miniblink - opinions needed

shep1968

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Hi all. I have a Naim 5si amp with Kudos x2 speakers. When i cant be bothered to put a CD in or a want to listen to a playlist i stream into my amp via an apple airport express. This is done either from itunes where the music is stored as apple lossless or from my iphone where it is stored at 256 kbps (i think). Streaming from the phone often cuts in an out as the wifi signal is lost, streaming from my pc is better but still not perfect. In your opinions if i stream from my phone into an miniblink and then into the amp will this sound better than streaming from my phone into the amp or from my computer?

Also, i can stream via bluetooth into my cars stereo but as this is a permanent connection i dont hear things like texts coming through as the bluetooth is permanently connected and the phone sends sounds aotomatically to the bluetooth connection whether i am listening to it or not. Will this happen in my house or will the phone automatically switch back to playing sounds through the internal speaker when i am not listening to music?
 

ChrisIRL

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I use an Arcam rblink with great results. Not sure how well the connection is with the minilink but the rblink has an aerial and connection is very stable, I never had a drop out in the year or so I've been using it. It's a pretty decent dac too, nearly as good as the irdac in my side by side tests. It can decode 256 aac so there will be no quality loss streaming those files from your iphone. As for your lossless files it will depend if your laptop has aptx. If it does it will stream up to 320 kbps which alot of people say they can't distinguish from CD quality. Spotify sounds great also from my ipod touch, I think this must be streaming at 256 aac too.

If an email comes through to my ipod the music very briefly mutes down as an alert and then resumes playback as normal. I imagine a phone call will stop the music also and playback will then resume when call finished.
 

unsleepable

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shep1968 said:
In your opinions if i stream from my phone into an miniblink and then into the amp will this sound better than streaming from my phone into the amp or from my computer?

Streaming from your computer will be done at a higher resolution.

Typically, Bluetooth support is not so good in iPhones since they don't implement aptX. It just so happens that, unlike the average Bluetooth receiver, both the miniBlink and the rBlink support AAC audio. This means that if you have compressed audio in your phone, it will be sent to the Bluetooth receiver without requiring recompression—so you at least don't get a worse quality because of using Bluetooth.

I would rather focus on fixing those wireless issues, though.
 

ChrisIRL

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Another important point I nearly forgot. I had my rblink connected to a Nait 5si during my brief ownership of that amp. There was a bad buzzing from my speakers when connected. The Nait 5si does not have its signal path grounded, only its casework and transformer. I contacted Naim about this and they said it is presumed the source will ground the signal. The rblink did not do this however because it only has a 2 pin power adaptor. The earth pin is only a fake plastic pin on the plug. Following research into the issue it seems its a common enough occurrence with the Nait 5si. Someone else had the problem when connecting an irdac, which again has a 2 pin plug. Alot of sources assume the amp will ground the signal so you might get this buzzing issue if neither amp or source can ground it. Perhaps your cd player being connected too will ground the signal.
 

shep1968

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The laptop is a PC and has no bluetooth capability so that will remain as wifi streaming only. For some reason the streaming from the PC which is away from the AE, as is the router, is more stable than the iphone which is in the same room. Half the time the PC isnt on and i'm too lazy to turn it on, open up itunes and then start streaming hence the need forthe miniblink. As it seems that the sound quality will be better via the AE i may just have to get a better router!!
 

shep1968

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ChrisIRL said:
Another important point I nearly forgot. I had my rblink connected to a Nait 5si during my brief ownership of that amp. There was a bad buzzing from my speakers when connected. The Nait 5si does not have its signal path grounded, only its casework and transformer. I contacted Naim about this and they said it is presumed the source will ground the signal. The rblink did not do this however because it only has a 2 pin power adaptor. The earth pin is only a fake plastic pin on the plug. Following research into the issue it seems its a common enough occurrence with the Nait 5si. Someone else had the problem when connecting an irdac, which again has a 2 pin plug. Alot of sources assume the amp will ground the signal so you might get this buzzing issue if neither amp or source can ground it. Perhaps your cd player being connected too will ground the signal.
Thanks for this. Think getting the wifi sorted may be a better idea, and probably not any more expensive!!
 

davedotco

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shep1968 said:
ChrisIRL said:
Another important point I nearly forgot. I had my rblink connected to a Nait 5si during my brief ownership of that amp. There was a bad buzzing from my speakers when connected. The Nait 5si does not have its signal path grounded, only its casework and transformer. I contacted Naim about this and they said it is presumed the source will ground the signal. The rblink did not do this however because it only has a 2 pin power adaptor. The earth pin is only a fake plastic pin on the plug. Following research into the issue it seems its a common enough occurrence with the Nait 5si. Someone else had the problem when connecting an irdac, which again has a 2 pin plug. Alot of sources assume the amp will ground the signal so you might get this buzzing issue if neither amp or source can ground it. Perhaps your cd player being connected too will ground the signal.

Thanks for this. Think getting the wifi sorted may be a better idea, and probably not any more expensive!!

Absolutely the way forward. There really should be no issues with wi-fi in a modern network.

It depends on your skill set but I got round the issue by using two different wireless access points to my network. I stream primarily from my laptop, it is set up to stream on channel 36 direct to the AEX, our other devices, not normally used for streaming, all connect on channel 6, directly to the moden router, a Virgin Superhub (basic Netgear). Works perfectly.
 

shep1968

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davedotco said:
shep1968 said:
ChrisIRL said:
Another important point I nearly forgot. I had my rblink connected to a Nait 5si during my brief ownership of that amp. There was a bad buzzing from my speakers when connected. The Nait 5si does not have its signal path grounded, only its casework and transformer. I contacted Naim about this and they said it is presumed the source will ground the signal. The rblink did not do this however because it only has a 2 pin power adaptor. The earth pin is only a fake plastic pin on the plug. Following research into the issue it seems its a common enough occurrence with the Nait 5si. Someone else had the problem when connecting an irdac, which again has a 2 pin plug. Alot of sources assume the amp will ground the signal so you might get this buzzing issue if neither amp or source can ground it. Perhaps your cd player being connected too will ground the signal.

Thanks for this. Think getting the wifi sorted may be a better idea, and probably not any more expensive!!

Absolutely the way forward. There really should be no issues with wi-fi in a modern network.

It depends on your skill set but I got round the issue by using two different wireless access points to my network. I stream primarily from my laptop, it is set up to stream on channel 36 direct to the AEX, our other devices, not normally used for streaming, all connect on channel 6, directly to the moden router, a Virgin Superhub (basic Netgear). Works perfectly.
possibly above my skill set. Pity really!
 

davedotco

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shep1968 said:
davedotco said:
shep1968 said:
ChrisIRL said:
Another important point I nearly forgot. I had my rblink connected to a Nait 5si during my brief ownership of that amp. There was a bad buzzing from my speakers when connected. The Nait 5si does not have its signal path grounded, only its casework and transformer. I contacted Naim about this and they said it is presumed the source will ground the signal. The rblink did not do this however because it only has a 2 pin power adaptor. The earth pin is only a fake plastic pin on the plug. Following research into the issue it seems its a common enough occurrence with the Nait 5si. Someone else had the problem when connecting an irdac, which again has a 2 pin plug. Alot of sources assume the amp will ground the signal so you might get this buzzing issue if neither amp or source can ground it. Perhaps your cd player being connected too will ground the signal.

Thanks for this. Think getting the wifi sorted may be a better idea, and probably not any more expensive!!

Absolutely the way forward. There really should be no issues with wi-fi in a modern network.

It depends on your skill set but I got round the issue by using two different wireless access points to my network. I stream primarily from my laptop, it is set up to stream on channel 36 direct to the AEX, our other devices, not normally used for streaming, all connect on channel 6, directly to the moden router, a Virgin Superhub (basic Netgear). Works perfectly.
possibly above my skill set. Pity really!

It's really not that difficult, use Airport Utility to access your AEX and try swapping wi-fi channels, this alone might help, if you can, do a scan on what channels your neighbours are using and use the one least used. Pick from channels 1, 6, 13.

If your iPhone (and PC) has dual band wifi, set your AEX to the 5Ghz band and try channels 36 or higher. If you can get both to connect to the AEX, access your modem router and switch off it's wi-fi from the controls on it's network page.
 

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