Streaming - where do you start

[Interzone]

Hi Ewen, didn't realise you were so close (I'm just up the road in purley). I had been running a squeezebox based network for a while and now run a mac mini/ATV set of systems. If you need any help just give me a shout.

 

[Peter Stockwell]

Airport Express only has an optical out but no coaxial, and I think that limits it significantly. I use one with a Lite DAC AH and its fine for casual Spotify use, but I've recently found that if I use the same DAC with a modest cd transport linked by coaxial it is much better, in fact quite extraordinarily good for the price of the DAC (and would be for a much higher priced DAC). I believe the Squeezebox has coaxial out and I'm probably going to try one myself for that reason. An AE is a handy little thing, but I don't think it is capable of being a primary digital source, though I'd certainly welcome correction from anyone who has found a way of optimizing its capabilities.

The Lite Dac AH is a great dac for the money, limited, I think, by only being 16 bit compatible (correct me if I'm wrong), I had one and paid 5 times as much to get something I liked better.

With a squeezebox, the maker of my current dac sez optical is better, because of ground plane noise coming from the dac, if you use Coax SPDIF there's an electrical connection between Squeezebox and Dac.

An appleTV 1st gen 1Tb is a nice device, no streaming to listen, once you have the library synced from itunes, best done with a wired connection, because with wifi it'll take for ever. But once synced, updates take a couple of minutes at a time maxi.

 

[ItemAudio]

Netbooks are 'streamers', too: cheaper, (given the local storage), upgradeable, more versatile (given internet radio, spotify, et al), wireless, and with local storage.

Always best to start with the DAC, and work your way back to the 'transport', be it computer or streaming device.

 

[imattersuk]

Sonos works perfectly and you can add extra units for multi room later on, you don't need the expensive controller there's a free app for iPod Touch & iPhone.

I have a ZP80 connected to the network via a powerline adaptor, can be picked up s/h for about £200 or a new ZP90 for £279 ish, if you want to go wireless then you need a Zone bridge for £50s/h or £79 new.

I would also use a NAS to store the files, if you run everything from a laptop or computer if it goes wrong you can't access your music, best to keep it separate imo.

Then a nice simple DAC like an Arcam rDAC £299 or a Rega £498 if you want something a little better.