Audio Engine A5 vs amp + speakers vs midi system

[admin_exported]

I'm setting up a system and streaming FLAC (lossless) files wirelessly to a bedroom which is 4m x4m. I've seen good reviews for the AE A5s (£250) but they all talk about streaming mp3 files and was wondering if I'd be better off going for a budget amp + speakers if I'm streaming FLAC files.

Would appreciate any suggestions for amp + speakers up to £300 max if indeed there is anythign out there at that price.

Many thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Swippy,

I have just upgraded from the Bose active speakers to a Fatman itube amp and ipod dock which I am very impressed with. I bought it from bestpricehotdeals.com for £125 delivered. I bought the Tannoy F1 custom speakers to go with it and they sound superb I paid £85 delivered from forumhifivisual.co.uk.

I already had a dac (Fubar11) which I paid about £100 for from Russ Andrews again via net, I think its a bit more now .

I hav all my music in lossless on the pc which is in a room approx the same size as yours.

The music played off the ipod direct into the amp is very good without the dac and it would come under your budget with the Tannoys.

Hope this helps, there are reviews of the fatman and tannoys on the what hifi site.

 

[professorhat]

If you can stomach refurbs, these Epoz Akitmates are definitely worth a look - I stream Apple Lossless to them from my Mac and am very happy with the results. They're normally about £350 new (WHF review here).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Prof - they look cool.

So you'd still go for something like these over an amp and passive speakers for lossless? Thinking it would be nice just to have the controller and speakers as the only kit for the room.

 

[professorhat]

Well, I couldn't honestly say that a separate amp and speakers would definitely not sound better, but I didn't actually consider it for my bedroom / office because I just don't have room for the amp - powered speakers were definitely the way forward in that case. However, I do know the sound the AkitMates provide is just lovely and at some point I'm intending to get an external DAC to improve it further (hopefully!).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks I was reading about DACs ... is there really that much quality lost when ripping and playing back FLAC files? I'm keen to just store away my CDs and have the convenience of storing my music rather than rummaging through the cases.

 

[professorhat]

Hi there - DACs aren't really about replacing quality lost during the ripping and playing back of lossless files. A DAC is a Digital to Analogue Converter so is responsible for converting the digital files on your PC / Mac to an analogue signal that the amplifier can understand and send the correct sound from the speakers. So in my case, I'm using the DAC which is built into the Airport Express unit I stream from which, although pretty good considering the cost of the AE unit, really isn't good enough for the Epoz AktiMates - they deserve better. So I will be getting an external DAC at some point and hooking my Airport Express with a digital optical cable to it which then offloads this digital to analogue conversion process to a better piece of equipment and thus the sound quality improves.

How do you intend to hook up your computer based setup?

 

[Anonymous]

I was looking at Solo Minis and such but ended up using my MacBook with Neutron 5 Amp Pak speakers, which were on special offer. The sound is better than I expected for the money.

 

[Anonymous]

Was going to rip my CDs to FLAC or other lossless format. Store the files on a Tranquil pc T7 windows home server hooked up to a wireless modem, use squeezebox to stream the FLAC files wirelessly to 3 rooms, use an iphone as a controller as well as the squeezebox controllers. I thought I didn't need anything else if I use the squeezebox.

Mnay thanks

 

[professorhat]

You probably don't, though I'm all at sea with the Squeezebox to be honest (never used one and not really read much about it) so I'll let someone else come in at this point!

 

[method man]

H Swippy. I use a squeezebox streaming to active speakers. it has its own dac. but so do my speakers so i use that via the squeezebox optical out.

You might like to look at my system thread in the 'Your System' section of the forum:

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/272669.aspx

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks - that's really helpful. I've looked at the Sonos, ZE and squeezebox and I think squeezebox is coming out on top. I'm pretty new to all this but hopefully getting a better idea as to what's possible.

I'm in a great position of not having to match any existing equipment so I'm hoping I can get away with a simple set up that still sounds great.