Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

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Lol. But at Miriam's age 8pm is pretty standard no?

Can you teach her to rip cds?

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I used DBPowerAmp when I was doing this. Can rip to multiple destinations in multiple formats (I had one FLAC version and one MP3 version), validation against online versions and error correction, auto-fills album and track names, etc.

Thanks!

I'm sure this has been asked before, but it would have been back in 2016 and possibly before Chromecast audio.

Looking for some guidance for a set up for my parents and could do with some input in case I'm missing something obvious.

What I think they need:

1. Small discreet speakers… maybe even Bluetooth (sacrilege I know)
   
2. DAB radio
   
3. Cast from laptop, android tablet/phones maybe an iphone
   
4. Maybe CDs
   
5. The capacity to add a record player if they decide it is missing from their lives
   
   

What my mum wants:

1. Small, simple and neat
   
2. Radio
   
3. Casting
   
4. CD
   
   

What my dad wants:

My current thought is something like a Denon mini system with a Chromcast audio, then speakers very much dependent on style.

Also I’m not 100% sure which out of two rooms they would play music, so if anyone has any bright ideas on how you could have the ability to play in two rooms on different floors that would be interesting too…. Maybe just an amp and speakers in the second room with another Chromcast(?)

Cheers.

Edit: Fuck me it was back in 2015 when I asked this question!

Agreed.

I've used dBPoweramp to rip many hundreds of CDs. It's worth the small investment for what is a really good bit of software, IMO.

Denon i think has their own range or wireless speakers and system. I find it costly but you may be interest if you basically need everything. (I only suggest it as you mentioned Denon)

Im going through a battle now with it myself. If they dont mind annoying proprietary apps, then Chromecast or Jongo. I have the Jongo, but it annoys me as im forced to use their app to play music.

annoying proprietary apps

So does chromecast audio not just act like the regular chromecast, whereby you just tap an icon in whatever app you are in?

It's annoying as last time I looked into this it seemed like everything was on the verge of change so it made sense to hold off. Revisiting this, it seems like everything is still on the verge of change.

Yeah it does, but only with certain apps.

I generally use it to cast audio files held locally on my phone using Shuttle+. I believe it also works with Spotify Premium, Google Music or whatever it's called these days and so on.

Spotify Premium will run from the Chromecast, but phones etc can use Spotify (or other apps) and just see the Chromecast as an audio source to cast to
For £20 I'd take a punt on Chromecast Audio and see how it suits

I feel old. There's too much choice.

While I do love the infinite choice and discovery of things like Spotify, I also don't like the constant shifting and redundancy of stuff.

As long as I have electricity, when I put a CD or MD in my hi-fi it plays. I don't need an app and it works even if my WiFi drops.

The other thing I hadn't considered is whether a Chromecast uses data as my folks have a limit.

At the moment I'm thinking just a regular neat midi / mini system with enough spare ports to plug in a Chromecast / future equivalent and a deck.

Assuming you were casting locally held audio files from a device on your home wifi network to the CC Audio I wouldn't imagine it'd require any access to the internet at all and would only use the local wifi network. However, presumably the CC downloads updates automatically in the background.

Id say take a punt on CC.

Let me know how it goes. If i can play Youtube on my xbox and cast it to the chromecast, Id be happy.

i take it none of you had a chromecast with a bt router? motherfucker downloaded its own firmware, which fucked the router and sent it into continual shutdown/reboot mode. imagine how popular i was when the one i was using at the country castle shut down their internet for a week...

Mine keeps jumping in and off the WiFi. I'm doing a reset and re-setup once a week, which is rather annoying...

mine worked perfectly, doing the only thing it had to do (catching spotify and putting it through the little amptastic), up until a month or so ago. i had to take it to a house with a non-bt router to reset it.

i have not sold my turntables yet, so i have just been content with a vinyl rig in london and one at the inlaws.

I don't even understand how that's possible? I'm using 2x CCs and 1x CCA with a BT homehub (oldish one) and have never had any issues with it. How can a chromecast force a BT router to download firmware?

@JesperXT if you've got 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi bands, try setting it up connected to whichever one it's not currently using, might be more stable.

bt hub 4 and 5 apparently

I've just set up a new chromecast audio + mini amp + bookshelf speakers. I listen to all my music through spotify premium and I'm please with how it works - open spotify on my iphone, press play, select chromecast directly from spotify app, music plays. It sometimes takes a few seconds to connect but nothing that's bothered me too much so far. This is all on a non-bt router if thats any help.

I've got another couple CCAs on order to attach to existing speakers as you can select them individually or set up different groups (i.e. whole house, all downstairs, kitchen+living room etc)

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That sounds like a large security flaw on the BT hub.

My chromecasts have worked for 6 months or so with no resetting, reconnecting, etc. The main annoyance is what they do and don't support. BBC app seems a bit flaky in that the cast option doesn't always appear, Plex doesn't seem to update what's currently playing and doesn't let you pause, etc. Google Music and local cast work fine.

Haha wtf!?

yep - was working perfectly, until someone had to fiddle...