Network streamer vs iPhone and dock

[Dinocampioni]

Hi

Currently I am using an iPhonesitting on a pure dock with inbuilt dac hooked up to a marantz pm 6004 amp and the sound from spotify premium is pretty good.

However would I gain any benefits from switching to a marantz network streamer for spotify rather than the iPhone and dock?

Thanks

 

[John Duncan]

I don't think the Marantz streamer does Spotify does it? You might get some benefit from using its DAC for the dock or going Airplay direct, but you'll still need the iPhone.

 

[Dinocampioni]

Thanks for that maybe its not going to be quite enough sound quality uplift to warrant the outlay

 

[jacobmorrison]

For just over half the money of the Marantz you could upgrade the DAC, assuming you have a Pure I2O. There's plenty of opinion here about the merits of various DACS. Owning an I2O myself I can tell you that the Musical Fidelity VDAC II works great and will only set you back around £200 plus a decent quality coax cable. It's a massive improvement over the Pure's own DAC.

 

[fatman]

I replaced the Pure i20 with a Squeezebox Touch & never looked back.

You can control the Squeezebox from your iPhone too.

My Squeezebox is mostly used for Spotify premium or Radio Paradise.

 

[Al ears]

For just over half the money of the Marantz you could upgrade the DAC, assuming you have a Pure I2O. There's plenty of opinion here about the merits of various DACS. Owning an I2O myself I can tell you that the Musical Fidelity VDAC II works great and will only set you back around £200 plus a decent quality coax cable. It's a massive improvement over the Pure's own DAC.

Sorry to hijack this thread for a minute but I was looking for a way to do something similar with the same equipment, but I'm a tad confused.
Whilst I understand the VDAC may be better than the one in the Pure how would I link these together?
Surely the I20's DAC has already converted digital to analog. How do you link in the VDAC into the system?

 

[fatman]

google some pics of the i20. there is stereo L+R out or a choice of digital (optical or coaxial) if you want to get a digital output from the ipod and send on to an external DAC.

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pure-Digital-i20/

 

[fatman]

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pure-Digital-i20/

 

[Al ears]

Gotcha! Many thanks fatman - didn't realise it had digital out as well as analogue - doh!

 

[Crocodile]

From a convenience point of view you could look at replacing the PM6004 with Onkyo's TX-8050 streaming amp. That would give you a DAC (but no USB), Internet radio, DLNA streaming & Spotify all in one box. I wasn't impressed when I heard it but plenty of others are. I believe Matthew Piano had a PM6004 before owning the Onkyo & has no regrets.

Might be worth wading through The Record Spot's long thread on it & seeing if you can get a local demo.

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/onkyo-tx-8050-alert-its-arrived-its-arrived

You can even control it from your iPod.

If you want an add-on box then the Squeezebox Touch is a good call for Spotify/Internet radio but it requires server software running on a PC/NAS to play your own libray.

 

[Dinocampioni]

Thanks alot for all the comments I have a few options to check out now