What’s your Hi-Fi set up? spec and pictures please
Discussion
justin220 said:
Thanks chaps. Yes paying for Spotify, and the app is set to higher quality but not sure if skyQ has that option or not
I’ve used a few different products over the years with Spotify - if you can’t select different quality streams they normally revert to the highest stream available especially if using Spotify connect (where your equipment drags the stream from Spotify servers and your phone/tablet simply acts as a remote rather than a streamer).justin220 said:
Gents, a quick question if I may.
I've a got a small set up in a spare room that is mainly used for watching movies and I've recently upgraded the speakers to Oberon 5 floorstanders and matching centre / rears. All running through a reasonably low range Denon Amp.
It sounds great watching a movie through.
I'd like to listen to a bit more music, and have the PS4/Sky Q box playing Spotify but I'm not blown away if I'm honest. I suspect it's the source though, and wondered how I can improve, and what's the best way of streaming it or listening to it directly?
I'm tempted by these HD music streaming services like Tidal, but as Sky doesn't support it I'd need to listen to it through a Bluetooth connection. Any ideas?
Doesn't seem to be much high quality music on YouTube either. All seems to be stereo?
Do you have any other source you could try - a CD player or Blu-ray music video? If that’s a lot better than your Spotify app is prob the weak link otherwise upgrading to a tidal etc may not help much I've a got a small set up in a spare room that is mainly used for watching movies and I've recently upgraded the speakers to Oberon 5 floorstanders and matching centre / rears. All running through a reasonably low range Denon Amp.
It sounds great watching a movie through.
I'd like to listen to a bit more music, and have the PS4/Sky Q box playing Spotify but I'm not blown away if I'm honest. I suspect it's the source though, and wondered how I can improve, and what's the best way of streaming it or listening to it directly?
I'm tempted by these HD music streaming services like Tidal, but as Sky doesn't support it I'd need to listen to it through a Bluetooth connection. Any ideas?
Doesn't seem to be much high quality music on YouTube either. All seems to be stereo?
Just had a look at Spotify, and the highest quality they go to is 320kbps, which means it must be mp3. That is very ordinary quality, that I will not play on my hi-fi. It is flat, lacks dynamic range and has relatively poor imaging.
Any good hi-fi will show how poor a mp3 @ 320kbps is compared to a cd or good record player.
Any good hi-fi will show how poor a mp3 @ 320kbps is compared to a cd or good record player.
RJO said:
Just had a look at Spotify, and the highest quality they go to is 320kbps, which means it must be mp3. That is very ordinary quality, that I will not play on my hi-fi. It is flat, lacks dynamic range and has relatively poor imaging.
Any good hi-fi will show how poor a mp3 @ 320kbps is compared to a cd or good record player.
Spotify use Ogg Vorbis at 320kbps.Any good hi-fi will show how poor a mp3 @ 320kbps is compared to a cd or good record player.
It is lossy but is a better format than MP3 - with lots of modern, highly (dynamically) compresses music I think you’d be surprised at the relatively small difference with FLAC at 16/44.1 playing the same source file.
justin220 said:
Gents, a quick question if I may.
I've a got a small set up in a spare room that is mainly used for watching movies and I've recently upgraded the speakers to Oberon 5 floorstanders and matching centre / rears. All running through a reasonably low range Denon Amp.
It sounds great watching a movie through.
I'd like to listen to a bit more music, and have the PS4/Sky Q box playing Spotify but I'm not blown away if I'm honest. I suspect it's the source though, and wondered how I can improve, and what's the best way of streaming it or listening to it directly?
I'm tempted by these HD music streaming services like Tidal, but as Sky doesn't support it I'd need to listen to it through a Bluetooth connection. Any ideas?
Doesn't seem to be much high quality music on YouTube either. All seems to be stereo?
You could maybe pick up a cheap LG V30 smartphone on Ebay - they have the best DACs of any smartphone and get fantastic reviews for audio quality and support MQA streaming, connect to your receiver via 3.5mm headphone jack to 2 x RCAs. They seem to be about £100 second hand on Ebay and most have screen burn issues, not a big deal if you're just using it to stream music.I've a got a small set up in a spare room that is mainly used for watching movies and I've recently upgraded the speakers to Oberon 5 floorstanders and matching centre / rears. All running through a reasonably low range Denon Amp.
It sounds great watching a movie through.
I'd like to listen to a bit more music, and have the PS4/Sky Q box playing Spotify but I'm not blown away if I'm honest. I suspect it's the source though, and wondered how I can improve, and what's the best way of streaming it or listening to it directly?
I'm tempted by these HD music streaming services like Tidal, but as Sky doesn't support it I'd need to listen to it through a Bluetooth connection. Any ideas?
Doesn't seem to be much high quality music on YouTube either. All seems to be stereo?
Just a thought really, don't know if there would be a better/cheaper alternative option? https://www.stereophile.com/content/lg-v30-hi-res-...
stevoknevo said:
gizlaroc said:
I have been offered a pair in Rosenut, but he wants £700 for them. He knows they are rare.
I have offered him £600 for them.
But what will I get for mine? Being realistic £400?
If anyone wants a nice pair of S6e in Oak, give me a shout. They are in A1 condition.
Saw these on AVF the other day, very nice indeed!I have offered him £600 for them.
But what will I get for mine? Being realistic £400?
If anyone wants a nice pair of S6e in Oak, give me a shout. They are in A1 condition.
I've always been more in to AV and was never happy with music via my old Denon AVR3803 & DVD 2800mkII - mooching about over the holidays and stumbled across an Anthem MRX500 for £250 on Ebay via a dealer as I'd read they where decent with music as well as movies - not much info and they never answered my couple of questions, but it looked mint and had all the ARC kit, so I thought feck it and bought it anyway (and delivery was only £20 to me in the west Highlands!) Thing arrived and bar a couple of very light rubs on the top panel you'd never know it'd been out of the box, still has the protective plastic on the display and the ARC kit was unopened. I'd noticed my old Paradigm PDR10 sub making some funny noises on Christmas day and it really didn't sound good doing the ARC room EQ
Further testing after that confirmed it was rather unwell - found a thread on them on AVF, the woofer surround deteriorates with age and basically falls apart, sure enough mines was the same. Based on the recommendations I bought a new surround and some Copydex glue for a grand total of 9 quid and repaired it the other day, and I lined the cab with some polystyrene sheet the Mrs had left over and it's whoompin' away better than ever, result!I've got Tannoy MX3's and MX centre that I've had for over twenty years and had always viewed them as the weak point, but with the ARC room EQ, new AVR and a fully working sub, all fed with some Tidal, I'm over the moon for such a small outlay.
And a very kindly fellow was giving away a Denon DVD 2930 for free on AVF, collection only, but he generously allowed me to arrange a courier uplift - haven't been able to use my old 2800mkII for years as the TV is wall mounted and I can't get the Scart lead in; this has HDMI so I can watch my music DVD's again. And I bought a Sony BDP7200 for a song the other day, so I'm looking forward to trying out blu ray at last (I'm not one for keeping pace with the latest tech, too expensive for my pocket)
So a total overhaul for £330 plus whatever I can recoup for the old kit. Had my eye on a pair of gorgeous looking piano black Quad 21L2 for a very reasonable price, but as the Mrs says, the youngest will annihilate them - he's pushed the tweeters in numerous times this week, L&R once and the centre twice yesterday alone, thankfully they're silk and I keep a bit of tape on the rear of one to pull them back out (they must have been done hundreds of times over the years via my three kids) So I think I'll hold off on a speaker upgrade for now, although I did find my old Atlas 2.0+1.1 speaker cable the other day and will fit that once I figure a suitable way to strip the insulation on two of the cores as it's an absolute b
d to get off whilst leaving the core intact - I remember having to return to Glasgow Audio years ago to get them to do it for me after saying I'd manage it myself no bother...
Edited by stevoknevo on Saturday 18th January 12:53
Funk said:
I started streaming initially with Spotify but moved to TIDAL for quality reasons once I knew I'd get plenty of use of of it. The differences are enormous and well worth the extra tenner a month.
Handy to know, just need to find a cheap way to get it through my speakers. Bluetooth wouldn't work well would it?
justin220 said:
Funk said:
I started streaming initially with Spotify but moved to TIDAL for quality reasons once I knew I'd get plenty of use of of it. The differences are enormous and well worth the extra tenner a month.
Handy to know, just need to find a cheap way to get it through my speakers. Bluetooth wouldn't work well would it?
Agreed unless you can use LDAC and even then I would think for most headphones you would be restricted by the quality of the headphones.
Although without wanting to get into this debate because it never really does anything but goes around circles but many people can't tell the difference between compression and not anyway, plenty of online tests to try but most audiophiles are golden eared types who think they hear better than everyone else anyway.
Back to the subject at hand I would say tidal is only going to be worth it for wired systems and even then probably more for peace of mind than anything else. If they do sound better it's probably more the quality of the master than any compression used.
Although without wanting to get into this debate because it never really does anything but goes around circles but many people can't tell the difference between compression and not anyway, plenty of online tests to try but most audiophiles are golden eared types who think they hear better than everyone else anyway.
Back to the subject at hand I would say tidal is only going to be worth it for wired systems and even then probably more for peace of mind than anything else. If they do sound better it's probably more the quality of the master than any compression used.
Raspberry Pi £35.
Khadas Tone Board Dac - £80
Volumio - £22 year.
Then use you computers, phone, tablet to control it all.
I will do the Pepsi challenge with any streamer up to £2500 sound quality wise.
It will allow you to play web radio, spotify, Tidal, Qobuz and stored music, just point it at your itunes library/NAS drive or plug an external hard drive directly into the Pi via usb.
Khadas Tone Board Dac - £80
Volumio - £22 year.
Then use you computers, phone, tablet to control it all.
I will do the Pepsi challenge with any streamer up to £2500 sound quality wise.
It will allow you to play web radio, spotify, Tidal, Qobuz and stored music, just point it at your itunes library/NAS drive or plug an external hard drive directly into the Pi via usb.
This shows what Volumio is about....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRyCpZh9-pI
Bit of an older version but still the same.
They supply lots of oem hifi companies with their software too. So buy from Bryston, Quad, Pro-Ject etc. and this is what you will get, just in a far fancier case, in fact, in a case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRyCpZh9-pI
Bit of an older version but still the same.
They supply lots of oem hifi companies with their software too. So buy from Bryston, Quad, Pro-Ject etc. and this is what you will get, just in a far fancier case, in fact, in a case.
TameRacingDriver said:
Agreed unless you can use LDAC and even then I would think for most headphones you would be restricted by the quality of the headphones.
Although without wanting to get into this debate because it never really does anything but goes around circles but many people can't tell the difference between compression and not anyway, plenty of online tests to try but most audiophiles are golden eared types who think they hear better than everyone else anyway.
Back to the subject at hand I would say tidal is only going to be worth it for wired systems and even then probably more for peace of mind than anything else. If they do sound better it's probably more the quality of the master than any compression used.
/\ this. Research has shown that most listeners can hear the limitations of 320kbps but cannot tell when playback resolution is higher than the original Red Book 16/44.1 CD standard. Listeners cannot tell when a 16 / 44.1 bottleneck is inserted into a 'High res' system ( despite the two additional D to A and A to D conversion process involved ). Although without wanting to get into this debate because it never really does anything but goes around circles but many people can't tell the difference between compression and not anyway, plenty of online tests to try but most audiophiles are golden eared types who think they hear better than everyone else anyway.
Back to the subject at hand I would say tidal is only going to be worth it for wired systems and even then probably more for peace of mind than anything else. If they do sound better it's probably more the quality of the master than any compression used.
Crackie said:
/\ this. Research has shown that most listeners can hear the limitations of 320kbps but cannot tell when playback resolution is higher than the original Red Book 16/44.1 CD standard. Listeners cannot tell when a 16 / 44.1 bottleneck is inserted into a 'High res' system ( despite the two additional D to A and A to D conversion process involved ).
I've found the same - can tell an MP3 but once up to FLAC at 16/44.1 I honestly couldn't tell you if it was 24/88.2, 24/96 etc. Higher res helps in studio conditions I'm sure but for your average home audiophile 16/44.1 is more than good enough.Crikey.
I can very easily tell the difference between Tidal masters and standard. It’s easy. Flat and lifeless compared to a full sound, dynamics, separation. If you can’t tell the difference between those two, there’s something wrong with your system. At the very least. Spotify is just horrible.
That’s using a cheap streaming set up that cost nearly nothing into an olive Naim system.
I can very easily tell the difference between Tidal masters and standard. It’s easy. Flat and lifeless compared to a full sound, dynamics, separation. If you can’t tell the difference between those two, there’s something wrong with your system. At the very least. Spotify is just horrible.
That’s using a cheap streaming set up that cost nearly nothing into an olive Naim system.
I tried TIDAL masters and Spotify Premium back to back on a Yamaha RN-602 through Monitor Audio silver 6 floorstanders and there was only a slight difference on a few tracks with others sounding the same. I'm 45 my hearing isn't the best but I had to really concentrate and still struggled to tell the difference. Maybe I didn't have TIDAL setup properly? I do tend to notice an increase in quality on the same system playing FLAC files alongside MP3 via USB though.
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