The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

jamieanderson1968 said:
Ok, first off iTunes doesn't really play great with the Node.

If you use Roon (or BluOS) the music (either local or stream) is handed off to the Node and played directly from it to the amp. This will play at whatever bitrate the music is in.

If you are using iTunes, then it uses Airplay to send the stream (either local or streaming service) to the Node via the computer. The best you get is 16/44 (cd quality) with Airplay.
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In what way does itunes not play well with the node? just the maximum bitrate limit? or something else too?

The bitrate limit wouldn't be an issue for now since the digital files I have are not high res.
 
Turbo said:
In what way does itunes not play well with the node? just the maximum bitrate limit? or something else too?

The bitrate limit wouldn't be an issue for now since the digital files I have are not high res.
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Just that with iTune the stream plays from the computer or device to the Node. Whereas the Node with Roon (or Plexamp etc), the stream is playing right from the Node. So basically it is just bit rate quality that you would be compromising.

Just be warned, if you give Roon a test drive, it will be highly addictive.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Just that with iTune the stream plays from the computer or device to the Node. Whereas the Node with Roon (or Plexamp etc), the stream is playing right from the Node. So basically it is just bit rate quality that you would be compromising.
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Cheers. Most often, I'll be streaming directly from a service but I'd like to have the option to play my files, which I don't at the moment. Lots of my streaming comes on Fridays when new music comes out or when I'm playing around making playlist mixes to eventually transfer to my iphone (for listening in the car or on walks). I'm thinking Tidal would be one of my first trials since it would be a good way to play around with high res. If I can play to the node directly like I currently do with Spotify/Sonos, that's perfect. And that reduces my need to turn to something like Roon right away.

In technical terms, if I'd play something off itunes from my PC, do I just point to the node in itunes itself? Or do you need to open the BluOS app to mediate? I suppose that changes if I want to use my phone as the remote though?

jamieanderson1968 said:
Just be warned, if you give Roon a test drive, it will be highly addictive.
Click to expand...

LOL.
 
Turbo said:
Cheers. Most often, I'll be streaming directly from a service but I'd like to have the option to play my files, which I don't at the moment. Lots of my streaming comes on Fridays when new music comes out or when I'm playing around making playlist mixes to eventually transfer to my iphone (for listening in the car or on walks). I'm thinking Tidal would be one of my first trials since it would be a good way to play around with high res. If I can play to the node directly like I currently do with Spotify/Sonos, that's perfect. And that reduces my need to turn to something like Roon right away.

In technical terms, if I'd play something off itunes from my PC, do I just point to the node in itunes itself? Or do you need to open the BluOS app to mediate? I suppose that changes if I want to use my phone as the remote though?



LOL.
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If your files are CD quality or less you just need to click on the AirPlay button in iTunes and choose the node as a device. AirPlay visibility tends to be always on as a default on these things. It’s only really if you’re going beyond CD quality that the AirPlay limitations are going to cause you hassle.
 
Turbo said:
In technical terms, if I'd play something off itunes from my PC, do I just point to the node in itunes itself? Or do you need to open the BluOS app to mediate? I suppose that changes if I want to use my phone as the remote though?
Click to expand...
At the top of the screen in iTunes on the Mac there is a little button that lets you choose what to stream to. iTunes should see the Node like any other streaming endpoint (like Sonos speaker or what have you). It is the 3 circles with the triangle at the bottom
 
Turbo said:
Cheers. Most often, I'll be streaming directly from a service but I'd like to have the option to play my files, which I don't at the moment. Lots of my streaming comes on Fridays when new music comes out or when I'm playing around making playlist mixes to eventually transfer to my iphone (for listening in the car or on walks). I'm thinking Tidal would be one of my first trials since it would be a good way to play around with high res. If I can play to the node directly like I currently do with Spotify/Sonos, that's perfect. And that reduces my need to turn to something like Roon right away.

In technical terms, if I'd play something off itunes from my PC, do I just point to the node in itunes itself? Or do you need to open the BluOS app to mediate? I suppose that changes if I want to use my phone as the remote though?



LOL.
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What's good about the NODE is it comes Roon ready if ever you decided to make that jump 😏
 
If the node had DSD compatibility I think I would probably have already bought it. I’d also like a streaming solution that let me connect to my DAC via usb because it has a larger bandwidth. I do sometimes also think I'm overthinking it but equally my little pi box, with its hifi berry reclocker, connected to my DAC with a coax, is 24/192 already and sounds magnificent so maybe it’s not worth going for another device that won’t improve on that.
 
Joe Mac said:
If the node had DSD compatibility I think I would probably have already bought it. I’d also like a streaming solution that let me connect to my DAC via usb because it has a larger bandwidth. I do sometimes also think I'm overthinking it but equally my little pi box, with its hifi berry reclocker, connected to my DAC with a coax, is 24/192 already and sounds magnificent so maybe it’s not worth going for another device that won’t improve on that.
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I'm just curious why is DSD a deal breaker for you? As it seems to be a very niche digital music format.
 
Hollywood said:
I'm just curious why is DSD a deal breaker for you? As it seems to be a very niche digital music format.
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I have quite a few DSD files on my hard drive and my DAC supports DSD. So it’d kinda be nice to hear them in native DSD rather than converted to PCM at 24/178.

I think another issue is that because I have a DAC that is going to be considerably better than the one built into the Node I’m going to be bypassing its DAV and using it as a streaming transport. For that task I don’t see how it is going to be considerably better than a reclocked pi.
 
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Joe Mac said:
If your files are CD quality or less you just need to click on the AirPlay button in iTunes and choose the node as a device. AirPlay visibility tends to be always on as a default on these things. It’s only really if you’re going beyond CD quality that the AirPlay limitations are going to cause you hassle.
Click to expand...

jamieanderson1968 said:
At the top of the screen in iTunes on the Mac there is a little button that lets you choose what to stream to. iTunes should see the Node like any other streaming endpoint (like Sonos speaker or what have you). It is the 3 circles with the triangle at the bottom
Click to expand...

Got it. Simple enough.
 
Turbo said:
It seems to be the best bang for buck among the different choices. Only thing extra I'd love is a little screen showing the album cover and track that's playing, but that's just bonus bling. Middling reviews on the BluOS app made me want to ask all your opinions though.
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Definitely the best bang for your buck especially if you buy from Jason @Sound&Sight 😉
 
Turbo said:
It seems to be the best bang for buck among the different choices. Only thing extra I'd love is a little screen showing the album cover and track that's playing, but that's just bonus bling. Middling reviews on the BluOS app made me want to ask all your opinions though.
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I have had mine 2 years in May and use it a lot. I never use the BluOS app other than for set up. When I had Tidal I would either use Roon or Tidal Connect.

If you have an old smartphone lying around you can use that as your remote for the Node and that will give you the nice picture.

Not sure if you are still a 3rd Man Vault member but you get a big discount on Tidal with each quarterly membership. But it is pretty easy to find a trial membership for Tidal as well.
 
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