The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Thackeraye said:
Thanks guys! Might give Plex a go. This is definitely a temporary solution, so Roon is a little on the spendy side for now.
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No problem. If you do end up deciding to go down a bit more down the rabbithole of digital, I highly endorse Roon. I tried it for 30 days and ended up buying a year subscription. It's perfect for me as I didn't want to go the Sonos route because I already have so many speakers, but also have a ton of FLAC files on a drive and stream through Qobuz. It's definitely not perfect for everybody but checked off all the boxes I wanted in software.
 
MikeH said:
No problem. If you do end up deciding to go down a bit more down the rabbithole of digital, I highly endorse Roon. I tried it for 30 days and ended up buying a year subscription. It's perfect for me as I didn't want to go the Sonos route because I already have so many speakers, but also have a ton of FLAC files on a drive and stream through Qobuz. It's definitely not perfect for everybody but checked off all the boxes I wanted in software.
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I'll definitely look at Roon when I get a decent DAC, but I might be a wee bit down the line. Thanks!
 
@Thackeraye I just made the Roon jump a few weeks ago. Definitely bites that it is an annual licence but I have been very happy with it. I am like you I think, in that I my preferred method was to navigate my file structure to get to the album I wanted. Roon works great and indexes very quickly. It runs nicely on a tablet and phone as well the remote control. I like the interface and UX. Worth it if you use either Tidal or Qubuz as well.
 
AnthonyI said:
Hmm, having issues with the USB run, PC isn't identifying/showing the DAC. I'm going to toss the software on my laptop and test it, see if its the USB over Ethernet. CD thought it is fine though, lol
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Ok, digital peeps, it's the extenders. They don't work at all, I put them on a 4 ft Ethernet run and still got nothing. Ran a USB directly from my laptop to the DAC, all good. So, what are my options to get my PC connected? I think wireless was mentioned?
 
Cheap and easy? Two options. Chromecast audio or Apple Airport Express. Decide whether casting over chromecast or sending over airplay is best for your situation and choose accordingly. Both connect to the DAC with a toslink optical cable if you get the cable off blue jeans get the $2 adapter too because the both use the 1/8 mini connector. Both can be got off eBay very cheap without huge amounts of hunting.
 
Joe Mac said:
Cheap and easy? Two options. Chromecast audio or Apple Airport Express. Decide whether casting over chromecast or sending over airplay is best for your situation and choose accordingly. Both connect to the DAC with a toslink optical cable if you get the cable off blue jeans get the $2 adapter too because the both use the 1/8 mini connector. Both can be got off eBay very cheap without huge amounts of hunting.
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Somewhat surpisingly, the Chromecast audio has jumped up in price a bunch since it got discontinued. I think you can still find some for around $50 though on ebay now. I managed to grab one on google shopping for $19 or something crazy right before it got discontinued. They are surprisingly good sounding. It might be your best bet...

I thought that airplay caps the audio resolution to 16/44.1 though? Even if you use an airport express, it's still using airplay to send music so you'll still hit those limitations...

@AnthonyI How far away is your PC from your DAC?
 
MikeH said:
Somewhat surpisingly, the Chromecast audio has jumped up in price a bunch since it got discontinued. I think you can still find some for around $50 though on ebay now. I managed to grab one on google shopping for $19 or something crazy right before it got discontinued. They are surprisingly good sounding. It might be your best bet...

I thought that airplay caps the audio resolution to 16/44.1 though? Even if you use an airport express, it's still using airplay to send music so you'll still hit those limitations...

How far away is your PC from your DAC?
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It does but for Spotify and ripped CDs that’s plenty. It sonly if you’re going hi res that that’s an issue. I saw ones at the weekend on eBay for $15 when I first mooted it to Anthony so they still can be found cheap if you do some digging.

Edit: there isn’t anything at that kinda price now, musta gone but I think anything around $40 was list price so I’d not grumble at that.
 
Joe Mac said:
It does but for Spotify and ripped CDs that’s plenty. It sonly if you’re going hi res that that’s an issue. I saw ones at the weekend on eBay for $15 when I first mooted it to Anthony so they still can be found cheap if you do some digging.

Edit: there isn’t anything at that kinda price now, musta gone but I think anything around $40 was list price so I’d not grumble at that.
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Yea--I think even at $40 it's a pretty good deal considering how well it works. I would have gotten a lot more of them if I used Spotify or windows but chromecast isn't the best with macs so I just got one to test it.
 
MikeH said:
Yea--I think even at $40 it's a pretty good deal considering how well it works. I would have gotten a lot more of them if I used Spotify or windows but chromecast isn't the best with macs so I just got one to test it.
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Same as, I passed it on and moved onto the pi’s because of that, the airplay express second hand is a great deal too if you’re using a lot of macs/iTunes and you mainly use Spotify and cd rips or lower, it works pretty seamlessly for airplay.
 
MikeH said:
Somewhat surpisingly, the Chromecast audio has jumped up in price a bunch since it got discontinued. I think you can still find some for around $50 though on ebay now. I managed to grab one on google shopping for $19 or something crazy right before it got discontinued. They are surprisingly good sounding. It might be your best bet...

I thought that airplay caps the audio resolution to 16/44.1 though? Even if you use an airport express, it's still using airplay to send music so you'll still hit those limitations...

@AnthonyI How far away is your PC from your DAC?
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About 20-25 ft
 
AnthonyI said:
About 20-25 ft
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Ah yea...then I'd say go with either of what @Joe Mac suggested depending on best fit. I believe chromecast will be able to cast higher res audio while airport express is more limited but both should work well if you're using nothing higher than CD quality audio.
 
Joe Mac said:
Cheap and easy? Two options. Chromecast audio or Apple Airport Express. Decide whether casting over chromecast or sending over airplay is best for your situation and choose accordingly. Both connect to the DAC with a toslink optical cable if you get the cable off blue jeans get the $2 adapter too because the both use the 1/8 mini connector. Both can be got off eBay very cheap without huge amounts of hunting.
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MikeH said:
Ah yea...then I'd say go with either of what @Joe Mac suggested depending on best fit. I believe chromecast will be able to cast higher res audio while airport express is more limited but both should work well if you're using nothing higher than CD quality audio.
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Ya, looks like the easiest solution with above average quality from what your saying. Is there a benefit to getting a better optical cable? A Blue Jean as you mentioned @Joe Mac, or would any optical cable due, I have a few decent ones so I would just need the mini-jack connector for the Chromcast end.

So Optical out of the DAC, to mini-adapter, to Chromcast Audio. I'm really bummed I can't get a direct line, there are other extenders, but these were highly rated and failed, so I'm not feeling all warm and fuzzy about trying another set.
 
AnthonyI said:
Ya, looks like the easiest solution with above average quality from what your saying. Is there a benefit to getting a better optical cable? A Blue Jean as you mentioned @Joe Mac, or would any optical cable due, I have a few decent ones so I would just need the mini-jack connector for the Chromcast end.
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optical is all digital.. in theory there should be absolutely no difference between a good optical cable and an amazing one
 
AnthonyI said:
Ya, looks like the easiest solution with above average quality from what your saying. Is there a benefit to getting a better optical cable? A Blue Jean as you mentioned @Joe Mac, or would any optical cable due, I have a few decent ones so I would just need the mini-jack connector for the Chromcast end.

So Optical out of the DAC, to mini-adapter, to Chromcast Audio. I'm really bummed I can't get a direct line, there are other extenders, but these were highly rated and failed, so I'm not feeling all warm and fuzzy about trying another set.
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any so long as one end has a 1/8 connector or you buy that adaptor (or similar) for the end that’s going into the chromecast/airport express. I was operating under the assumption that you didn’t have one and would likely be buying anything you got new from bluejeans 😂
 
duke86fan said:
is roon any good if you DONT have multiple hifi systems and speakers
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I think Roon is worth it if you have a ton of downloaded high-res music to keep track of with a NAS and a subscription to Tidal/Qobuz. It's not worth it at all IMO if you ONLY want to do multi-room audio. Multi-room audio is a perk for me because I didn't want to go down the Sonos route for multi-room audio.
 
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