The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Anyone have experience with this baby? I have other Marantz gear so this is tempting.

I haven't used any of the Marantz streaming gear, but the price certainly seems right for the features. If you need a headphone jack and digital hub this certainly isn't a bad option... assuming the app is decent. I'd read up on that before you move on it. The app experience can make or break a streamer.
 
I just need to figure out a good dac (most likely amp too) and headphone combo to use my flac files to good effect even though most of my stuff is compressed video or 320k files/streams
 
I just need to figure out a good dac (most likely amp too) and headphone combo to use my flac files to good effect even though most of my stuff is compressed video or 320k files/streams
You might want to add some of your other stipulations like price, size, etc. I know the Schiit Fulla was of interest from the other thread.
Based on the specs above, the new "entry level1" $15,000 dCS Bartok would fit the fill ;)
 
You might want to add some of your other stipulations like price, size, etc. I know the Schiit Fulla was of interest from the other thread.
Based on the specs above, the new "entry level1" $15,000 dCS Bartok would fit the fill ;)
Tldr I need a good mix of cheap (for a headphone, amp and DAC combo, maybe 300-350 minimum). Good sounding (I want to hear a difference), and size (I'm using a laptop so not too big and hopefully usb)
 
Tldr I need a good mix of cheap (for a headphone, amp and DAC combo, maybe 300-350 minimum). Good sounding (I want to hear a difference), and size (I'm using a laptop so not too big and hopefully usb)
also note that most of my files are either 320kbps ogg or MP3 files with a decent amount of FLAC... and a lot of youtube so i dunno if i need much of an increase (dunno if i need open or closed back, dunno how much a dac and amp can help... i just know i cant hear that much on these M50s because of ear issues)
 
Last edited:
Ok, free stuff has brought me to this rabbit hole, lol.

Got a free Google mini, the thought of streaming to my second system (once it's up) is intriguing. From what I understand, the best route would be to get a Chromcast Audio and connect that to my NAD. I don't think getting the NAD DAC module is worth the cost, and I would prefer to use an optical cable, what do I put between the Chromcast and the NAD in order to do so? Or, what are the best/cost effective options?

As always, thank you in advance :)
 
Ok, free stuff has brought me to this rabbit hole, lol.

Got a free Google mini, the thought of streaming to my second system (once it's up) is intriguing. From what I understand, the best route would be to get a Chromcast Audio and connect that to my NAD. I don't think getting the NAD DAC module is worth the cost, and I would prefer to use an optical cable, what do I put between the Chromcast and the NAD in order to do so? Or, what are the best/cost effective options?

As always, thank you in advance :)

for bare streaming from Spotify etc without an eye on HQ it’s to eBay for either a chrome cast audio (Android) or an Apple airport express (iOS). Both are out of production but so many are made that they can be found easily enough used.

If you want to play with higher quality audio files and Spotify connect I can’t recommend the raspberry pi/hifiberry DaC+ pro/volumino DIY combo highly enough.

from there onwards there really is a deep old rabbit hole...
 
for bare streaming from Spotify etc without an eye on HQ it’s to eBay for either a chrome cast audio (Android) or an Apple airport express (iOS). Both are out of production but so many are made that they can be found easily enough used.

If you want to play with higher quality audio files and Spotify connect I can’t recommend the raspberry pi/hifiberry DaC+ pro/volumino DIY combo highly enough.

from there onwards there really is a deep old rabbit hole...
From what I understand, using an optical cable from the Chromcast would give you the best audio quality, so that's the "Goal" I guess, what are we talking cost wise on your DIY recommendation and can you point me in a direction to get a better understanding.
 
From what I understand, using an optical cable from the Chromcast would give you the best audio quality, so that's the "Goal" I guess, what are we talking cost wise on your DIY recommendation and can you point me in a direction to get a better understanding.

you can but I’m not sure if your NAD has a DAC which would obviously mean using the pretty poor built in DAC on either of those units. The combo of all of those direct from hifiberry cost me approx €100. Volumio is freeware unless you want to go hi res on the streaming. Spotify connect and any PCM files are in the free bit.

here’s a link to the bundle I bought


This is how you flash volumio to the sd micro card


Spotify connect is a plugin that comes with the software, you just need to install and enable it.
 
you can but I’m not sure if your NAD has a DAC which would obviously mean using the pretty poor built in DAC on either of those units. The combo of all of those direct from hifiberry cost me approx €100. Volumio is freeware unless you want to go hi res on the streaming. Spotify connect and any PCM files are in the free bit.

here’s a link to the bundle I bought


This is how you flash volumio to the sd micro card


Spotify connect is a plugin that comes with the software, you just need to install and enable it.
Let me back up a sec, so the Google mini is what I'm using to "Talk" to the Chromcast, my NAD doesn't have an optical connection, but obviously RCA. I don't think I'll utilize Volumio because of the mini, it's also linked to my phone and Spotify, so I don't think there's a real reason to add that to the mix. Looking at your bundle, I'm thinking, based on the optical cable understanding, the HiFiBerry Digi + would be the way to go. that being said, what options are NEEDED, in the bundle........HIFIBERRY DIGI+ BUNDLE

..........and I do apologize if I'm missing the obvious here :)
 
Let me back up a sec, so the Google mini is what I'm using to "Talk" to the Chromcast, my NAD doesn't have an optical connection, but obviously RCA. I don't think I'll utilize Volumio because of the mini, it's also linked to my phone and Spotify, so I don't think there's a real reason to add that to the mix. Looking at your bundle, I'm thinking, based on the optical cable understanding, the HiFiBerry Digi + would be the way to go. that being said, what options are NEEDED, in the bundle........HIFIBERRY DIGI+ BUNDLE

..........and I do apologize if I'm missing the obvious here :)

How are you connecting the chrome cast mini (or digi plus) by optical to the NAD if it doesn’t have a DAC?

from what you are saying I think that you are using the google home mini as a control input and this device as an output to the NAD so you can use the hifis speakers?

In that case I’d rule out the volumio because I don’t know if they’ve got a codec yet to have a smart home device control it.
 
Let me back up a sec, so the Google mini is what I'm using to "Talk" to the Chromcast, my NAD doesn't have an optical connection, but obviously RCA. I don't think I'll utilize Volumio because of the mini, it's also linked to my phone and Spotify, so I don't think there's a real reason to add that to the mix. Looking at your bundle, I'm thinking, based on the optical cable understanding, the HiFiBerry Digi + would be the way to go. that being said, what options are NEEDED, in the bundle........HIFIBERRY DIGI+ BUNDLE

..........and I do apologize if I'm missing the obvious here :)
.............unless the Optical vs RCA isn't as big a difference as it's being presented
 
.............unless the Optical vs RCA isn't as big a difference as it's being presented

I mean it’s a pretty tiny puck so the inbuilt DAC isn’t great. Sending a digital signal and letting a DAC do the work is going to be better. That said the main reason I switched mine for the volumio was that the chromecast wasn’t ideal in my apple environment.
 
How are you connecting the chrome cast mini (or digi plus) by optical to the NAD if it doesn’t have a DAC?
Ok, I think I'm seeing the flaw in my thought process. So what we actually "should" be trying to accomplish is the Chromcast to a DAC and the DAC to the AMP?
 
Ok, I think I'm seeing the flaw in my thought process. So what we actually "should" be trying to accomplish is the Chromcast to a DAC and the DAC to the AMP?

If you want to use optical yeah. The google home mini is just a remote and the chromecast is sending the audio signal to your hifi. You can either use its dac and 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cable to an amp or use a mini toslink to toslink cable to a DAC or amp with a built in dac.
 
I mean it’s a pretty tiny puck so the inbuilt DAC isn’t great. Sending a digital signal and letting a DAC do the work is going to be better. That said the main reason I switched mine for the volumio was that the chromecast wasn’t ideal in my apple environment.
Ya, i'm on Android so it's all kind of seamless with the mini/chromcast combo. The part that got my attention was that the Chromcast isn't streaming from any device, it's streaming direct, so to speak, and at that point it's how to best deliver that signal to the amp.
 
Ya, i'm on Android so it's all kind of seamless with the mini/chromcast combo. The part that got my attention was that the Chromcast isn't streaming from any device, it's streaming direct, so to speak, and at that point it's how to best deliver that signal to the amp.

yeah that’s why I was big on Spotify connect rather than just airplay when I used the volumio DIY system. Any Spotify connect device does the same thing, the device streams and the phone/tablet just controls. I only switched to the mac mini recently to be able to play my dsd files through Roon.
 
yeah that’s why I was big on Spotify connect rather than just airplay when I used the volumio DIY system. Any Spotify connect device does the same thing, the device streams and the phone/tablet just controls. I only switched to the mac mini recently to be able to play my dsd files through Roon.
LOL, I gotta wrap my head around this whole thing.
 
LOL, I gotta wrap my head around this whole thing.

yeah it’s a whole other ball game. I stated with digital and moved to vinyl and have always messed about with computers so I think that gave me a bit of a head start but if you know what you want and are prepared to do a bit of research it isn’t actually as daunting as it sounds!
 
I've tried all bunch of the different dongles (Chromecast Audio, Grammofon, Echo Dot) and I like the sound from the HifiBerry the best. Supposedly the one I have can take input from an external puck. I got it when it was fairly new and lots of the support wasn't really there. It might be now, but I pretty much just converted it to their DAC+ Pro. I decided I didn't really want Amazon listening in my office even though telling it to turn off the music was really convenient.

 
Back
Top