@danvignau
yes
yes
Where are the cheap home streamers?
When CD players were first introduced, they were $1000 and more new. And this was in early 80's dollars. New ones would eventually drop to under $200, and new players that also play most all formats can still be had around at that price or less. Sure, not the best quality, but they work well enough for most.
The new frontier is of course, streaming. Whether from a local host, online, and so on. Many options in the high end, but what seems odd is the lack of budget options. Probably the least expensive that's of decent quality is the Sonos Connect. Oh sure, you can pair a computer or tablet with a cheap DAC, and get by. Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi solution. And yes, most disc players are "smart" and can stream audio and video just fine. Among other issues, is that the budget options are defaulting to HDMI out, and omitting Optical, Digital, and Analog out.
There were some early efforts by Sony and Dlink a few years ago. Both not only required a display, but were pretty terrible implementations overall. We recently tried one of the Dayton WBA 31s. For a mere $50, expectations were of course also modest. As you might imagine, analog audio out is not great. Below that of many phones we'd say. It does however had an optical output. A dealbreaker for most of our clients in terms of added complexity. If produced in sufficient number, there is no good reason such a unit with a decent DAC couldn't be built and sold for $200 or so. Or maybe someone is doing this, and it's just not well distributed?
The new frontier is of course, streaming. Whether from a local host, online, and so on. Many options in the high end, but what seems odd is the lack of budget options. Probably the least expensive that's of decent quality is the Sonos Connect. Oh sure, you can pair a computer or tablet with a cheap DAC, and get by. Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi solution. And yes, most disc players are "smart" and can stream audio and video just fine. Among other issues, is that the budget options are defaulting to HDMI out, and omitting Optical, Digital, and Analog out.
There were some early efforts by Sony and Dlink a few years ago. Both not only required a display, but were pretty terrible implementations overall. We recently tried one of the Dayton WBA 31s. For a mere $50, expectations were of course also modest. As you might imagine, analog audio out is not great. Below that of many phones we'd say. It does however had an optical output. A dealbreaker for most of our clients in terms of added complexity. If produced in sufficient number, there is no good reason such a unit with a decent DAC couldn't be built and sold for $200 or so. Or maybe someone is doing this, and it's just not well distributed?
- ...
- 79 posts total
@austinstereo / O/P klipsch streamer is playfi costs about $130 (I forget exactly) and sounds better than Bluesound node 2i. Unlike raspberry Pi it’s plug and play. Their ap used to be quite bad so you’ll see early reviews as bad but is much improved. If your customers use just Spotify the ap becomes moot/is no longer used after initial setup I’m long past this level but it’s right in your customer’s sweet spot. They’re young right, and they’re probably already using Spotify. This (and tidal’s new similar system that not on much hardware yet) is key for you. It unhinges the streamer from control/phone. The answer to your original question is that hardware is probably less than half the question. Software has to be developed and maintained and that’s expensive. Software is also probably more than half the decision for the user. A big qualification in order if you want to sell any inexpensive streamer. This can be solved by the maker/seller by adapting canned systems like playfi and can be solved by the user by staying with Spotify (or both). There are about 6 decently good flexible streamers in the $ 4-6 hundred range. There are a couple of good threads on here where many gave good info about this. I did a summary in one of my posts (it was made less hastily than this one). Chrome cast sound is just bad. It’s a moot point I k ow for you because the audio only is discontinued. People who say it sounds good are either lying or don’t know the difference between good sound and bad. It’s useful for SoundCloud, Bandcamp but. Ugh. Also, it’s a problem for apples. Finally, take a look at this below. I haven’t used this gizmo but this reviewer is respected for his koweledge of digital audio (although not necessarily his politics or taste in music) : https://youtu.be/NvF1lTsgv6o Apologize to other members if I’m repeating their ideas (I didn’t read the entire thread) and to you if you k ow this stuff already. |
Hi @drugolf you said “My DAC is a Denafrips so I wanted to get high res files when available so that also limited me with the Bluesound that does not output those digitally when connecting it just as a streamer to the Denafrips.” I have the 700$ Denafrips DAC outbound from a Node2 . I stream 24/192 to it w/o issue ( files in my local server ) . The display in dac confirms resolution . What am I missing? be safe Bill |
- 79 posts total