confused about streaming...help please

[sooty]

Hi all - first time poster here.

I'm a hifi novice. It's best if you assume I have zero knowledge!

I'm in the market for something decent to listen to music on and I'm happy to spend up to and around £600. I don't have an extensive music collection, so will be looking to use an online streaming service for most of my listening.

For the budget I've mentioned, what is my best bet in terms of sound quality? I have been advised that a separates system will give me the best return for my money in terms of sound quality but from what I can see these aren't particularly compatible with streaming, unless coupled with a streaming device e.g. QED uPlay. The other option of course is a mini system with built-in streaming such as the Marantz MCR610. Which of these would be best? Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?!

Thanks in advance for your patient feedback

sooty

 

[Paulq]

Hi all - first time poster here.

I'm a hifi novice. It's best if you assume I have zero knowledge!

I'm in the market for something decent to listen to music on and I'm happy to spend up to and around £600. I don't have an extensive music collection, so will be looking to use an online streaming service for most of my listening.

For the budget I've mentioned, what is my best bet in terms of sound quality? I have been advised that a separates system will give me the best return for my money in terms of sound quality but from what I can see these aren't particularly compatible with streaming, unless coupled with a streaming device e.g. QED uPlay. The other option of course is a mini system with built-in streaming such as the Marantz MCR610. Which of these would be best? Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?!

Thanks in advance for your patient feedback

sooty

No you're not. If you want to use an online service then the Marantz is a great choice as it offers options and is actually very capable (i have one). It has a built in Spotify client as well as Airplay support so is pretty much a 'just add speakers' option.

From what you have said about what you are looking for you won't go far wrong with it - it's a very good choice and sounds good too.

Good luck.

 

[davedotco]

If you do not need a CD player the Yamaha Rn301 is good value at just a little over £200, more powerful but very different from the Marantz models.

If the functionality suits, try both into a pair of decent speakers and see which works best for you. The Rn500 is even better if you can find one, ideally for around £300.

 

[radiorog]

I'm surprised nobody has advised active speakers for this price range yet, with a tablet or smartphone connected via Bluetooth....or maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Leeps]

The Marantz & Yamaha RN500 are good shouts, although if I was going for the Marantz and I didn't have a CD collection, I'd look at the about-to-be-ińtroduced Marantz MCR511 which loses the CD player, is £329 and this year adds the slightly more versatile Spotify Connect which allows you to use your smartphone app as the Spotify remote but streams directly through the ethernet cable. The MCR511 just leaves a bigger slice of your budget for speakers, although to be fair the outgoing MCR610 (with the CD player) is being heavily discounted at the moment, but doesn't have Spotify Connect. The '511 is a very capable and discreetly diminutive system.

These suggestions apply if you're particularly looking at Spotify of course.

Another Spotify-centric option would be an Amazon Fire TV (which offers Spotify Connect) into any amp/DAC combo, like the NAD D3020 for example. It's a shame that Tidal don't offer their service on Roku/Amazon type boxes at their comparatively low cost and digital optical outs.

The Marantz & Yamaha do offer Apple Airplay too, so if you were an Apple user, it could open up other streaming service to you like Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and the like.

 

[davedotco]

For my money I would most certainly go with the active option.

Personally I would use Spotify Connect > Fire TV > inexpensive dac > Active speakers.

Control from the Spotify app on my iThing, levels matched using the input attenuators on the speakers, volume in Spotify.

Plenty of speakers to choose from Adam, Yamaha, Presonus etc etc. My personal favourite is the Equator D5, out of production at the moment though a Mk2 is promised.

A system as above with the D5 will be well within budget, including good stands and cables and to my ears a performance way beyond any component hi-fi at comparable cost.

I rarely bother to recommend such things these days, unless specifically asked. Most on here are extremely reluctant to step out of the cosy Richers/Sevenoaks/What Hi-Fi bubble.

 

[sooty]

Some great advice, thanks all. Interesting how even experienced hi-fi users will give sometimes quite different advice - makes me feel less stupid for not seeing the 'obvious' answer straight away!

 

[davedotco]

Some great advice, thanks all. Interesting how even experienced hi-fi users will give sometimes quite different advice - makes me feel less stupid for not seeing the 'obvious' answer straight away!

It may be the obvious answer, but is it the best?

 

[jjbomber]

Some great advice, thanks all. Interesting how even experienced hi-fi users will give sometimes quite different advice - makes me feel less stupid for not seeing the 'obvious' answer straight away!

That's because experience hi-fi users do what's best for them and not what's best for you.

 

[davedotco]

Some great advice, thanks all. Interesting how even experienced hi-fi users will give sometimes quite different advice - makes me feel less stupid for not seeing the 'obvious' answer straight away!

That's because experience hi-fi users do what's best for them and not what's best for you.

This is of course pretty much always the case, everyone just recommends their favourites, or the forum favourites to show that they 'know their stuff'.

This forms a cosy little circle based around WHF and their 'supporting' dealers, it all becomes a kind of self fulfilling retail experience.

People ask for advice, which is fair enough, but the best advice comes from a dealer who can back up what he says with constructive and informative demonstrations.

Sadly, few dealers will do this these days, far easier to keep it simple and flog the high profile 'best buys'.

 

[Andy Clough]

Denon has just cut the cost of its CEOL Piccolo and CEOL RCD-N9 streaming systems, which may be of interest:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/denon-cuts-price-its-ceol-piccolo-and-rcd-n9-music-systems

We'll be testing the Denon Piccolo and also the new Marantz M-CR611 Melody Media system shortly as part of our Awards judging, results to be published soon.