The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

[mindhead1]

The problem with that is just how damn cheap Apple Music is as an apple user with the tv and cloud bundle and the fact that qobuz is so shit to use in my car whereas Apple Music works perfectly and, more importantly, hands free.

Qobuz is terrible in the car. I mostly use YouTube Music with CarPlay. I’ve also started using Roon Arc with CarPlay and it works really well with Qobuz.

The ideal setup would be Roon buying Qobuz. I can dream.

Also, I have YouTube Music for the family plan and commercial free YouTube.

 

[MikeH]

Qobuz is terrible in the car. I mostly use YouTube Music with CarPlay. I’ve also started using Roon Arc with CarPlay and it works really well with Qobuz.

The ideal setup would be Roon buying Qobuz. I can dream.

Also, I have YouTube Music for the family plan and commercial free YouTube.

I just use apple music in the car because of Siri. I don’t really care about the sound quality as much while I’m driving in my 14 year old car. Roon arc works well too but only if I set up an album to play before I drive. Don’t to k Siri works with it but haven’t really tried to be fair.

 

[MikeH]

I agree with you. Apple Music is more trouble than it’s worth for hi-res IMO. Best options are to use iPad/iPhone as a streamer connected to a DAC, or get one of the Android based streamers like EverSolo or FIIO where you can load Apple Music to the device, or my preferred option, ditch Apple Music for Qobuz.

Does the Fiio or eversolo play lossless Apple Music?

 

[Joe Mac]

Does the Fiio or eversolo play lossless Apple Music?

Both do. You can’t do it remotely through their app on your phone or tablet, it has Apple Music but restricted to 16/44c which I suppose is lossless CD but not hi res. You can download the android app to the machine and using it on the touchscreen get full 24/192.

 

[Joe Mac]

I just use apple music in the car because of Siri. I don’t really care about the sound quality as much while I’m driving in my 14 year old car. Roon arc works well too but only if I set up an album to play before I drive. Don’t to k Siri works with it but haven’t really tried to be fair.

I’m more excited about spacial audio, even though it’s lossy, than hi res in the car. The new car I get in a couple of weeks has some kind of mad 14.1 in car speaker array

In all seriousness though I won’t touch a streamer for the car than doesn’t use Siri, eyes should not be off the road and operating a touchscreen in the car!

 

[MikeH]

I’m more excited about spacial audio, even though it’s lossy, than hi res in the car. The new car I get in a couple of weeks has some kind of mad 14.1 in car speaker array

In all seriousness though I won’t touch a streamer for the car than doesn’t use Siri, eyes should not be off the road and operating a touchscreen in the car!

Yea if I get a new car I’ll probably care more but that’s not in the cards right now and hopefully not anytime soon .

We got an external screen to stick to the dash that does CarPlay not too long ago because our car was too old and the nav system was ancient. Looking at the GPS on the phone felt dangerous. Sometimes if we are going on a long trip I’ll queue up stuff in roon arc. Otherwise Siri all the time.

Both do. You can’t do it remotely through their app on your phone or tablet, it has Apple Music but restricted to 16/44c which I suppose is lossless CD but not hi res. You can download the android app to the machine and using it on the touchscreen get full 24/192.

I’m lazy. These manufacturers expect me to get up and use a tiny touch screen to listen to lossless high res??

 

[Joe Mac]

Yea if I get a new car I’ll probably care more but that’s not in the cards right now and hopefully not anytime soon .

We got an external screen to stick to the dash that does CarPlay not too long ago because our car was too old and the nav system was ancient. Looking at the GPS on the phone felt dangerous. Sometimes if we are going on a long trip I’ll queue up stuff in roon arc. Otherwise Siri all the time.


I’m lazy. These manufacturers expect me to get up and use a tiny touch screen to listen to lossless high res??

Yeah I’ve got into this 3 year PCP trade in cycle which I should probably break at some point but new cars are nice…

What if I stick a stylus onto the end of a long stick….

 

[MikeH]

Yeah I’ve got into this 3 year PCP trade in cycle which I should probably break at some point but new cars are nice…

What if I stick a stylus onto the end of a long stick….

I guess I could just get one of these

 

[Thackeraye]

Potentially hot alternative take, but this is what I'm doing: the Fiio DM13 portable CD player has a digital out. I'm going to connect that to my optical in in my DAC and use that (I also need to work out if I can do optical out on the CD and SPDIF in on my LSX's).

My thinking is that this keeps the system box count low, I can switch it between systems, and use it as a portable player if I ever need to. Haven't connected it up yet, but it's pretty solid as a player.

Just got it set up. Works a treat!

Question for the hive mind - SPDIF out to TOSLINK in isn't a thing, is it? I'd need to buy a converter box, wouldn't I?

 

[Joe Mac]

Just got it set up. Works a treat!

Question for the hive mind - SPDIF out to TOSLINK in isn't a thing, is it? I'd need to buy a converter box, wouldn't I?

Yeah they’re different signals.

That’s fiio cd player does appear to have a mini toslink/optical output on the back. You’d just need to attach one of these to a toslink cable and it should work fine.

https://amzn.eu/d/auphGes

 

[mindhead1]

PS Qobuz add Siri control and their own connect option and I’m ditching Apple in a heartbeat, even though it’ll cost me more.

Yea if I get a new car I’ll probably care more but that’s not in the cards right now and hopefully not anytime soon .

We got an external screen to stick to the dash that does CarPlay not too long ago because our car was too old and the nav system was ancient. Looking at the GPS on the phone felt dangerous. Sometimes if we are going on a long trip I’ll queue up stuff in roon arc. Otherwise Siri all the time.


I’m lazy. These manufacturers expect me to get up and use a tiny touch screen to listen to lossless high res??

Only Apple expects this.

 

[Nee Lewman]

Only Apple expects this.

That’s not exactly what Apple expects. They expect you to stay in their ecosystem.

 

[jamieanderson1968]

For me Apple Music is for the car pretty much exclusively. Sometimes if I forgot to download some stuff to PlexAmp I will use Apple while on the go. At home it is is to quickly listen to something that I have not heard before or forgot about.

But I am not like you kids with your super short attention spans. I actually enjoy listening to a an album straight through. I don't need some playlist created by the giant Al Gore Rhythm monster

 

[mindhead1]

For me Apple Music is for the car pretty much exclusively. Sometimes if I forgot to download some stuff to PlexAmp I will use Apple while on the go. At home it is is to quickly listen to something that I have not heard before or forgot about.

But I am not like you kids with your super short attention spans. I actually enjoy listening to a an album straight through. I don't need some playlist created by the giant Al Gore Rhythm monster

Plexamp works well. I used to use that before I got Roon and Arc.

If Plex could hook into Qobuz it’d be a strong Room competitor. I believe it used to work with Tidal, but I think that’s relationship has been discontinued.

 

[Nee Lewman]

For me Apple Music is for the car pretty much exclusively. Sometimes if I forgot to download some stuff to PlexAmp I will use Apple while on the go. At home it is is to quickly listen to something that I have not heard before or forgot about.

But I am not like you kids with your super short attention spans. I actually enjoy listening to a an album straight through. I don't need some playlist created by the giant Al Gore Rhythm monster

I rarely use playlists or jump through stuff. I am even listening to albums in the car - so I absolutely don’t care how easy the interface is to use in the car.

Streaming at home is purely for convenience, I’m doing something or don’t own whatever it is I’m listening to (or don’t want to dig out the cd). Attentive listening is 80% turntable.

 

[mindhead1]

I rarely use playlists or jump through stuff. I am even listening to albums in the car - so I absolutely don’t care how easy the interface is to use in the car.

Streaming at home is purely for convenience, I’m doing something or don’t own whatever it is I’m listening to (or don’t want to dig out the cd). Attentive listening is 80% turntable.

I like the streaming services and the playlist algorithms for music discovery. Pick a song and play it with the Radio feature. I’ve discovered some good music this way.

I’ve also created a classic rock playlist that I put on random and it’s like listening to WPLJ , K-Rock, or WNEW back in the 70s-80s in NY. Except I don’t have Scott Muni, Tony Pigg, or Carol Miller as DJs.

 

[Joe Mac]

I rarely use playlists or jump through stuff. I am even listening to albums in the car - so I absolutely don’t care how easy the interface is to use in the car.

Streaming at home is purely for convenience, I’m doing something or don’t own whatever it is I’m listening to (or don’t want to dig out the cd). Attentive listening is 80% turntable.

Yeah I’m listening to albums too but I won’t use the touchscreen unless I’m stopped or I pull in. Siri is a must for saying “Siri play album by artist”.

 

[jamieanderson1968]

Plexamp works well. I used to use that before I got Roon and Arc.

If Plex could hook into Qobuz it’d be a strong Room competitor. I believe it used to work with Tidal, but I think that’s relationship has been discontinued.

Had to dump Roon as it got too expensive and pointless once I also stopped using Tidal. If Plex was allowed to control Apple Music that would be perfect, but will never happen. Overall I have been very happy with Plex and PlexAmp

 

[Nee Lewman]

I like the streaming services and the playlist algorithms for music discovery. Pick a song and play it with the Radio feature. I’ve discovered some good music this way.

I’ve also created a classic rock playlist that I put on random and it’s like listening to WPLJ , K-Rock, or WNEW back in the 70s-80s in NY. Except I don’t have Scott Muni, Tony Pigg, or Carol Miller as DJs.

I don’t know how much more discovery you could possibly need than this place.

 

[mindhead1]

I don’t know how much more discovery you could possibly need than this place.

Streaming is a great way to get a listen to records I see on ‘What’s Spinning’ before deciding to spend any money on a physical copy.