The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

I often get an Insta ad for 4mon of Tidal for $4.95. Something to watch for.

Also if you like Tidal, you get a discount for 3 months with membership in Third Man Vault series. You get a code and it gets renewed each time you renew your membership each quarter.
 
Silly question - I hooked up an old Alexa dot to a receiver and set of speakers that were going unused, but I can’t get the sound to come out both speakers (it only comes from the R speaker). The internet says jam the cord in more, but I don’t think I can get it more firmly in than it is? Do I need a different cable?
Thanks!
 
Psymon said:
Silly question - I hooked up an old Alexa dot to a receiver and set of speakers that were going unused, but I can’t get the sound to come out both speakers (it only comes from the R speaker). The internet says jam the cord in more, but I don’t think I can get it more firmly in than it is? Do I need a different cable?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
I am absolutely getting "The internet says, jam the cord in more." printed on a t-shirt.
 
Psymon said:
Silly question - I hooked up an old Alexa dot to a receiver and set of speakers that were going unused, but I can’t get the sound to come out both speakers (it only comes from the R speaker). The internet says jam the cord in more, but I don’t think I can get it more firmly in than it is? Do I need a different cable?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Are you using a 3.5mm to split rca? That’s what I use and it works ok. Only other thing I can think of is try another input on your receiver and see if it still happens. The rca jacks on my Hifi berry are going bad and it does this.
 
Hollywood said:
Alright folks...thinking of ditching Spotify in favor of Tidal but before I proceed, I need to know a few things.

Do they offer a family 👪 plan, and if so how much is it?

What's the difference between HiFi and HiFi Plus?

Can you create playlists and share them?

Can you transfer music, playlists over from Spotify?

TIA 🍻
Click to expand...
Answering these for anyone else that comes looking, but glad you made the jump and you're enjoying it!

Do they offer a family 👪 plan, and if so how much is it? - Yes, pricing depends on the plan

What's the difference between HiFi and HiFi Plus? - CD quality only for HiFi, MQA and Masters for HiFi Plus
*Pro tip - If you are using an external dac that doesn't use MQA, you probably shouldn't pay for it.

Can you create playlists and share them? - Yes. My issue is not enough friends use Tidal

Can you transfer music, playlists over from Spotify? - Yes, https://tidal.com/import-playlist

Hollywood said:
Decided to give Tidal HiFi Plus a try! There's a 30-day free trial so what do I have to loose 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
Go to their website and click around on all their devices. Maybe even sign up for a free plan. Then wait. I always get offers for extended trials. Many are restricted to new users, but not all. I'm currently on a 4 months for $1 dollar trial for HiFi. Before that I think I did 6 months for $5 a few years ago.

If you can't wait, Best Buy also has discounted plans. Again, generally only applies to new accounts. This is what I did after my first trial expired. Kept it for a year, took a break for a few months, and now hopped on a new trial program. All in I think I've invested $126 for a total of 20-22 months? Not all consecutive, but given that most of them were on the previous Masters/MQA plan, it's not a bad deal.

EX: 12 months HiFi for $79.99, 12 months HiFi plus for $119.99, 12 months HiFi Plus Family Plan for $180.

For the record, I keep my Spotify in addition to Tidal. The suggested music, playlists, artists radio, and number of friends I have using the service is just too good to give up. Tidal is great for hifi, but Spotify is better for literally everything else.
 
Kris said:
Are you using a 3.5mm to split rca? That’s what I use and it works ok. Only other thing I can think of is try another input on your receiver and see if it still happens. The rca jacks on my Hifi berry are going bad and it does this.
Click to expand...
I am - I am going to keep trying to push the dang cable in further I guess ha
 
A question for the techies on here. I want to use my old Moto phone as a dedicated mobile music player for my downloaded music. It's currently stored on my laptop in Windows Media Player.
What is the recommended app to use for simplicity in transferring and usability/playback.
I was thinking about buying a dap but why not use what I have. 🤷‍♂️
 
Englishbob said:
A question for the techies on here. I want to use my old Moto phone as a dedicated mobile music player for my downloaded music. It's currently stored on my laptop in Windows Media Player.
What is the recommended app to use for simplicity in transferring and usability/playback.
I was thinking about buying a dap but why not use what I have. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
I did the same thing with an old iPhone until the USB port died making charging really a pain in the butt.

I assume the Moto runs Android? Are you able to connect it to your laptop to transfer files to it? You probably could use VLC on the phone and that will allow file transfers (at least it does on an iPhone) or wifi transfer (much slower but good to add a single album).

Assuming VLC would work like on an iPhone, once you install it and then connect the usb to your laptop you should just be able to drag and drop. I only suggest VLC because I have used it on my iPhone and I know there is an Androind version.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
I did the same thing with an old iPhone until the USB port died making charging really a pain in the butt.

I assume the Moto runs Android? Are you able to connect it to your laptop to transfer files to it? You probably could use VLC on the phone and that will allow file transfers (at least it does on an iPhone) or wifi transfer (much slower but good to add a single album).

Assuming VLC would work like on an iPhone, once you install it and then connect the usb to your laptop you should just be able to drag and drop. I only suggest VLC because I have used it on my iPhone and I know there is an Androind version.
Click to expand...
Thanks for replying. I have around 18gig of music to transfer so it'll definitely be by USB!
What is VLC? Drag and drop is definitely my preferred method simply for ease.
And yes, it's android.
 
Englishbob said:
Thanks for replying. I have around 18gig of music to transfer so it'll definitely be by USB!
What is VLC? Drag and drop is definitely my preferred method simply for ease.
And yes, it's android.
Click to expand...
I use VLC on my older Samsung for music as well. It's a free communityware media player. You can tranfer mp3/flac music files through usb and VLC can play them on your phone. It's not the most elegant solution, but it works and the price is right.
apps.apple.com

‎VLC media player

‎VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player. It can play all your movies, shows and music in most formats directly without conversion. It allows file synchronization with Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Box, iCloud Drive, iTunes, direct downloads and through Wi-Fi sharing as well...
apps.apple.com

18 gig should be fine, my home music server has 3TB+ ;)
 
Hey guys looking for a bit of advice . . . what’s the best way to stream high res lossless audio from Apple Music?

I’ve got an NAD C316BEE powering some old Onkyo tower speakers so I’m looking for something to plug into that.

From reading up on it last night it seems I lose quality by streaming from my phone via Bluetooth to a DAC so does this mean I need to stream directly to the DAC? I’m in Australia so my budget is in the $500-1000AUD range.

Thanks!
 
Hunna said:
Hey guys looking for a bit of advice . . . what’s the best way to stream high res lossless audio from Apple Music?

I’ve got an NAD C316BEE powering some old Onkyo tower speakers so I’m looking for something to plug into that.

From reading up on it last night it seems I lose quality by streaming from my phone via Bluetooth to a DAC so does this mean I need to stream directly to the DAC? I’m in Australia so my budget is in the $500-1000AUD range.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Bluetooth isn’t something I’d advise for above mp3s. WiFi, or even better Ethernet cable, is a much more stable protocol with a wider bandwidth. Apple Music can go upto 24/192 depending on the release.

So AirPlay 2 via an apple product maxes out at 16/44.1 and the device itself does the streaming and passes it over. So there is downsampling from hi res but to CD quality.

If you are running Apple Music on an Android device and have a steaming solution that supports Chromecast you can cast to that device. Chromecast streams from the streamer itself and is up to 24/96. So only the very highest quality streams are being downsampled.

If you don’t need wireless and can plug an iPad or iPhone into a USB DAC then they will pass the full 24/192 to the DAC.
 
Im upgrading my Dac in a couple weeks, Anyone here looking for a for a Schitt Modi 3 + ? Like new condition, lightly used, no smoke home. $75. Dm me.
 
Hunna said:
Hey guys looking for a bit of advice . . . what’s the best way to stream high res lossless audio from Apple Music?

I’ve got an NAD C316BEE powering some old Onkyo tower speakers so I’m looking for something to plug into that.

From reading up on it last night it seems I lose quality by streaming from my phone via Bluetooth to a DAC so does this mean I need to stream directly to the DAC? I’m in Australia so my budget is in the $500-1000AUD range.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
What would you use to stream from? If you have a newer iPad with a USB-C port you can plug a dongle dac into that then line out to your receiver.
 
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