The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

MikeH said:
yea--i think technically sonos has room correction kinda right? i remember doing the whole thing with walkin around the room with my phone waving it around like a mad man.
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Yeah it does for the home cinema and works great. I’m really not keen on my Sonos for any type of music and I’m not sure if it is in the box you connect to a stereo using RCA. I think it is in their amp.
 
Joe Mac said:
Yeah it does for the home cinema and works great. I’m really not keen on my Sonos for any type of music and I’m not sure if it is in the box you connect to a stereo using RCA. I think it is in their amp.
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It’s fine for me for music to have in the background especially for the price of the ikea Sonos. We have some in various rooms in our house just when we want music on (dining room, bedroom and kitchen). It may be my best option especially since they are small and can kinda be placed anywhere or mounted on the wall and only need to be powered
 
MikeH said:
It’s fine for me for music to have in the background especially for the price of the ikea Sonos. We have some in various rooms in our house just when we want music on (dining room, bedroom and kitchen). It may be my best option especially since they are small and can kinda be placed anywhere or mounted on the wall and only need to be powered
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Yeah I think if it was on my bedside table or in an office it’d be fine. It’s literally attached to my tele next to my stereo in my living room so it’s just no contest lol.
 
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Splunders said:
Great thread idea! I don't buy any vinyl without auditioning it on Spotify first. I currently have a Marantz NR1606 receiver that I use for streaming over wifi. It's far from audiophile - the manual doesn't even list the DAC chip used. Anyway, I would love a recommendation on a wifi streaming DAC that supports Spotify or Tidal. Right now the leader is Blusound node 2i. If there's anything out there under 1k that bests the Blusound, please share.
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You should check out the EverSolo DAC/streamers. Really nice gear. I have the DMP-A8 and think it’s great. It’s out of your price range, but the DMP-A6 comes in under $1K.

The budget champions for streamers are the WIIM gear.
 
Ed Selley said:
The only sensibly priced device that gets near the interface of the Bluesound is the Auralic Aries Mini which is (as I understand it), now rather hard to get in the USA. The Bluesound is arguably more user friendly but the Auralic has more scope to be pushed as part of future upgrades.



If you install server software on your computer- something like Twonky or Slimserver will do it- the FLAC files can be shared over network and be visible to the CXN (and by extension, its app) without you needing line of sight



You don't 'need' Roon for this. It's a gorgeous thing and works beautifully but it's very much a luxury option. At the moment, I'd loosely categorise streaming interfaces as follows;

MVP
Roon

First Draft
Auralic (although it is iOS only)
Bluesound/NAD
Naim
Linn

Second Draft
Cambridge Audio
Mark Levinson/Harman Luxury Group
Primare
Yamaha MusicCast
Volumio
Sonos (great interface but significant hardware limitations)
Denon/Marantz HEOS

Should have got a real job
Everyone else.
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Plex is great as a music server and worth a look if Room is too rich for your blood.
 
Joe Mac said:
Here’s a question actually @Ed Selley I'm currently on Volumio on a pi and one of those hifi berry digi boards. Happy with it but if I was to move from Spotify to Tidal/Qobuz at some point and lose the Spotify connect ability the Volumio interface is a bit clunky.

I avoided Roon originally because the cost is high enough that had I gone with it I could have bought a “complete” product like the sonos/bluesound/aurelic for similar money and I was trying to do it on a budget as streaming isn’t a main focus of mine at home, I use it for sampling and on the go.

Is it worth it for the extra cost? Or would it be better to just get the aurelic/bluesound and move on from my little pi?
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You should also check out the Cambridge Audio streamers CXNv2, CXN100c MXN10. Quality gear with a nice app that supports Qobuz and Tidal.
 
mindhead1 said:
You should also check out the Cambridge Audio streamers CXNv2, CXN100c MXN10. Quality gear with a nice app that supports Qobuz and Tidal.
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You’re resurecting some really old posts here lol! I’ve had a few streaming iterations since then! My next move is likely an eversolo at some point as I’m on Apple Music these days. Probably any way off all the same.
 
MikeH said:
Thanks! Pretty good resource. Since I have mostly FLAC files, it won’t work sadly since iTunes doesn’t use FLAC. I think there are some suggestions in the comments there though that might work! I’ve been wanting to give Roon a try but the price tag has been scaring me from it. Might do a trial soon if they have it available once I have some other aspects set up.
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If you try Roon, you’ll likely be hooked and start playing with DSP settings. You have been warned!
 
Joe Mac said:
You’re resurecting some really old posts here lol! I’ve had a few streaming iterations since then! My next move is likely an eversolo at some point as I’m on Apple Music these days. Probably any way off all the same.
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I do that from time to time. I click into the forum and don’t look at the dates of the post. It was a long day at work and I’m on the train on my way home.
 
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mindhead1 said:
You should check out the EverSolo DAC/streamers. Really nice gear. I have the DMP-A8 and think it’s great. It’s out of your price range, but the DMP-A6 comes in under $1K.

The budget champions for streamers are the WIIM gear.
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It's fun to see where I was only 5 years ago. I ended up with the Bluesound Node 2i. I now have the 3rd version of it in my 2nd system, and an Innuos unit in my first. I obviously fell down the gear hole pretty far and fast. As it turns out, I'm researching replacements for the NODE now, and the Eversolo stuff is def in the mix
 
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