CA Stream Magic 6 -- Review Discrepancy

[Alexius]

I posted a user review of the Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6. (I don't know if it will be allowed -- it's highly negative.)

<p>What I wonder is this: Why is my experience with this model so much at odds with the professional reviewers? Why didn't any of them mention how slow it is at loading indices from the server; that it cannot play correctly tagged tracks of multi-CD albums in the correct order; that it only displays 3 FLAC tags (Artist, Album, Title -- but not Composer, let alone other tags); that the built-in display can only display a subset of ISO 8859-1; that it lacks high-speed scrubbing; that it is buggy and tech support is poor or non-existent; and so on.

 

[robbo400]

I'm a real luddite when it comes to technology but was looking for a network streamer to listen to internet radio, cds stored on my iTunes account and (form other people's recommendations) Spotify. I'll be spending the next 3 years abroad but will only move my secondary system (CA amp, cdp and tuner from mid 90s) with no cds or vinyl.

I was thinking of going for the Stream Magic 6. I don't believe reviews, so was interested to hear your comments. I really need reliability and simplicity of use with domestic wifi.

Do you have any other suggestions? A friend has recommended Musical Fidelity M1 CLIC. I'd prefer to pay more for reliabilty than save money and forever be with a non-working component. I'll be abroad where there are no nearby hifi dealers and I don't yet fully master the language.

Thanks

 

[Alexius]

Sorry, I do not have any recommendations. But, IMHO, if you're interested in Internet radio (severely compressed audio), you're wasting your money buying an expensive player. If you're using iTunes, then you're better off looking for a player which supports AirPlay. Or perhaps look into using a Mac Mini instead of a player.

 

[HDNumpty]

Hi all. This is perhaps a little unfair on the SM6 - it does sound fabulous and has a good few uses, however there are some problems:

It seems to be fussy over ID tags. I had a big problem with Apple Lossless files transferred from my iTunes library and had to re-rip a number of CDs to FLAC using EAC or DBPoweramp.

it is a little buggy and occasionally stutters or crashes when moving from CD quality (44.1/16) files to 88.2/96Khz 24-bit on shuffle.

it takes around 2 minutes to load my 4,500 track lossless library

when 'shuffling all' it has a habit of playing the same tracks meaning you have to re-shuffle.

other than the above it's a great player with insightful and detailed sound.

if you're looking for something easy to operate, go for Sonos or one of the newer systems like Bluesound.