About to get a Cambridge Audio streamer..

[Stevie9]

Hi,

I am saving up for a network streamer... but it would be great to hear from someone who has one to let me know if there is a big step up in quality than just plugging your laptop into the AUX inputs.

The streamer I want is the wrong end of £700 so I hope its all worthwhile. I know good streamers have good DAC's on board.. I know they consolidate all your digi music files in one place.. I know they come with cool operating apps to flick seamlessly through the collection. but the bottom line for me is the sound.. it has to sound better.

I have been put off from mp3/4 files, learning that they are between 1/4 and 1/11th of the quality of cd.. thats just not good enough for me.

Any fans out there of Streamers....??

Please help me spend my money.. !!!!

Stephen.

Creek/Linn Axis/Audiolab 8000a mk2/Tannoy 611 mk2 floor standers.. AQ wiring..

 

[iQ Speakers]

Hi,

I am saving up for a network streamer... but it would be great to hear from someone who has one to let me know if there is a big step up in quality than just plugging your laptop into the AUX inputs.

The streamer I want is the wrong end of £700 so I hope its all worthwhile. I know good streamers have good DAC's on board.. I know they consolidate all your digi music files in one place.. I know they come with cool operating apps to flick seamlessly through the collection. but the bottom line for me is the sound.. it has to sound better.

I have been put off from mp3/4 files, learning that they are between 1/4 and 1/11th of the quality of cd.. thats just not good enough for me.

Any fans out there of Streamers....??

Please help me spend my money.. !!!!

Stephen.

Creek/Linn Axis/Audiolab 8000a mk2/Tannoy 611 mk2 floor standers.. AQ wiring..

Hi Stephe, Aux conection to amp what sort of cable is it? If you are using the headphone output yes most definatly. Its probally the CXN you are looking at and yes it sounds very good, upsamples and makes Spotify sound thick and lush. Its also highly conveniant I really like mine. Tryed a Linn Majik DS when i replace my SM6 and it was not as good with Spotifiy. Go spend!

 

[splasher]

It will definitely sound better than plugging your laptop into the aux input because your laptop sound card will not be a match for the DAC in the streamer. One thing to consider is where you intend to keep your music and how you intend to get it to the streamer. Close by and by Ethernet cable is much better for a hassle free life than anything that involves distance or wifi. Also, do you want to run the laptop every time you want to play music to act as your server? If not, budget for a NAS drive.

 

[Stevie9]

IQ Speakers..

Yes, I'll probably go for it.. otherwise I'll spend the money on a mountain bike.. !!

What do you use for music data storage? I am just researching that at the moment. I was looking up Synology NAS bits and they sounded ok for around 250/300 quid.. but then I realised that you have to buy the darn hard drives to go into the enclosures... then the prices took a leap !! OMG..

So now I am looking at red and green drives.. RAIDs.. oh dear.. not sure where to turn now.. or what I need.. I only need 1-5TB of storage.. any pointers on that lot?

I'll probably post up something on the network storage forum..

Stephen.

 

[splasher]

If you have all of your music on your laptop, you don't need a raid drive because you can keep a copy on a single drive NAS and use the laptop copy as your backup. Something like a LaCie cloud box is cheap and simple (just over £100 including drive) and provides DLNA and uPNP for music streaming https://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10597