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Been an audiophile for years, but haven't made the move from CD player to PC audio. The truth is, every time I think about it, I throw my hands in the air, as there are far too many forks in the road, plus the idea of having a computer in my audio room, and tinkering around with software and hardware issues was enough to steer me clear. Add to that, I'm completely content with the sound of my tubed Ayon CD player. Lately though I've been drawn to the idea of steaming audio via Tidal, and skipping the whole PC thing. What I'm not sure of, is the best way to accomplish this. My iMac and modem/router are upstairs, and the audio room in the basement. First off, is it better to connect wirelessly, using a wireless DAC, or use an Ethernet cable? Secondly, do I still need a laptop or computer in the audio room, or can I use the iMac upstairs, and then control everything with a tablet of smartphone from the audio room? Need a simple flow chart of the necessary equipment to steam audio via Tidal from the computer room upstairs, to the audio room in the basement.
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All computers have WiFi so I located my modem/router right next to my audio/video system so I could run LAN cables directly from my modem/router to my HDTV and to my Oppo BDP-105D Blu-Ray Disc Player. The Oppo BDP-105D is the heart of my audio/video system because it will play everything digital. It has streaming applications for Netflix, Pandora, Tidal, YouTube, etc. It also plays CDs, SACDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs. Additionally, it has USB ports so I can connect USB drives containing my digital music files, which is how I play my digital music. In other words, I don't need a computer streamer because my Oppo BDP-105D does it all.
The Oppo BDP-105D has been replaced by a new version called the Oppo UDP-205 . There is a cheaper version without balanced outputs called the Oppo UDP-203 .
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I feel your pain...Everybody has different ideas and obviously there is more than one way to slice a salami...Foe now I decided to go the dedicated server route, Sony HAP Z1 or Antipodes DS, or something like that. A friend tried MicroRendu and was totally convinced. It's hard to be a neophyte...
I use a Denon HEOS link (see below). Control from smartphone or tablet. Wired Ethernet or wireless connection (I use wireless). It streams either from a computer/device on your network, a USB stick or external drive or from many streaming services (TIDAL, Spotify, Pandora, etc.) It has an internal DAC which sounds very good to me, or you can use it with an external DAC.
Costs $350, you can get it at Best Buy with a 30-day return period if you don't like it.
Don't be confused by the phrase 'multi-room', it can do that (as part of a larger system) but I use it as just a 2-channel single-room streamer.
Thanks I'll check it out.
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So here goes...
Yes, ethernet is WAY better if you can do that.
Yes, the computer in your office can do EVERYTHING. All you need to do is hook up a 'cheap buy GOOD streamer' in the basement, plus a DAC with a S/PDIF input, an AMP and speakers of your choice and you are golden.
That 'cheap but good' streamer can be nothing more elaborate than a Raspberry Pi with a S/PDIF board like either the HiFiBerry Digi+, Digi+ Pro or the Allo DigiOne. About $100 total and you cobble it together without and soldering. Flash a micro SD card with free software and you are up and running.
Then download a free copy of Logitech Media Player onto your computer and you can stream ANYTHING on that computer plus TIDAL to the streamer in the basement hooked up via S/PDIF to your DAC of choice. Computer must be on and Logitech Media player must be running in the background. Just tell it where the music is stored and that's it.
Everything can be controlled by a tablet of even a phone as long as it's on the same network.
If Ivan can do it, so can you.
Ok brace yourself, stupid question. If I hardwire with an ethernet cable, do I still need a streamer or streaming DAC?
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down to the basement to your streamer.
The whole idea here is to have one host computer running somewhere on the network that has your music on it as well as the streaming software such as LMS (Logitech Media Server) or some other package. As far as TIDAL is concerned, LMS has a TIDAL plug in (free) and you can then log in with you paid subscription password and it LMS sends TIDAL to the $100 Raspberry Pi streamer in the basement via ethernet.
You can even BUY a DAC board for the Pi from either of the two places mentioned above (HiFiberry or ALLO) and go directly to your amp/speakers in the basement if you like.
It will take a bit of effort but the rewards of learning about this stuff more that makes up for all of the derisive comments made by inmates here who are 'experts' and pretend to help but really just come here to find people who know even less than them. ;-)
Ok it's beginning to sink in. Even if hardwired, I'll need either a streamer or a streaming DAC.
And I can select music via a tablet of smart phone if it's on the same network as the upstairs computer.
I recently read something about MQA DAC's, that are able to decode higher rez files from Tidal.
Anyone have any experience with these DAC's? From what I've read they make quite a difference.
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As your intention was "to avoid the whole PC thing" it may now be dawning on you that, in fact, you cannot.Going for an MQA DAC means that replay will have to be from the Tidal desktop player which will be on your computer. I am unsure as to how a streamer relates to this as they often have the software for streaming services built in (look for Tidal support in the streamer's spec.). However at this point I have not discovered whether or not this software on any streamer also supports MQA decoding. Tidal only talk about MQA in relation to the desktop player. Streamer MQA decoding may well not necessarily work as the initial MQA processing involves " heavy lifting" requiring the processing power it seems of a Mac or PC. Another question to ask I am afraid.
As for controlling the system from a phone or tablet this will depend upon the technical route that you take. I think that some solutions have been made clear in this thread but whereas using Roon or subscribing to Spotify makes things easy as they both have remote control facilities, it is not necessarily straighforward otherwise. I bow to the LMS solution and the experience of other inmates but I have found that other suggestions that I have tried for remote control e.g. VNC simply do not work well in practice with some combinations of device and service. I am also unsure about LMS with data rates in excess of 24/96 ( another question) though whether that is considered significant I will leave to you.
Edits: 08/08/17
"Even if hardwired, I'll need either a streamer or a streaming DAC. "Not really. Some people use Software players like Roon or JRiver etc.... and stream directly from their Computer into a USB DAC....
I personally don't like this approach, as computers O/S are doing so many other tasks (even when 'idle'. I prefer a dedicated streamer such as a Raspberry Pi (yes, I know it's a computer, but its O/S is very limited and small).
In fact I don't even run my LMS (Logitech Media Server) on my Computers any more. Most of the people on the LMS forums are now running LMS on a NAS System (Which I do) or another dedicated Raspberry Pi (Which the developer of the Latest Spotty Pluggin for LMS does). It is so much faster and much more stable.
Cut-Throat
Edits: 08/06/17 08/06/17
I helped you with setting up your Pi and getting your Qobuz to work, so hopefully I'm not in this category. Plus the fact that I am not even close to an 'expert'.You're Welcome!
Cut-Throat
Edits: 08/06/17
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