i pod through Home Cinema System

[admin_exported]

I would like to play music through my Home Cinema System but a CD played on my Sony 760 was nothing to shout about.

One option would obviously be to buy a budget CD player but I've been reading about the Onkyo ND-S1 and I wondered if I would be better off buying one of these and playing my ipod through that instead.

I do have room on my rack for a CD player and I guess £150 would buy a decent budget player.

Does anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Mr Gaz]

Alot depends on what bit rate your storing your music files.

I would have thought a cd played through sony 760 would compare with a dock with ipod playback. i use Russ Andrews GQ25 ipod cable connected to phonos on amp, this sound as good as a budget cd player to me.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mr Gaz. So in your opinion there wouldn't be any point in spending any more than the £73 cost of the GQ25 if I'm playing the pod through a home cinema system?

 

[Mr Gaz]

No, i picked mine up cheap off fleebay i would have bought the cheaper GQ24 check whfi reviews, only annoyance is manually changing tracks best to use playlists.

 

[Anonymous]

I personally prefer not using ipod docks as they look cheap and nasty, try just burning straight to disc and play as normal. My opinion though. Maybe i just need to get with the times

 

[Anonymous]

Nothing wrong with expressing an opinion - that's what these forums are for after all.

I can see one practical advantage of a dock over a CD, home burnt or like in my case, an original, and that's you can filter out any tracks you are not keen on via a playlist or delete them completely form itunes. If you have to load a CD it might defeat the object (which is convenience in my case).

However I wouldn't wish to lose too much sound quality just to make it more convenient hence my question would I be best served just sticking with the 760, buy a budget CD player, a Russ Andrews Q24, or the Onkyo dock.

Mr Gaz thought I'd be better of with the RA and save the cash. Still interested to hear other views though.

 

[Anonymous]

If you decide to go down the dock route. It's worth bearing in mind if you have a large amount of music on your iPod then it can be a pain scrolling through it with a remote control. You'll probably find it quicker to use the iPod itself the find the music you want. In that case a Q24 would do the same job. Obviously it won't charge the iPod though. I use my Denon dock in browse mode as apposed to remote, it takes an age to scroll through the music and the tv has to be on to because the iPod display turns off. The remote is only used to pause or skip to the next track.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks NYSG.

I would probably have the pod on random play and leave it most of the time so not using the remote isn't a problem for me.

Do you know whether the Q24 would sound any different to the Onkyo dock? It's this that I'd really like to know about given this idea that the Onkyo dock bypasses the (allegedly inferior) ipod DAC.

 

[Fisherking 145]

What sort of Home Cinema set up do you have? I'll let you know some of my recent findings which hopefully you'll find very relevant and useful. Not so long ago I bought a GQ24 cable to connect up my iPod to my old Yamaha receiver, and was very impressed with the results, a more open sound than my CD player in the same system, but maybe not quite as much detail. I have recently upgraded to a Marantz sr6004 which has built in iPod connectivity through a front USB port, as well as bluetooth connectivity. Over the past few weeks I have conducted several listening tests using CD, GQ24, USB & iPhone through bluetooth. I certainly believe CD is best, as it delivers more detail from the music, and a better defined sound stage, but it's obviously not as convenient as iPod based music. The difference between the GQ24, USB & bluetooth was surprisingly little, with USB coming out marginally best over the GQ24 and then bluetooth. The GQ cable gives the music a different tone, I would say more neutral, and obviously some people may prefer that. Bluetooth, however, is deffinitely the most convenient source for me, as I can sit in my Lay Z Boy and play whatever I like, from either my laptop or my iPhone. However, if these connections aren't available to you, I would highly recommended the GQ24, as would my friend who's borrowed it from me for the last 2 weeks! It's very comparable to a budget CD player, and far cheaper. If you go down the Onkyo dock route, it will only be using the DAC in your receiver, and is therefore quite an expensive way of connecting your iPod. Sorry to ramble on, but I would just like to add that you can use the GQ24 cable with the Universal Apple Dock, which then gives you control via a remote.

Hope this has been of some help.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Fisherking. This is of immense help.

I have a decent Sony amp, the ES3500 and Sony does there own dock for it but maybe I should go with the GQ24. Where can you buy one. Russ Andrews website doesn't seem to exist?

 

[Fisherking 145]

I've just typed Russ Andrews GQ24 into Google and it came up. I did notice a thread saying the website had problems earlier though. Their telephone number is easily found (not sure if I'm allowed to post it) on the web, they're based in Kendal. They rang me as their secure website was playing up when I placed my order, I found them to be very helpful.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again