Internet Radio Tuners

Hi all,

Plan on purchasing within the next three months.

Priorities, in order, are sound quality, user interface / ease of use, available "high quality" sources, manufacturer supplied remote control from living room (computer in another room), and other factors that I have no knowledge of at the moment but are important for using / enjoying the new source. I'm well aware of the fact that "source" stations vary in "bit stream" quality as well as various decoding options such as FLAC, WAV, etc. Plan on using the dac (coax connect) in my Cary CDP but I've read / heard from my dealer that the "Optical / Toslink" connection offers better performance. Can go either way. My primary interests are classical and jazz material.

Other questions / issues:

1) I assume I will use a wi-fi connect. Is "hard wired" better or does "wi-fi" offer same quality?

2) As some of you know, I am a tech dinosaur. Do not own a cell phone, I Pad, etc. Yes, this is by choice for better or for worse. Any suggestions to make the experience more "user friendly"? I assume the supplied remote will do the job or do I need an I phone? UHG.

3) Any limitations on my computer and functionality? Have a very old (8 years or so) Dell CPU, which operates on Windows XP. Can / will likely upgrade.

4) Given that I will not be using the "analogue out" section of the tuner, are "all bits equal" regarding end quality that I will hear?

Models I am considering include the following:

1) Cyrus Stream X Signature / $2,500

2) Magnum Dynalab MD801 / $1,600.

3) Marantz NA 7004 / $800.

4) NAD C446 / $800.

5) Cambridge NP30 / $600.

6) Pioneer Elite N50 / $575.

The MD option is attractive from a trade in standpoint since I have a 606 XM tuner and can get $700 +/- on a trade in if I buy directly from MD. $900 out of pocket if pursue. Seems like a "no brainer" to me.

As always, thank you all in advance for any input / suggestions.

Best.

Gordon

PS: Also plan on using for future high quality streaming services such as Tidal.

Gordon Gray said:

Hi all,

Plan on purchasing within the next three months.

Priorities, in order, are sound quality, user interface / ease of use, available "high quality" sources, manufacturer supplied remote control from living room (computer in another room), and other factors that I have no knowledge of at the moment but are important for using / enjoying the new source. I'm well aware of the fact that "source" stations vary in "bit stream" quality as well as various decoding options such as FLAC, WAV, etc. Plan on using the dac (coax connect) in my Cary CDP but I've read / heard from my dealer that the "Optical / Toslink" connection offers better performance. Can go either way. My primary interests are classical and jazz material.

Other questions / issues:

1) I assume I will use a wi-fi connect. Is "hard wired" better or does "wi-fi" offer same quality?

2) As some of you know, I am a tech dinosaur. Do not own a cell phone, I Pad, etc. Yes, this is by choice for better or for worse. Any suggestions to make the experience more "user friendly"? I assume the supplied remote will do the job or do I need an I phone? UHG.

3) Any limitations on my computer and functionality? Have a very old (8 years or so) Dell CPU, which operates on Windows XP. Can / will likely upgrade.

4) Given that I will not be using the "analogue out" section of the tuner, are "all bits equal" regarding end quality that I will hear?

Models I am considering include the following:

1) Cyrus Stream X Signature / $2,500

2) Magnum Dynalab MD801 / $1,600.

3) Marantz NA 7004 / $800.

4) NAD C446 / $800.

5) Cambridge NP30 / $600.

6) Pioneer Elite N50 / $575.

The MD option is attractive from a trade in standpoint since I have a 606 XM tuner and can get $700 +/- on a trade in if I buy directly from MD. $900 out of pocket if pursue. Seems like a "no brainer" to me.

As always, thank you all in advance for any input / suggestions.

Best.

Gordon

PS: Also plan on using for future high quality streaming services such as Tidal.

Click to expand...

Firstly, I would place user interface (and control options) above sound quality.

With respect to sound quality - it is my opinion that as long as you get something capable of bit-perfect output then your DAC will determine the quality. That will unequivocally give your more flexibility into the future rather than having all your funds tied up in a streamer which might date.

An example - if MD goes bust tomorrow, and their control app is not compatible with the next version of iOS, what do you do? You've effectively got a brick in your rack.

If you have something cheap, you can easily swap out streamers while letting your DAC handle the audio side of things.

Your questions?

1. Absolutely no difference at all. I'm sure there are some here (and elsewhere) that will swear there there is a difference - but there is not; and can not; be a difference. Even if there is a difference, then it is not worth worrying about. Although, you may need a wired connection depending on your house design and your ability to get a good wi-fi signal to your listening room though. Otherwise, spend the money on a better amplifier, better cables, or repainting your room.

2. As above - control options should dictate your purchase above all else. An iPad or Android tablet are the best options for UX (user experience). Most manufacturers have both iOS and Android control options - I'd stay away if they don't.

3. Any computer should do the trick - but worth investigating also. As long as it's capable of running the software required by the streaming device then you should be good to go. Any computer manufactured in the last 15 years can deliver data at the rate required by audio streaming. The only thing I would say is that a wired connection for the computer would be highly recommended if you are using wi-fi for the streaming device connection. The reason is that having two wi-fi hops on the same network can cause congestion / saturation (and therefore drop-outs) depending on the strength of signal and quality of your router. Having the server direct-connected at least eliminates this risk. This is less of an issue with "N" and "AC" networks, but if you can hard wire it you may as well.

4. Yes. Unless the streaming device is flawed. Can't say it enough. Yes, they are equal. And - if that is the case, any streamer should suit your needs in terms of sound quality. A $1,600 one is not going to sound better than a $400 one.

Another question you have not asked relates to the software. All these devices say they "can do" certain things - but you need to investigate how they do these things. For instance, they "can play your local music collection" sounds like a box is ticked for you, but how do they do this? What software is required? How does it manage the library? Etc.

In know I've been quiet a for a while, but I've been doing a lot of comparisons on the software to drive everything in the most user friendly way.

Here is what I have set up now.

iPad - running JRemote ( $10 from apple app store )
Computer - running JRiver Media Center ( $50 download from JRiver website )
Ansynchronous USB to OPPO 105D DAC's

JRiver has a beautiful user interface and the JRemote on the iPad has an interface nearly as good as the full application running on the PC.

The iPad acts as a very nice visual remote control that drives the JRiver Media Center by Wifi.
The computer running JRiver Media Center is a small sliver of a computer with the asynchronous USB connection to the DAC's.
It is using WiFi to pull audio files off of a server on the network.

I'm really loving how this works!

I tried the Vox Commando but voice commands were hit or miss and frustrating after a while.

I greatly prefer the JRemote interface to drive my music very easily from the iPad.

It connects to Amazon Prime and HDTracks as well as Streaming Radio just by adding the URL.

I haven't tried it with Pandora yet since my OPPO does that directly.

Adam and Rich,

Thanks for the input.

As far as MD goes, they been in business for decades concentrating on tuners. That's what they do. No guarantees moving forward, of course, but a pretty good track record.

My goal is to get something that operates intuitively and functions flawlessly without any guess work. And offers superior sound quality within the current limitations of technology and able to take advantage of future advances as they become available.

Pretty simple and straight forward and hopefully realistic with current hardware and software products.

We shall see.

GG

Gordon Gray said:

something that operates intuitively and functions flawlessly ................ Pretty simple and straight forward and hopefully realistic with current hardware and software products.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately not as simple and straight forward as it should be.

If you want something that operates intuitively and functions flawlessly, then there are two realistic choices - Sonos and Squeeebox.

It's a damn shame the Sonos doesn't do hi-resolution and the Squeezebox has been discontinued.

What about the Olive unit? I think it does Hi-res and is very user friendly.

amey01 said:

Unfortunately not as simple and straight forward as it should be.

If you want something that operates intuitively and functions flawlessly, then there are two realistic choices - Sonos and Squeeebox.

It's a damn shame the Sonos doesn't do hi-resolution and the Squeezebox has been discontinued.

Click to expand...

I was just digging into the Radio Streaming in JRiver and I didn't find it hard, but you do have to cut and past URL's for the radio stations and getting the JRemote to work on the iPad, iPhone, Android phone etc.. requires that you enter an IP address for your computer running JRiver and a username and password.

I set up iRiver, Pandora and can stream from Amazon Prime.

However the JRemote interface doesn't see any of the radio stations, so you need to run those directly from the JRiver Media Center.

I also realize that just because I find it fairly easy to get around in, doesn't mean it will feel that way to someone else.

RCHeliGuy said:

I also realize that just because I find it fairly easy to get around in, doesn't mean it will feel that way to someone else.

Click to expand...

Too complicated for me but thanks anyway.