meaning I can also drop the terrible iCloud Music Library
  
• cheaper
  
• can use the same app for podcasts
  
• iOS/iPad apps are better than Roon for usability
  
  

cons:

• 'roon ready' is nicer but airplay works mostly as well
  
• less features, that I never use
  
  

Now I'm mad I bought an Intel NUC mainly for Roon, could have run plex on something much cheaper.

Just shows it's horses for courses. I've got Roon and Plex and barely use Plex. I am at home a bit more at the moment like a lot of us but I've never even tried Plexamp at home.

It's not that easy to do wirelessly. You can make it happen but you end up with software that needs to be ready to run when you want it.

Probably easier to run a couple of speaker cables and have a small amp. You could run long line level and have an amp at the speaker end.

If you've got an NUC up and running Roon rock you might have some luck advertising it on the Roon forum. Some people don't like fiddling around building them.

its running ubuntu because i sync my music to it directly with dropbox. ill probs just keep it, itll be useful at some point im sure

It's not that easy to do wirelessly. You can make it happen but you end up with software that needs to be ready to run when you want it.

Probably easier to run a couple of speaker cables and have a small amp. You could run long line level and have an amp at the speaker end.

Thanks. I'll have a think. Don't really want to to run speaker cable. Hmmm

I can't even think off the top of my head what I would use to digitise the turntable output and translate it to airplay or Sonos. Something like airfoil might be the most seamless way to do it.

I have been looking for a similar solution for a long time. Analog wires just seems to come out top all the time.

There are PA wireless kits that you can plug an analog signal into and it transmits digitally then back to analog at the other end. Of course that all needs power and cables and you still need to use the analog input of a Sonos device or have an amp and speakers.

The easy option would be Bluetooth transmitter and Bluetooth speaker. Obviously that comes with quality and range restrictions.

A few of the cheap bluetooth receivers on amazon are also transmitters, RCA > bluetooth signal - not sure how you'd get a UE Boom type speaker to pair with it but it might work.

edit: what he said ^

Bluetooth is a bit variable. Between rooms, separated by a wall?

On another topic, my new house (if we ever actually move) has an interesting split level lounge/diner.

im putting my actual hifi in the office, and there is already a built in projector in the lounge, which will need an audio system (current owners use a pair of sonos 1s behind them)

im tempted to do similar to them and get a pair of homepods on stands, (projector will be run off of an apple tv), this has the benefit of getting decent audio in the lower dining area also

any better ideas?

(speakers would go where the two chairs are, projector projects onto the lower ceiling)

2 Attachments

Anyone interested in this stand. Giving away for a forum donation, collection from N15.

It's very sturdy, I normally had a turntable on top but it spent a while with a 55" plasma balanced on there with no problem.

Total height 88cm
Front width 60cm
Back width 47cm
Depth 40cm (detachable cable tidy is about an extra 5cm)
Double height bottom shelf 25cm (generally for AV receiver)
Other shelves 15cm

(I'm also selling AV receiver and surround speakers if anyone is interested in that)

2 Attachments

On the quest for wireless connection to my existing setup, I think I'm going to change tack. I'm going to just have something standalone in the dining room.

Interested to see the new Google Nest Audio. Reviews are not so great on sound quality.

Are Sonos worth the extra bucks? I don't think I need Alexa etc, so the Sonos One SL looks to be a good shout, but approx £350 for a pair brings tears to my miserly eyes

It depends. I reckon sonos is worth it, not because of the hardware, but because their app support is second to none. If you really need a pair of speakers I'd go with a sonos connect/port and a proper amp and speakers. But it's a dining room, so do you really need strokes chin good stereo imaging?

Sonos is definitely worth it, but half of the money is put towards convenience, infinite expandability and decent design quality. I would not expect much out of the sound from the single sonos one.

The existence of the Sonos amp/port really seal the deal because then you can combine your peripheral scattered Sonos ones throughout the house with with a more traditional Hi-Fi setup In the main living area.

No other streaming Wi-Fi speaker service has this kind of flexibility in such a neat compact package.

as an example in our new house we have a Sonos amp for each zone of the ceiling speakers and then another Sonos amp connected to the main Hi-Fi setup which can also play for any other source.

It's really hard to get this kind of flexibility from any of the other services.

The only real warnings I would say is that they just simply aren't as loud as you hope and you'll end up wanting another one, and also that once you get four or five of them in the house it can tax the network a little bit.

That and in a few years, they will fuck you over by no longer supporting it and then brick them.

Cause they're dicks

^ this.

Just don't bother.

Google aren't better tbh, but at least their speakers are priced more affordably