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Post by chaosrv on Aug 29, 2013 17:17:44 GMT -5
I would love to come, but my Dad's birthday is this weekend and I just don't see bailing on him to come. He is 76 years young and unless his birthday changes I'll not make an Emofest for awhile. Bring him with you! Problem solved.  |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Aug 29, 2013 21:09:15 GMT -5
I am with Andrew on this one. I look forward to hearing Big Dan's perspective. Last year he was fully committed to a media player, but I want to hear what advantages he thinks Emotiva's would offer.
Mark
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Post by GreenKiwi on Aug 29, 2013 22:00:10 GMT -5
I am with Andrew on this one. I look forward to hearing Big Dan's perspective. Last year he was fully committed to a media player, but I want to hear what advantages he thinks Emotiva's would offer. Mark Agreed, I think that you'd have to bring something interesting to the table, like Olive has with the Olive One. Or have something like that, that does video too. Really good iOS/Android app support would be key. Hmm, I wonder whether or not a ChromeCast might be an interesting "sink" device for a media server. Let it connect to multiple different outputs. |
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Post by upstateaudio on Sept 1, 2013 10:04:34 GMT -5
There are many reasons for someone to want a solution from Emotiva. I just hope that after Emofest we know whether or not they are moving forward with it. Also would love to know rough timetable ( 2013, 2014, 2015) I personally love the local control feature of the squeezebox. I couldn't agree more. I have had Squeezebox Classics for 7 years now. They refuse to die, I'm sure they will become half useless as Logitech abandons support of them eventually. Local control is a wonderful option, I mostly use them to stream web content rather than my own itunes library |
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Post by fast560 on Sept 3, 2013 15:53:13 GMT -5
<snip> ... But I stand by my earlier comments re: dedicated music streamers/servers. Get a touchscreen PC, Mac Mini or Chromecast and call it good. Again, just my 2 cents having played with A LOT of dedicated 2 channel music servers over the years. When you say a touchscreen PC, what do you envision running on it? Does JRiver support touch natively or are you having to poke about with your finger as if it were a mouse cursor? I find that maddening on a small screen (I don't want a big screen in the same room of my 2-chanel system.) From the website, the interface looks fairly primitive. Is there something else that might work better on a touchscreen? Windows Media Center? I have a Win 8 tablet ($299 Acer W3) which I was going to pair with an old 128GB SSD I have lying around. I envision hooking it up to my UMC-1 using a Turtle Beach Digital Adapter (http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Beach-Advantage-Digital-Adapter/dp/B0036VO4X4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378241039&sr=8-2&keywords=usb+digital+sound). The problem is the default music app is terrible. MS has focused on trying to sell you music and makes things more confusing than it should be just to play your own music. If there was a decent replacement app (Modern or Desktop), I think I'd be all set. I don't care about video. I have an iPad, but that won't support attached storage and we don't leave our computers running generally, so the storage is limited. My Zune HD supports digital out, has a great interface, and works like a charm. If the screen wasn't so small (as a handheld) and the memory wasn't so limited, I'd be all set. The Olive 1 with the 1TB of storage seems ideal and that might be the best alternative. I understand they will start shipping in a few months. Thanks |
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Post by withanx on Sept 9, 2013 9:50:32 GMT -5
$599 Mac Mini, ~$400 for a 2-bay Synology NAS with drives. Keep the NAS in another room connected to your network to avoid drive noise, run Plex on the Mini. For $1000 you have a complete video and audio media server that will outperform any standalone unit.
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Post by GreenKiwi on Sept 9, 2013 14:46:11 GMT -5
^^^ And the synology can also be the plex server. So your mac would just be a client if you wanted.
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Post by garbulky on Sept 9, 2013 14:48:15 GMT -5
Andrew thanks for the link of the Dune media player. It is exactly what I was hoping Emo's player would be
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Post by fast560 on Sept 11, 2013 13:40:35 GMT -5
$599 Mac Mini, ~$400 for a 2-bay Synology NAS with drives. Keep the NAS in another room connected to your network to avoid drive noise, run Plex on the Mini. For $1000 you have a complete video and audio media server that will outperform any standalone unit. How do you run it off the Mini? Is there a monitor and keyboard/mouse? Does Plex allow you to access local files (e.g. can you have the music on the Mini or an attached HDD and not bother with the Synology?) It would be nice if I could install the Win 8 Plex app on a tablet with local storage on an external drive. |
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Post by Gary Cook on Sept 11, 2013 13:42:30 GMT -5
A MacMini + 2 x 1tb EHDD's and an Apple TV3 via HDMI to a UMC-200 with iPad or IPhone control. Works in all 3 zones, seamlessly.
I can see myself owning almost all of Emotiva's products, but not a media server.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by withanx on Sept 11, 2013 15:06:10 GMT -5
$599 Mac Mini, ~$400 for a 2-bay Synology NAS with drives. Keep the NAS in another room connected to your network to avoid drive noise, run Plex on the Mini. For $1000 you have a complete video and audio media server that will outperform any standalone unit. How do you run it off the Mini? Is there a monitor and keyboard/mouse? Does Plex allow you to access local files (e.g. can you have the music on the Mini or an attached HDD and not bother with the Synology?) It would be nice if I could install the Win 8 Plex app on a tablet with local storage on an external drive. Plex desktop cleint is pretty much made to use a TV as a display and the Mac Mini has a built in IR sensor for an Apple remote or a Logitech Harmony remote. I use MobileMouse to use my iPhone to control the Mac Mini if I need a keyboard, but you can launch Plex from the remote too, so it's rarely needed. Plex runs in two parts, a server and a cleint. I use the Mac Mini as the server and the primary TV client. It serves files off of my Drobo, but it can serve files off your built in hard drive or any other storage device. Plex also has a web client and iPhone/Android client to watch your media from anywhere in the world. There are even ones for AppleTV, Roku, Samsung smart TVs/Blu-ray players, etc, so if any of these devices are on your network or signed into your MyPlex account they can stream all of your media. If you want to use Plex via mobile apps or devices with limited codec support, you'll want to run the server on a machine with pretty good performance since it needs to transcode the files on the fly. The tablet should be able to handle that, but it will need to be connected to your network and have Plex Server running any time you want to access the media. |
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Post by flamingeye on Sept 14, 2013 14:35:18 GMT -5
I'd like to see a multi-channel multimedia streamer player
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jtk
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Post by jtk on Oct 24, 2013 14:37:41 GMT -5
I have a feeling that the market is changing very quickly for these things. I had a Squeezebox Touch that I sold recently (purely for profit, I sold it for more than I paid for it 2 years ago) and so I've been messing around a bit with replacements. Most dedicated streamers seem to have DACs already built in, and in many cases amps/preamps too, although not all of them have aux inputs. Since I already have an XDA-2, I built a Raspberry Pi based streamer using PiCorePlayer. Functionally it works, but I'm not sure about the sound.
For whatever reason, it seems like there are no commercial streamers without DACs. Probably because they don't sell. So it would maybe make sense to build the streaming functionality into the XDA-3 (or a new product that's similar).
FWIW, I found a Mac Mini to be less than satisfactory: limited output bit rates via the built-in optical output, and the USB output would "unsync" every time I turned off my XDA-2. Mine is an early 2009 model though.
I fully expect to end up selling my Emo gear if I want to start with a new streamer of any kind.
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Oct 24, 2013 18:38:10 GMT -5
Just curious - why would you sell your Emo gear if you get a streamer?
Mark
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Post by brubacca on Oct 24, 2013 21:51:46 GMT -5
I have been seriously considering selling everything and getting a Naim UnitiQute 2. Streamer/ PreAmp/DAC/ Amp all in one. Little things rocks like you wouldn't believe. Pre-outs if I needed more power. Analog in for TT or something else, plus fm tuner....
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jtk
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Post by jtk on Oct 24, 2013 23:33:52 GMT -5
Just curious - why would you sell your Emo gear if you get a streamer? Mark I have an XDA-2 and a UPA-200. Currently my top choice for a streamer is the Bluesound Powernode, although the lack of aux input is a drawback. Second choice is a Sonos setup. I've also considered replacing my old Panasonic BD player with an Oppo. That would allow me to use DLNA streaming (my music is stored on a NAS). With any of these the XDA-2 is redundant because they all have good DACs included. I could keep the UPA-200 and get the ampless version of whichever streamer I get, but my current thinking is that I might as well sell it and go all in. A minor consideration is that none of the streamers seem to have a trigger output leaving me no way to turn on the amp with a remote. I'm also not in love with the full size components like I once was (the UPA almost hits the back of my cabinet). Edit: So now I was just checking out the bluesound and sonos websites and realized that none of these have headphone outputs, which are absolutely necessary for me for late night listening since I'm in a condo. So I guess that would mean that the XDA-2 would get replaced by a standard preamp and the streamer would be a separate component. In that case I would probably just get the USP-1 and keep my amp. |
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emovac
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Post by emovac on Oct 25, 2013 1:28:51 GMT -5
I have a feeling that the market is changing very quickly for these things. I had a Squeezebox Touch that I sold recently (purely for profit, I sold it for more than I paid for it 2 years ago) and so I've been messing around a bit with replacements. Most dedicated streamers seem to have DACs already built in, and in many cases amps/preamps too, although not all of them have aux inputs. Since I already have an XDA-2, I built a Raspberry Pi based streamer using PiCorePlayer. Functionally it works, but I'm not sure about the sound. For whatever reason, it seems like there are no commercial streamers without DACs. Probably because they don't sell. So it would maybe make sense to build the streaming functionality into the XDA-3 (or a new product that's similar). FWIW, I found a Mac Mini to be less than satisfactory: limited output bit rates via the built-in optical output, and the USB output would "unsync" every time I turned off my XDA-2. Mine is an early 2009 model though. I fully expect to end up selling my Emo gear if I want to start with a new streamer of any kind. Bryston makes a couple, but it's a pricey media transport (USB and DNLA). The BDP-2 would be better for streaming than the BDP-1. |
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emovac
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Post by emovac on Oct 25, 2013 1:34:50 GMT -5
Just curious - why would you sell your Emo gear if you get a streamer? Mark I have an XDA-2 and a UPA-200. Currently my top choice for a streamer is the Bluesound Powernode, although the lack of aux input is a drawback. Second choice is a Sonos setup. I've also considered replacing my old Panasonic BD player with an Oppo. That would allow me to use DLNA streaming (my music is stored on a NAS). With any of these the XDA-2 is redundant because they all have good DACs included. I could keep the UPA-200 and get the ampless version of whichever streamer I get, but my current thinking is that I might as well sell it and go all in. A minor consideration is that none of the streamers seem to have a trigger output leaving me no way to turn on the amp with a remote. I'm also not in love with the full size components like I once was (the UPA almost hits the back of my cabinet). Edit: So now I was just checking out the bluesound and sonos websites and realized that none of these have headphone outputs, which are absolutely necessary for me for late night listening since I'm in a condo. So I guess that would mean that the XDA-2 would get replaced by a standard preamp and the streamer would be a separate component. In that case I would probably just get the USP-1 and keep my amp. Sonos Play 5 should have a headphone jack. Probably not a real high quality headphone amp in there though. Headphone amps are pretty reasonable though. |
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jtk
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Post by jtk on Oct 25, 2013 9:34:38 GMT -5
Yeah, it looks like it does. I don't want built in speakers though (I was looking at either the Connect or the Connect:Amp).
The Bryston is way out of my budget. The specs on it look great though.
Looking back, I should have just kept my Squeezebox. Oh well.
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emovac
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Post by emovac on Oct 25, 2013 11:29:58 GMT -5
Yeah, it looks like it does. I don't want built in speakers though (I was looking at either the Connect or the Connect:Amp). The Bryston is way out of my budget. The specs on it look great though. Looking back, I should have just kept my Squeezebox. Oh well. I have a couple of the Sonos Connect players (ZP90). You could connect the line output to a small headphone amp and use the digital output to your system... You might be able to find a squeezebox on the used market, but they go for a premium price these days... |
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