JBL 305 actives?

[tonky]

Hmmm - I'm tempted - JBL 305 actives as a second garage/garden system.

What would be a good value (price performance ratio) DAC/preamp. Something to run spotify maybe and/or bluetooth from phone.

Any help would be welcome.

cheers tonky

 

[insider9]

What price range?

Under £50 - Chromecast Audio
Circa £100 - Teufel Connector 2
Circa £300 - Yamaha WXC-50 or Sonos Connect
Circa £500 - Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries Mini

 

[Vladimir]

Makes a great combo.

 

[muljao]

If you want something that makes it easy and you have a little room add in an av receiver with preouts. I got one very cheap, I have a CCA and Bluetooth plugged into it as well as an old dvd player, gives you a DAC and analogue inputs, I paid 40 pounds plus shipping

 

[tonky]

Are connections easy from say a Chromecast Audio to the JBLs and/or DAP, a preamp etc.

cheers tonky

 

[muljao]

You can plug a connection direct from the CCA into the jbls, you just need a 3.5mm to twin jack's or twin xlrs, basically anything that has a line out and volume control works easy. You could use something without vol control but then you'd need to control volume on the speakers, both of them. Very inconvenient

 

[Vladimir]

Are connections easy from say a Chromecast Audio to the JBLs and/or DAP, a preamp etc.

cheers tonky

CCA has a 3.5mm full 2Vrms analogue output and an optical out.

Accepts WiFi and LAN, no BT.

All phones will connect with it via Google Home App, and your DAP as well if it supports CCA.

 

[tonky]

Much obliged for the input

tonky

 

[davidf]

If these were available through the UK JBL distributor I'd have got a pair in by now, but it's a different account. These, the AEs, and the KEFs would've given me a nice price coverage of useful, active speakers for interested parties.

 

[drummerman]

If these were available through the UK JBL distributor I'd have got a pair in by now, but it's a different account. These, the AEs, and the KEFs would've given me a nice price coverage of useful, active speakers for interested parties.

But they need a pre-amp and are fugly, at least in black.

 

[Dave_]

A Raspberry Pi (Zero W or 3) and one of the increasing plethora of DAC 'HATs' is also worth considering.

 

[luckylion100]

I added this to my Raspberry Pi3, although this is without the DAC, but JustBoom do many different DAC, Amp included versions for basically peanuts. Works seamlessly with Roon, plus I have the added digital outputs if required.

https://www.justboom.co/product/justboom-digi-hat/

 

[muljao]

I was just looking online at an av receiver at the moment that's 150 euro asking price, has 5 optical inputs, 2 coaxials, a phono turntable input, various line ins, radio etc with preouts. It does seem silly to add an amp when speakers have inbuilt amps, but you are getting a fully loaded preamp for smallish money. If you have room it does allow for a very functional setup for actives.

I do fancy the irdac 2 at 299 at moment though

 

[tonky]

I was just looking online at an av receiver at the moment that's 150 euro asking price, has 5 optical inputs, 2 coaxials, a phono turntable input, various line ins, radio etc with preouts. It does seem silly to add an amp when speakers have inbuilt amps, but you are getting a fully loaded preamp for smallish money. If you have room it does allow for a very functional setup for actives.

I do fancy the irdac 2 at 299 at moment though

which av receiver is that?

cheers tonky

 

[muljao]

It's a yamaha rx-v757 that's been sold local here. If you don't need turntable there are plenty marantz sr4400 or similar for 40 odd quid on flea bay

 

[davidf]

If these were available through the UK JBL distributor I'd have got a pair in by now, but it's a different account. These, the AEs, and the KEFs would've given me a nice price coverage of useful, active speakers for interested parties.

But they need a pre-amp and are fugly, at least in black.

Bluesound Node II.

 

[steve_1979]

I was just looking online at an av receiver...

I also own active speakers and have tried several hifi DAC/pre-amps and AV receivers costing between £200-£300 over the past few years. Currently I own an £800 NJC hifi DAC/pre-amp combo, a Yamaha DSP-E800, a Marantz NR1504 and my AVI DM10 active speakers have a DAC and pre-amp built in too. My personal preference out of all of these is the Yamaha because it has basic but useful DPS functions and a very simple easy to use interface unlike modern AV receivers which tend to be over-complicated these days. The orange screen on the Yamaha looks cool too.

The Yamaha DSP-E800 is dirt cheap (I picked mine up for just £8 on eBay!) and it's the best DAC/pre-amp for use with active speakers that I've come across. As a bonus over normal hifi DAC/pre-amps it has stuff like 2.1 pre-outs instead of the usual 2.0 output. Sound quality wise it's identical to both the NJC hifi DAC/pre-amp combo and the AVI DM10 built in DAC.

If you want to use active speakers with a TV and need HDMI sockets (which the fifteen year old Yamaha DSP-E800 does not have) then the more modern and and better specced Marantz NR series of receivers are an excellent choice too. As well as having the required pre-outs for use with active speakers they're also slimline and look more like a proper hifi component rather than an big AV receiver.

 

[muljao]

Wow. 8 quid for a control hub, you are some man for a bargain 😉

 

[Vladimir]

If these were available through the UK JBL distributor I'd have got a pair in by now, but it's a different account. These, the AEs, and the KEFs would've given me a nice price coverage of useful, active speakers for interested parties.

But they need a pre-amp and are fugly, at least in black.

Bluesound Node II.

Wow that looks really nice.

 

[steve_1979]

Wow. 8 quid for a control hub, you are some man for a bargain 😉

Just a bit of luck really because of a badly worded advert that no one else looked at. Normally they go for about fourty or fifty quid which is still a huge bargin for what is effectively a well built DAC/pre with excellent sound quality from the pre-outs.