The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Thackeraye said:
Smashing. Think I can sign up in the UK and keep it going when I move to Oz, so I’ll look into it closer to the time.
Click to expand...
According to Qobuz's help site, I think you're right. They say the region is set when you create your account.

That said, there might be a technical reason that Qobuz isn't supported in Australia. Hires FLAC files are quite large, and streaming them from a Europe or US-based server all the way to Oz might not be feasible.

Maybe you can create your Qobuz subscription right before your trip to Oz? Alternately, if you know someone down under, send them your login so they can report back on its quality.
 
apholden said:
According to Qobuz's help site, I think you're right. They say the region is set when you create your account.

That said, there might be a technical reason that Qobuz isn't supported in Australia. Hires FLAC files are quite large, and streaming them from a Europe or US-based server all the way to Oz might not be feasible.

Maybe you can create your Qobuz subscription right before your trip to Oz? Alternately, if you know someone down under, send them your login so they can report back on its quality.
Click to expand...

Id say it’s much more the costs of expanding into a new territory with its own taxation regime is likely to be the main reason. Expanding across Europe was easy as a French company because of the single market and the US & Canada is a no brainier because of population size. Australia is a more difficult prospect because as big a country as it is it has a relatively small population and is a long way from everything else. They’d want to have all their ducks in a row financially before committing to it and they might not yet feel that they’re a big enough company to take that risk.
 
apholden said:
According to Qobuz's help site, I think you're right. They say the region is set when you create your account.

That said, there might be a technical reason that Qobuz isn't supported in Australia. Hires FLAC files are quite large, and streaming them from a Europe or US-based server all the way to Oz might not be feasible.

Maybe you can create your Qobuz subscription right before your trip to Oz? Alternately, if you know someone down under, send them your login so they can report back on its quality.
Click to expand...
That was the plan - sign up just before I go then see how it runs.

Data could be an issue. Unlike the UK, I think a lot of the ISP’s still have data limits, so that could be my main restriction.
 
Joe Mac said:
Id say it’s much more the costs of expanding into a new territory with its own taxation regime is likely to be the main reason. Expanding across Europe was easy as a French company because of the single market and the US & Canada is a no brainier because of population size. Australia is a more difficult prospect because as big a country as it is it has a relatively small population and is a long way from everything else. They’d want to have all their ducks in a row financially before committing to it and they might not yet feel that they’re a big enough company to take that risk.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the legal and/or political issues are definitely slowing down the official rollout. Technical issues can be solved.

I guess my point was mostly that, since they haven't rolled it out down under, they probably haven't done anything about the technical issues.

Rereading my post, I definitely needed to clarify that. Sorry for miscommunicating.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
I would email Qobuz first. They are not in Canada either, that it is because they cannot be arsed to arrange for licensing for such a small population (like OZ)
Click to expand...
To be honest, I'm probably getting ahead of myself a wee bit. I'll not be moving to June at least, and it will be a good time later that I'll have a system that does it justice. At worst I can set it up before I go, test it on my Sonos, and if it doesn't work i can switch to Tidal without any bother.
 
displayname said:
I know this is mainly a vinyl forum, but I wanted to jump in here to advocate for everyone to consider building up a good digital side of the chain as well.

Tonight I popped in Genesis We Can't Dance, which is an album I only have on CD (or streaming). I still love this album, and I will eventually hunt it down on vinyl, but the CD is still so great. It's a really enjoyable and rewarding listen. I think there is still value for a lot of us to have digital, so if you've been on the fence about investing in digital, I think it's completely worth it to have to supplement any music you don't have on vinyl.
Click to expand...

Just do what I did, get absolutely shit faced one evening and wake up to a Discogs notification that you've bought a copy. The UK first pressing is so thin you can you read through it.

I completely agree with the sentiment though. We're not fundamentalists and ultimately a system equipped to handle digital with at least some aplomb is going to see more use than one that isn't. One of the key things about this is how cost effective this can be. In recent months I've tested the Topping E30 and iFi Zen DAC at £115 and £130 respectively. They are ridiculous for the money- both of them can do things that were vapourware at at any price a decade ago and they sound good while they do it. Want a CD player that is unreasonably good for not a lot of money? Have a look at the Rotel CD-11 Tribute. If you're feeling brave, some of the deals on used CD players are ridiculous too. There's a Naim CD5 XS for sale near me at the moment for £1,095. As Naim has barely stopped making the thing and selling it for £2,300 (and can generally look after their stuff for years), that's a bargain for anyone not looking to switch to streaming.
 
hello digital friends. this dark side is new to me and want to ask for some help. I just moved my work office home, and want to set up a mini system in my dedicated office. I have a pair of active bookshelves (Dynaudio xeo 3) and have never really used them. I plan on streaming from my iPhone to keep it simple. I think the xeo 3's don't require a dac, but this is all new to me. I am going to get a nice bluetooth receiver (BluDento BLT-HD 5.0 aptX HD). Is there anything else I need to consider when putting this together? Thanks in advance.
 
Satchmo2go said:
hello digital friends. this dark side is new to me and want to ask for some help. I just moved my work office home, and want to set up a mini system in my dedicated office. I have a pair of active bookshelves (Dynaudio xeo 3) and have never really used them. I plan on streaming from my iPhone to keep it simple. I think the xeo 3's don't require a dac, but this is all new to me. I am going to get a nice bluetooth receiver (BluDento BLT-HD 5.0 aptX HD). Is there anything else I need to consider when putting this together? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Only that your iPhone doesn't do Apt-X Bluetooth so you need to check that whatever you choose is compatible with AAC Bluetooth for better performance.
 
Satchmo2go said:
hello digital friends. this dark side is new to me and want to ask for some help. I just moved my work office home, and want to set up a mini system in my dedicated office. I have a pair of active bookshelves (Dynaudio xeo 3) and have never really used them. I plan on streaming from my iPhone to keep it simple. I think the xeo 3's don't require a dac, but this is all new to me. I am going to get a nice bluetooth receiver (BluDento BLT-HD 5.0 aptX HD). Is there anything else I need to consider when putting this together? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I would consider something that can connect via WiFi instead of Bluetooth. It’s been a few years since I did mine, but the fact that Bluetooth sent ALL phone audio to the Bluetooth was annoying. I had to turn it off when I got a phone call. I just want the music, not the notifications! Maybe the newer Bluetooth devices are smarter?
I used to have an old Apple TV just for the airplay capability. Depending on your phone there are all kinds of WiFi devices for about the same money as a Bluetooth dongle.

edit: you have an iPhone, so yeah, airplay is super easy and works perfectly.
 
Kris said:
I would consider something that can connect via WiFi instead of Bluetooth. It’s been a few years since I did mine, but the fact that Bluetooth sent ALL phone audio to the Bluetooth was annoying. I had to turn it off when I got a phone call. I just want the music, not the notifications! Maybe the newer Bluetooth devices are smarter?
I used to have an old Apple TV just for the airplay capability. Depending on your phone there are all kinds of WiFi devices for about the same money as a Bluetooth dongle.

edit: you have an iPhone, so yeah, airplay is super easy and works perfectly.
Click to expand...
can you explain this further? are you saying instead of a bluetooth receiver, use a wifi device that picks up my iPhone? I don't have many downloaded tracks so I just want to be able to play Amazon prime music and xm (app) from my phone and have my system pick it up. I don't care how its done. And as a matter of fact my iPhone BT has been wonky lately on certain devices, so if I can move away from that I will be super happy.

I have all the hardware set up in a supply closet, as I have enough crap in my office. I really want all hardware out of the way. Plus, I am able to hook my spare TT up directly to the Dynaudio connect box (via my ifi phono amp).

And I also have a sonos connect sound bridge not being used. So I would LOVE for that to be my "hub". The GUI for the sonus app is great so would love to keep using that.

any of this make sense?
 
Satchmo2go said:
can you explain this further? are you saying instead of a bluetooth receiver, use a wifi device that picks up my iPhone? I don't have many downloaded tracks so I just want to be able to play Amazon prime music and xm (app) from my phone and have my system pick it up. I don't care how its done. And as a matter of fact my iPhone BT has been wonky lately on certain devices, so if I can move away from that I will be super happy.

I have all the hardware set up in a supply closet, as I have enough crap in my office. I really want all hardware out of the way. Plus, I am able to hook my spare TT up directly to the Dynaudio connect box (via my ifi phono amp).

And I also have a sonos connect sound bridge not being used. So I would LOVE for that to be my "hub". The GUI for the sonus app is great so would love to keep using that.

any of this make sense?
Click to expand...

WiFi is a much more solid connection with a much larger range, allows the potential for higher quality files to be transferred and is less likely to have drop outs. Sonos is a WiFi based solution.

If you have an old Sonos Connect

51RiAlowfLL._AC_SL1300_.jpg

Or a new Sonos port

port-hero.png

These are WiFI streamers that connect to your hifi by RCA to an amp or Coax/Optical to a DAC. It will allow you to stream via wifi either directly through the Sonos app for supported applications or through airplay directly from the service providers own app.

The Sonos Bridge was a different product that was essentially a WiFi range extender for the Sonos Mesh WiFI used to connect more than one of their own Sonos products together.
 
Just one question before I buy everything

The hip-dac manual recommends using a USB 3.0 port, but I was thinking of getting something like a jitterbug for a slight sound benefit, I dunno if this will cause issues with certain formats like DSD or MQA or not enough bandwidth.. I wanna make sure before I buy something that is more expensive like that
 
duke86fan said:
Just one question before I buy everything

The hip-dac manual recommends using a USB 3.0 port, but I was thinking of getting something like a jitterbug for a slight sound benefit, I dunno if this will cause issues with certain formats like DSD or MQA or not enough bandwidth.. I wanna make sure before I buy something that is more expensive like that
Click to expand...

You can send DSD through a Jitterbug.
 
Ed Selley said:
You can send DSD through a Jitterbug.
Click to expand...
I just wondered because why does the hip dac manual recommends you use a 3.0 speed connection, I just wondered if it meant any issues in the functionality like the file support, but it does say it still does 384 in AUSB 2.0 so I dunno because I wanted to up the quality just a bit
 
duke86fan said:
I just wondered because why does the hip dac manual recommends you use a 3.0 speed connection, I just wondered if it meant any issues in the functionality like the file support, but it does say it still does 384 in AUSB 2.0 so I dunno because I wanted to up the quality just a bit
Click to expand...
No idea. power delivery, maybe? The bandwidth on either is more than sufficient.
 
Satchmo2go said:
hello digital friends. this dark side is new to me and want to ask for some help. I just moved my work office home, and want to set up a mini system in my dedicated office. I have a pair of active bookshelves (Dynaudio xeo 3) and have never really used them. I plan on streaming from my iPhone to keep it simple. I think the xeo 3's don't require a dac, but this is all new to me. I am going to get a nice bluetooth receiver (BluDento BLT-HD 5.0 aptX HD). Is there anything else I need to consider when putting this together? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
If you have dynaudio speakers, you might want to look at Dynaudio connect
www.dynaudio.com

Stream music to your speakers and WI-FI systems

Stream music to hifi system with Dynaudio connect - Dynaudio
www.dynaudio.com www.dynaudio.com
I think this is exactly what you're looking for
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top