IIRC, the 8006 is out now
or look at Oppo
or look at Oppo
Network Audio Player - need some basic advice
I am a bit of a Marantz fanboy and currently listen to mostly vinyl and cd's. I have over 500 of each and never seem to be short of listening options. I use a Marantz PM-11S3 integrated amp and an SA-8004 SACD player.
This weekend my boys pressed me on why I cannot access music online. Being an old fart, I had no response other than to offer to play them some of my vinyl.
Shamed by my spawn, I tried to read up on what was offered by Marantz in this category. With at least four products (NA-6005; NA-8005; NA-11S1; HD DAC-1) spanning in price from $649 to $3,499, I quickly realized I had no idea what the basic selection criteria should be - there are so many formats I am unfamiliar with as well as a variety of input connections. In addition, I am quite concerned about the obsolescence factor given how rapidly these formats seem to change. I also do not understand why some have wireless connectivity and some do not and whether this is a big deal or not as my system is on a different floor than my incoming service.
My SA-8004 has a USB port on the front and coax and optical inputs /outputs on the rear, plus an input labeled "USB DAC" which is an unusual shaped input unlike the usb on the front panel. The PM-11S3 only has RCA inputs.
Can someone give me ( or point me to) a basic primer on this topic? What are the essential features to look for? I am a complete luddite, so it needs to be REALLY basic, i.e. the more acronyms used, the more my ears begin to bleed.
I love my other Marantz gear, and start with a bias towards the brand , but are they offering a good product line for this, or are they behind the curve. If not Marantz, then what does more for the same money? If I cannot plug directly into my internet connection, is there a device I can buy to make a wireless connection?
Given my preference for vinyl and cd's, I do not want to spend a ton of money for another piece of gear, especially if it will be obsolete in a year or two.
Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.
This weekend my boys pressed me on why I cannot access music online. Being an old fart, I had no response other than to offer to play them some of my vinyl.
Shamed by my spawn, I tried to read up on what was offered by Marantz in this category. With at least four products (NA-6005; NA-8005; NA-11S1; HD DAC-1) spanning in price from $649 to $3,499, I quickly realized I had no idea what the basic selection criteria should be - there are so many formats I am unfamiliar with as well as a variety of input connections. In addition, I am quite concerned about the obsolescence factor given how rapidly these formats seem to change. I also do not understand why some have wireless connectivity and some do not and whether this is a big deal or not as my system is on a different floor than my incoming service.
My SA-8004 has a USB port on the front and coax and optical inputs /outputs on the rear, plus an input labeled "USB DAC" which is an unusual shaped input unlike the usb on the front panel. The PM-11S3 only has RCA inputs.
Can someone give me ( or point me to) a basic primer on this topic? What are the essential features to look for? I am a complete luddite, so it needs to be REALLY basic, i.e. the more acronyms used, the more my ears begin to bleed.
I love my other Marantz gear, and start with a bias towards the brand , but are they offering a good product line for this, or are they behind the curve. If not Marantz, then what does more for the same money? If I cannot plug directly into my internet connection, is there a device I can buy to make a wireless connection?
Given my preference for vinyl and cd's, I do not want to spend a ton of money for another piece of gear, especially if it will be obsolete in a year or two.
Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.
20 responses Add your response
Marantz is not the answer for you this time...... Marantz has a streamer, but they are woefully inadequate on a slick user interface that is easy to learn and use........it's clunky and getting the music into the box or getting the box to see the network isn't user friendly. I would go with the Auralic Aries Mini @ around $500.00 or so It is primarily a streamer, has all the wireless capability someone would want and supports Tidal, A MASSIVE REASON FOR DOING THIS....(if you have this device without a Tidal subscription, you need psychiatric care) If you would rather store your music files on the device itself, just add a solid state harddrive inside the box, or add an external USB drive......you'll of course need your spawn to rip your CDs to files and then fill up your drive.... The biggest reason to go Auralic is they have just the absolute easiest, slickest and most mature iphone/ipad interface out there.......it never crashes, and it's just beautiful....... I will venture a guess that once you discover the joys of sending Tidal CD quality files to your DAC and having millions of songs to choose from, it will alter your listening habits just as a DVR has altered everyone's watching habits...... |
Personally why would you be loyal to just one company when without question For less money uou can get a multi award winning player for much less. Check out the Aurender 100H it has a built in 2Terabyte hard drive ,but uou can Hook up also a external drive, and it has a 120 Gigabyte Solid State buffer,which nine of the competition offer at this price under $2700 And excellent linear power supply ,and 1Gig ethernet. Check it out ,buy a decent power cord ..p.s it has a custom App for your library And album are that is Excellent . |
Get a used Sony HAP-Z1ES and don’t look back. You can get a used one for as low as 1200-1250.00. I had a dedicated computer and dac and an Aurender N100H and dac and I like the Sony much better. The Sony HDD app is much easier to use and the sound quality is superb. It has an A+ rating in Stereophile if you believe that sort of thing. |
I’ve had experience with Bryston BDP2, Sony HAPZ1ES, Aurender & Aries. The Aurender N100H is wonderful... (If you have a USB DAC that will give you all the resolution the media player will send thru USB) Original Poster’s SACD player will NOT......so he needs something besides a USB only DAC if he’s going to have any high res capabilities... His DAC is limited thru USB to 48K. It also won’t do FLAC..... To do 24/192 he needs to be able to use the coax or optical on the rear... For his needs, I think the Aries represents the best value......is it as high performing as the Aurender? No......For the money? WAY BETTER VALUE and it gives him the capabilities that a USB only media player will not give him....and the interface I say is on par w/ Aurender..... What media player do I use? I have played with several, but always go back to my Bryston BDP2. I have a 512G ssd internal drive along with an external 4TB drive.......As to original poster’s question concerning wireless, I just use a very inexpensive wireless bridge from DLink and it works like a charm. I even power it from the usb ports of the Bryston..... If I ever upgrade from the Bryston, it will be to Aurender, but not a USB only solution as my CD Player also won’t do full resolution by USB (Estoeric K03)........the reasons for upgrade won’t have anything to do with sound quality, the Bryston is as good as it gets, it will have to do with slickening the interface and getting very smooth support for Tidal, which Bryston isn’t quite there with..... As to the Sony HAP-Z1ES. It is the absolutely WORST PIECE OF JUNK you will ever use.......stay away......there is a very good reason there are a gazillion used ones on the market........getting your library into it takes 3 friggin weeks and if it crashes you get to start all over.....the sound quality sucks.......and the ipod/ipad interface crashes constantly.....it’s basically an overpriced BRICK...... I still think his needs would be best served by an Auralic Aries Mini.... |
I second or 3rd or whatever the Auralic Aries Mini I think it's great and not just for the price. Upgrade the wall wart power supply to a linear supply like the Sbooster, around $300 and run it to a good outboard DAC and you have a very good sounding wireless system with a great interface. I wirelessly stream from my Synology NAS, think mini file server, but most of my listening these days is via Tidal for all of $20 a month it's like the cd collection of your dreams. Plus pretty sure Auralic offers a free one year Tidal subscription. |
For what it’s worth, the LampizatOr DSD Komputer music server has been amazing in my system! Here’s a link to my review on it: http://ayllonmedia.com/news/the-lampizator-dsd-komputer-an-audio-expo-in-your-living-room-or-not |
I appreciate all the feedback. Much like most other audiophile topics, opinions vary based on perspective. Given that I have spent about $6K for my entire system, I prefer at the moment to take a more modest approach to the budget for this so long as there is good value / $$$. From the above, it would seem the Auralic Aries Mini is a good place to start. jond - can you elaborate a little more on what the benefit of the upgraded power supply? Also, can you give a more specific suggestion as to a brand / model of a "good outboard DAC"? Not sure what the combined cost of the mini +sbooster+DAC adds up to, but would like to be cost conscious. I assume there is no "all in one" piece that gives you the benefits of the above at a similar price point. |
Another great option you may want to look into is the Bluesound Node 2. It goes for $500, sounds great, the BluOS is outstanding, build quality is great and it looks good. I really enjoy mine and it's the main source in my system. You can pick it from Bluesound or many other online retailers and try it for 30-60 days and if you don't love it, return it. I picked mine up at Best Buy knowing if I didn't like it I could return it with no hassles. Good luck with your search. Cheers, Scott |
SJTM: Auralic sells an upgraded linear power supply for around 300.00...... It just provides less noise, better regulation, which is important when you're talking about clocked data.......it's just a nice way to go if you can.....but certainly not mandatory..... As to a DAC, you already have a DAC.....inside your SA8004 It will do up to 24/192 resolution if you feed it through the coax connection which you can do with the Aries mini.... |
@sjtm the sbooster sells for $370 and the Aries Mini is $499 so that's $870 but the good news is if thats too big an investment you can do it in stages. Also the other posters are right just use the DAC in your SA8004 you already own it and obviously like the sound. As far as DAC's go spend some time reading the threads here there are tons of them. My personal DAC experience is limited I have been very fortunate to come across a Yamamoto YDA-1 on here a few years ago and never looked back. |
SJTM: If you decide you do not wish to use your SACD players DAC with the mini, you don't need to go to an external DAC as the Mini has a DAC!! Here is a review for you that should clear a lot up.....the Aries Mini gets you a free year of Tidal, worth 240.00 or so, so take that into account as you evaluate........I think the linear PSU is a great addition..... http://www.audiostream.com/content/auralic-aries-mini#lyP5WisRVwCb6UW5.97 |
Alternatively.... Given that SJTM is just starting in the world of digital audio...why not go "old school"! Find yourself a new or used Mac Mini. That's what the digital audio community has been using for years until companies starting coming out with stand alone machines (still using mine along with some other newer stuff). From that foundation, you have access to ALL the digital formats. You can use old hard drives laying around for external storage. You can stream Tidal...or virtually any other service, plus internet radio, plus podcasts, etc. You can use iTunes to manage your music (highly convenient!). Use a player like Audirvana or Roon (both sound fantastic) for actual playback. Sound wise, the Mac Minis compete with all but the best modern media streamers. And there are a variety of apps to help control it all. And best of all...it's just a computer, which pretty much everyone but my dad knows how to use! You may (you will) need an external DAC...but those are ubiquitous at this point. No need to spend more than a few Benjamins on one of those. BTW, check the audioquest website primer on computer audio. I read it a few years ago when I first got interested in computer based audio and it was very helpful..http://www.audioquest.com/computer-audio/ |
Hi SJTM, I am like you, complete newbie to streaming and the lots. I currently use a laptop for access to all the music I need and send it to the sacd player, (sa8004 has a built in dac), via a good usb cable. I can play physical disc or listen to any radio stations or play ripped or downloaded music through the sacd player. Oh, I have the similar unit as yours, but a later model sa8005. Digital music is still exploding and quite expansive now. Waiting for the prices to level off and the gears to stabilize. Too much choices and wide price differences now. Hope this helps. |
Since you are just getting started it might make sense to dip a toe with a Chromecast Audio. They are available at Best Buy or you can order from Google. Super easy to control via Spotify or Tidal app on a phone/tablet and sound quality via optical (into your SACD) is much (much!) higher than you might expect for $35. It's probably the best bargain in audio today. I listen to 320 kbps streams from Spotify much more than any other source format these days, just because of the ease of use and outstanding recommendation engine. |
