HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Being new to streaming I wondered wot you are using; it’s a crowed market and a varied market not only in price but in specifications. You add additional dac facilities, a pre amp, remote and fancy display screen its starts to add up. £££££ There are some ridiculous units on eBay.
I currently am experimenting with several budget items- initially had a £20 Chinese Bluetooth rx/ tx with optical and analog inputs. I Bluetooth this from cdp and more recently a Tibo smart streamer to a project receiver box E into either Beresford dac or straight to the P50.
The tibo can control the volume via its remote. I also have an Apple TV box I AirPlay to which is optical out to the Beresford dac then P50.
To play my digital that is max 6 boxes and min 3 boxes depending on the source.
I like the music (vinyl taking a back seat as I experiment) and sometimes iPhone- Pro-Ject box E - p50 is all I need but ties up my phone.
Browsing I see units from MF- M1 clic for example or Naim Uniti.... which are a few years old now but would reduce my box count; would the sound quality be any better- difficult to gauge - I want streamer for internet radio, airplay, dac, pre-out, large display & remote-
Wot do you use

The whole market is bonkers IMO. All you need is a computer, a USB - HTML converter, a Chinese £5 dac (and linear PSU), and membership to Tidal or similar, is it really any harder than this.

Less than 100 squids plus membership to the source of the music.

Chromecast/BubbleUPnP and RaspberryPi/Dac Board/Volumio with ripped CDS on a SAN

I'm new to streaming as well, didn't want spend loads of pounds as it's not my prime source so I bought a second hand Cambridge NP30 for £100. It goes into my MF DAC and MF tube buffer and on into the shouty bits. Sounds pretty good using Spotify Premium and I quite like investigating all the online radio stations. I've no thoughts of changing for a more modern or fancier unit, it's simply a convenient way to listen to music.

I still use a Squeezebox.
Have tried a few different ways with a mac mini and an apple TV, but went back to the Squeezebox.
I've got 2 now so if one packs up I have a spare.
I keep going back to the Squeezebox because it suits me perfectly. I can see the display from across the room about 5m away as it's big and clear, it has both optical and coax out if I want a dac, and sounds fine off its own outputs.
Does all the stuff off iTunes I have plus radio, and there are plug-ins available for other subscription based services.
Not very expensive either

My primary source is streaming, mainly from ripped CD's as files on a network HD.

Pi-based streamers are cheap and cheerful with add-on boards from the likes of HiFiBerry and Allo giving either analogue or digital output. Software is free to use and the user interface can be run from any smartphone, tablet or PC.

Because a Pi is a standalone computer which is here dedicated to the sole task of processing music signals, SQ can be very impressive.

Upgrading to better boards, power supplies etc won't break the bank either.

Almost everything I play is streamed, either from Qobuz or ripped CDs. My set ups are detailed in my signature. The main system is not cheap but putting things in context I do not believe a vinyl or CD front end could compete at the same price. I have experienced two quantum leaps in SQ. The first was the addition of a WiFi streamer which replaced a physical connection to my PC. The second, accounting for most of the cost, is the Mscaler, a technology which I think has raised the bar when partnered with a transparant system. I have the cheapest DAC which will provide the maximum upsampling. DACs do sound different and the SQ of the three I use is reflected in their prices. I recognise the diminishing returns as DAC prices increase.

Being able to control everything from the same phone, which I do not use for calls, is important to me. I stream to my main system through the BubbleUp App. There is a physical connection via USB Audio Player Pro to the second system, or headphones where ever I am.

Vinyl-ant wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:34 pm I still use a Squeezebox.
Have tried a few different ways with a mac mini and an apple TV, but went back to the Squeezebox.
I've got 2 now so if one packs up I have a spare.
I keep going back to the Squeezebox because it suits me perfectly. I can see the display from across the room about 5m away as it's big and clear, it has both optical and coax out if I want a dac, and sounds fine off its own outputs.
Does all the stuff off iTunes I have plus radio, and there are plug-ins available for other subscription based services.
Not very expensive either

Same for me. I've been using my Squeezebox Touch for all my streaming and internet radio for many a year now. Long discontinued now by Logitech but it's a star and plenty available 2nd hand for about £100-£125. Plenty of advice and help on the slimdevices.com forum too.

My track record with streaming is with 3 different sources.

First up was a Naim NDX which I purchased new. Took about 2 months to burn in. Was ok one day and awful the next.... The addition of a Naim dac did not bring much of an improvement. Adding a Teddy XPS to the dac finally made streaming worthwhile but this was not what anybody would call an inexpensive option.

As part of my migration from Naim to Teddy Pardo, the Naim dac/Teddy XPS was replaced with a Teddy dac with a volume control. One less box and money in the bank ! Oh, also an improvement (to my ears).

The NDX was subsequently replaced by a squeezebox touch with a Teddy psu and was a welcome improvement. If you have a squeezebox then I would recommend that you consider one of Teddys power supplies. They are superb value for money.

The squeezebox needs a network attached storage drive to work. The other Stemcors were always complaining about the flashing lights (I suspect they had visions of the thing bursting into flames in the middle of the night). The NAS was replaced by a second hand Mac mini to give me the classic Mac and dac combo. I like it as much as squeezebox and domestic harmony has been restored.

If I was to think about a change then I would take a long look at a raspberry pi. I know that others have been full of praise and it seems to me that there is something of the “less is more” about the device.

On the subject of dacs; I think that the Teddy dac is excellent but I also took a punt on the docs £5 Chinese dac with a separate psu (total cost about £50). You get about 95% of the Teddy dac for a very small investment. It’s well worth considering. If any body is curious and wants to borrow mine, please make your interest known in this thread and we can then discuss further via pm.

CN211276 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:54 pm The main system is not cheap but putting things in context I do not believe a vinyl or CD front end could compete at the same price.

Beginning to believe this- and that is why I wonder about ‘better’ equipment- saying that I just bought a new tonearm and a MI cartridge- Grado Prestige Reference 1- the wood body one.
(Total price paid was +£300- could do a lot with that...)