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Post by jdubs on Feb 3, 2016 15:00:53 GMT -5
My new Schiit Gungnir doesn't play nice with my Airport Express. Rather than ditch a DAC that sounds amazing (just changes reclocking all the time with the AE), I thought I'd explore replacing the AE. A streamer with AirPlay capability is preferred, but I am good with something that runs on its own platform. I understand Squeezebox is no more. What should I be looking at?
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Post by pallpoul on Feb 3, 2016 15:05:10 GMT -5
Sonos connect,...and never look back.
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Post by brubacca on Feb 3, 2016 15:47:25 GMT -5
I have the Gungnir MB and have tried my squeezebox touch USB with the EDO app. If you don't mind used this works. A friend who also uses a Gumby uses a Bluesound mode 2, but he literally set it up
Last night and uses it briefly.
Also a auralic Aries mini looks very interesting to try.
Good Luck
What is your budget?
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Post by mshump on Feb 3, 2016 15:53:31 GMT -5
I bought the Cambridge cxn around a month ago when it was on sale. it has airplay, and the DAC in it up-samples. So far I am very happy with it.
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klinemj
Emo VIPs 
Official Emofest Scribe
Posts: 15,100
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Post by klinemj on Feb 3, 2016 17:49:25 GMT -5
I second the Sonos reco. Great interface, great ability to pull from local and internet sources, great customer support. I was really skeptical when I bought one. Now, I own 8 Sonos products, with 1 Connect serving my main system, 1 serving a 2nd system, and others feeding the whole house.
Mark
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Post by brubacca on Feb 3, 2016 18:37:45 GMT -5
I bought the Cambridge cxn around a month ago when it was on sale. it has airplay, and the DAC in it up-samples. So far I am very happy with it. Can you please elaborate on the functionality of this unit? Have you plugged a usb stick with files into the unit? Or just streamed? Is the display nice and useful? |
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Post by audiobill on Feb 3, 2016 19:02:39 GMT -5
Check out Computer Audioplile . Com.
Lots of discussion about this topic there.....
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Post by sidvicious on Feb 3, 2016 19:30:39 GMT -5
Here is the list you requested: The Auralic Aries LE Wireless Streaming Bridge, Auralic Aries Mini Wireless Streamer, Aurender N100H Network Music Player, Bluesound Node 2 Streaming Music Player, Bluesound Powernode 2 Music Player with Amp, Bryston BDP 1 and 2, Cambridge Audio CXN, Cambridge 851N, Cocktail Audio X40 Hifi Aduio System with CD, Marantz NA-8005/NA6005, Marantz M CR611 Wireless Network CD Receiver w/Air Play, Pro-Ject Media Box S Digital Music File Player, Pro-Ject Stream Box RS Music Streaming Client and the Sony HAP-Z1ES. All of the Marantz’s should have Air Play and all can be found at reduced prices on Music Direct and Audio Advisor in some form. Good luck.
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Post by mshump on Feb 3, 2016 20:33:54 GMT -5
I bought the Cambridge cxn around a month ago when it was on sale. it has airplay, and the DAC in it up-samples. So far I am very happy with it. Can you please elaborate on the functionality of this unit? Have you plugged a usb stick with files into the unit? Or just streamed? Is the display nice and useful? brubacca No I haven't used a stick. I really like the display , it shows artwork. I have jriver on my pc (FLAC) in the office and I stream from there. I was very worried about the upsampling so I was pretty hesitant to purchase it. I am very happy with the SQ. I have it in my living room system with the xmc-1, Xpa-3 and magnepan 1.7's. I had a Marantz network streamer and DAC and was never very pleased. I sold it a couple months ago. The Marantz to me sounded very dull, whereas the Cambridge is much more open and lively (for lack of better words). Other than the price I am extremely happy with it so far. I am slowly playing with the app on my Samsung note and so far It seems pretty good controlling the CXN |
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Post by visiter555 on Feb 4, 2016 8:54:25 GMT -5
Buy a Celeron ChromeBox and run it dual boot OpenElec with Kodi on it.
The install and config is simple (full instructions on the Kodi site) and it just works.
Price is dependant on the ChromeBox (~$149 for the Dell version with wireless AC included)) and the base Celeron and 2 GB ram is more than enough.
It hasn't crashed or choked on anything I have thrown on it yet and I have configured a dozen for friends and family to play music, videos, photos etc from attached USB sicks, external HDs, NAS and remote (Dropbox etc).
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Post by bluemeanies on Feb 4, 2016 8:59:52 GMT -5
If you are going to consider SONUS consider APPLE TV with TIDAL.
Streaming was never so easy. CD quality playback, artwork and your own catalogs of music.
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Post by garym on Feb 4, 2016 9:56:35 GMT -5
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Post by jdubs on Feb 4, 2016 10:33:25 GMT -5
Tons of great suggestions here. I really appreciate the response! I'm gonna have to do research on some of these and see where I go with it.
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KeithL
Administrator 
Posts: 10,274
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Post by KeithL on Feb 4, 2016 12:59:35 GMT -5
In general, unless it's done very badly, upsampling won't hurt anything. (Under normal circumstances, it won't help anything either, which is what a lot of people seem to want you to think. Downsampling actually reduces quality by discarding information, upsampling usually just adds "useless but harmless" extra data.) Can you please elaborate on the functionality of this unit? Have you plugged a usb stick with files into the unit? Or just streamed? Is the display nice and useful? brubacca No I haven't used a stick. I really like the display , it shows artwork. I have jriver on my pc (FLAC) in the office and I stream from there. I was very worried about the upsampling so I was pretty hesitant to purchase it. I am very happy with the SQ. I have it in my living room system with the xmc-1, Xpa-3 and magnepan 1.7's. I had a Marantz network streamer and DAC and was never very pleased. I sold it a couple months ago. The Marantz to me sounded very dull, whereas the Cambridge is much more open and lively (for lack of better words). Other than the price I am extremely happy with it so far. I am slowly playing with the app on my Samsung note and so far It seems pretty good controlling the CXN |
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Post by jdubs on Feb 5, 2016 6:58:31 GMT -5
Buy a Celeron ChromeBox and run it dual boot OpenElec with Kodi on it. The install and config is simple (full instructions on the Kodi site) and it just works. Price is dependant on the ChromeBox (~$149 for the Dell version with wireless AC included)) and the base Celeron and 2 GB ram is more than enough. It hasn't crashed or choked on anything I have thrown on it yet and I have configured a dozen for friends and family to play music, videos, photos etc from attached USB sicks, external HDs, NAS and remote (Dropbox etc). I've looked into this a bit. Why not get a Windows based mini-PC? What is the advantage of Chromebox? |
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Post by brubacca on Feb 5, 2016 10:58:09 GMT -5
Buy a Celeron ChromeBox and run it dual boot OpenElec with Kodi on it. The install and config is simple (full instructions on the Kodi site) and it just works. Price is dependant on the ChromeBox (~$149 for the Dell version with wireless AC included)) and the base Celeron and 2 GB ram is more than enough. It hasn't crashed or choked on anything I have thrown on it yet and I have configured a dozen for friends and family to play music, videos, photos etc from attached USB sicks, external HDs, NAS and remote (Dropbox etc). I've looked into this a bit. Why not get a Windows based mini-PC? What is the advantage of Chromebox? Because then you are stuck with having to maintain and update a windows PC. By the time you buy this and add the necessary tweaks and programs to do it right you might as well buy a dedicated device that is focused on audio. A Auralic Aries Mini is $550 and has the ability to add a internal SSD for storage. I do not have one, but I'd buy one before I bought or built another PC as a music server. The Aries Mini also comes with a year or two of Tidal. Seems like a no brainier to me. |
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Post by visiter555 on Feb 5, 2016 16:18:28 GMT -5
I've looked into this a bit. Why not get a Windows based mini-PC? What is the advantage of Chromebox? Because then you are stuck with having to maintain and update a windows PC. By the time you buy this and add the necessary tweaks and programs to do it right you might as well buy a dedicated device that is focused on audio. A Auralic Aries Mini is $550 and has the ability to add a internal SSD for storage. I do not have one, but I'd buy one before I bought or built another PC as a music server. The Aries Mini also comes with a year or two of Tidal. Seems like a no brainier to me. The advantages: 1. Lower upfront cost - The ChromeBoxes pop up on sale occasionally for $99 (keyboard/mouse extra) 2. No Windows to slow down the system 3. The OpenElec OS runs far faster and is more stable than any version of Windows. 4. You control OS updates/patches/fixes unlike the auto download function in Windows 10 5. Lower processor, ram, HD etc in the ChromeBox with better performance Simply put, it just keeps on running and running. I have two independent networks run off Windows servers in the house, so I am not anit Microsoft, it is simple economics and you can let your kids use it with ZERO problems because they messed up a Windows setting. |
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Post by jdubs on Feb 5, 2016 16:32:22 GMT -5
That all makes sense. Is Kodi (installed on this at my system), able to find my iTunes files on my PC over the network? And, there is a Tidal add-on, I think, right?
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Post by audiobill on Feb 5, 2016 16:39:47 GMT -5
I really like my mac mini as a server........wireless and ethernet built right in.
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Post by copperpipe on Feb 5, 2016 17:30:00 GMT -5
I really like my mac mini as a server........wireless and ethernet built right in. Is your mini capable of streaming bluray over wi-fi? Mine stutters like crazy, even the ethernet port gives a dropout once in the blue moon. My workstation (same software) has no trouble streaming blurays; thought there might be something wrong with my mac mini but I wire everything up in my house anyway; nothing beats a physical cable! |
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