The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

[Rowan]

That’s feedback that would be helpful because if I build an office set up it will either be my old amp which is a pos or powered speakers. Everyone seems to love them though.

One thing I noticed from reviews was that the internal dac is supposed to be a bit rudimentary. Pretty sure that was upgraded in the WIIM Pro Plus Pro but not sure whether its a genuinely decent upgrade or they just wen't from a dac that's fox shit to a dac that's dog shit

So if you're using an old amp without a separate DAC may be worth going for the fancy version. Think its only about 30 quid more though

 

[Thackeraye]

One thing I noticed from reviews was that the internal dac is supposed to be a bit rudimentary. Pretty sure that was upgraded in the WIIM Pro Plus Pro but not sure whether its a genuinely decent upgrade or they just wen't from a dac that's fox shit to a dac that's dog shit

So if you're using an old amp without a separate DAC may be worth going for the fancy version. Think its only about 30 quid more though

Honestly, I thought I had bought the plus, but it turns out I had just bought a pro with a remote! This is a stopgap until I get my ultimate streamer, so I'm happy to live with the Pro. I assume it will sound better than the Chromecast puck, so it'll be an upgrade anyway.

 

[Lee Newman]

I'm confused, why does Quboz sound better over my bluetooth speaker than spotify. Like it's not just a volume thing? Like it's the difference between a good and great pressing. Like it is more detailed, richer, sparklier. The whole unveiled thing reviewers talk about.

For shits and giggles, I booted it up at work and it is startling.

And the fact that I just hooked it up to my last.fm is gameover for me using spotify. That's just for my wife now.

 

[Joe Mac]

I'm confused, why does Quboz sound better over my bluetooth speaker than spotify. Like it's not just a volume thing? Like it's the difference between a good and great pressing. Like it is more detailed, richer, sparklier. The whole unveiled thing reviewers talk about.

For shits and giggles, I booted it up at work and it is startling.

And the fact that I just hooked it up to my last.fm is gameover for me using spotify. That's just for my wife now.

I think most modern Bluetooth codecs are capable of upto cd quality. Spotify isn’t as high quality as that. It’s 256kbps mp3 quality. So even best Qobuz compressed to cd quality is a substantial jump over Spotify.

 

[Lee Newman]

I think most modern Bluetooth codecs are capable of upto cd quality. Spotify isn’t as high quality as that. It’s 256kbps mp3 quality. So even best Qobuz compressed to cd quality is a substantial jump over Spotify.

Got you! Makes sense.

 

[Thackeraye]

@Lee Newman - first impressions with the Wiim are good. It’s an easy install, and getting the remote to pair with it is easy as well. As I said, it’s very lightweight, but all the connectors slot in with a satisfying click - it definitely doesn’t feel flimsy.

Only got Spotify running though it just now, so I can’t talk about how it sounds with a decent source file. From memory, it definitely sounds better than the Chromecast puck. Hopefully I’ll get my NAS connected to the network and I’ll throw some FLACs through it.

 

[Tinnitus]

@Lee Newman - first impressions with the Wiim are good. It’s an easy install, and getting the remote to pair with it is easy as well. As I said, it’s very lightweight, but all the connectors slot in with a satisfying click - it definitely doesn’t feel flimsy.

Only got Spotify running though it just now, so I can’t talk about how it sounds with a decent source file. From memory, it definitely sounds better than the Chromecast puck. Hopefully I’ll get my NAS connected to the network and I’ll throw some FLACs through it.

Running a Wimm Pro with Spotify also. I'm happy with the sound /results . KEXP streams fine also.

 

[duke86fan]

im kinda tempted by an ifi go blu.. i dunno if it can power the HD650 but having something that is easy to use as a USB dongle AND work as a wireless DAC whenever I replace my phone with something that doesn't have a headphone jack... i have heard conflicting things about how much power you need (including one person claiming they can run the 650 off a game boy) and how much dacs matter but I do feel like the hip dac sounded just a bit better in some areas

 

[I’m Just Ken]

I’ve been streaming all day and I gotta say it’s been wonderful. It’s making me rethink stuff.

 

[Kris]

I’m sort of surprised by how good this sounds. It’s all 256kbps AAC files.

 

[Lee Newman]

I’m sort of surprised by how good this sounds. It’s all 256kbps AAC files.
View attachment 183910

I assume it’s playing through the marantz dac though?

 

[Joe Mac]

I assume it’s playing through the marantz dac though?

You can’t bypass the dac in an old school iPod. Even out of the dock connector it’s using the internal dac. It’s why they only work with specific supported usb ports rather than all into dacs via usb.

The second release of the 5th generation iPod (the video one with the big one being 80GB) had a really good inbuilt dac for its time and for portable players in general, they still sound pretty damn good by todays standards too.

 

[folsom_lives]

I’m sort of surprised by how good this sounds. It’s all 256kbps AAC files.
View attachment 183910

Glad I'm not the only one who could never take the NAD 326 past 9 o'clock without blowing the roof off.

 

[Kris]

Yeah, I don’t know if marantz modifies the sound beyond the dac in the iPod. I always thought aac sounded better than mp3 at the same rate, but it makes sense with apple files on an apple device.

 

[kvetcha]

View attachment 182925
Well, hello there! Will be setting this up over the weekend.

I'm running one of these and quite like it. It even lets me stream my turntable to AirPlay, so I can spin records whole-house.

 

[Angsty]

I’m sort of surprised by how good this sounds. It’s all 256kbps AAC files.
View attachment 183910

I also have an iPod loaded with 256 kbps AAC files which I primarily use in my car; the car is 2012 model with iPod connect software but no CarPlay. I think it sounds great in that use. There have been studies that have shown that most people cannot consistently discern 256 kbps AAC from CD quality.

 

[mdmost]

So here's an interesting thing I finally got worked out with Roon and my PS Audio. I was thinking this whole time I was running DSD. I wasn't. It was doing I guess PCM. I switched that in Roon to DSD over DOP under DSD Playback Strategy and magically get the little text with DSD64 or DSD128 appeared on the display. This only works when paired with my speakers. When I run headphones, the DSD doesn't play or is so tiny that it's impossible to hear. So I have to switch back to PCM in order to listen to music. I guess because the headphones have a separate audio channel that's only analog?

 

[Joe Mac]

So here's an interesting thing I finally got worked out with Roon and my PS Audio. I was thinking this whole time I was running DSD. I wasn't. It was doing I guess PCM. I switched that in Roon to DSD over DOP under DSD Playback Strategy and magically get the little text with DSD64 or DSD128 appeared on the display. This only works when paired with my speakers. When I run headphones, the DSD doesn't play or is so tiny that it's impossible to hear. So I have to switch back to PCM in order to listen to music. I guess because the headphones have a separate audio channel that's only analog?

Yeah the USB port only supports dop. You’d have to connect via i2s to get native dsd. It is neither really here nor there are there is no loss in transporting dsd via dop, the only difference is I think native dsd over i2s on that preamp/dac supports a higher sample rate than dop over usb.

Not sure about the headphones, I’ve only ever used it as a preamp to a power amp but it definitely does have a class a analogue section for the preamp and headphone amp.

 

[I’m Just Ken]

You can’t bypass the dac in an old school iPod. Even out of the dock connector it’s using the internal dac. It’s why they only work with specific supported usb ports rather than all into dacs via usb.

The second release of the 5th generation iPod (the video one with the big one being 80GB) had a really good inbuilt dac for its time and for portable players in general, they still sound pretty damn good by todays standards too.

 

[Joe Mac]

Or maybe I just had that particular iPod 😂