Didn’t rocko advise YouTube India?
I got a new Denon amp a few months back and it has Bluetooth with it. I don’t use it much tbh. Like @Fagan_ODowd, I’d use the hi Fi more for records and CDs.
I’m on some family I know’s plan for Spotify for the last 7 years. I’m not sure if they know I’m still on it tbh. I have decided I won’t ever be giving them (Spotify) my money.
Dunno, I have it set up for Argentina anyway and it’s the finest
I have a Cambridge amp with Bluetooth that I would rarely use. I mostly use Spotify when I’m out in the car and there is nothing good on Radio 6 or Lyric which is rare enough in fairness.
Radio 6 a regular in my car too
I see. The other thing the fella advised me on the sound quality is that Bluetooth isn’t worth a curse and you need a WiFi connection.
You can go down a rabbit hole with sound quality and once you do it will cost you a fortune and there’ll always be some device with better sound quality, but most people can’t discern the difference.
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That’s it. The bluetooth v WiFi makes a noticeable difference on good speakers, higher quality input from tidal I’m advised makes a difference too, haven’t tested that. After that you’d probably want to be an engineer or highly attuned to notice the shades of improvement that can be eked out. I did a session in a music equipment store listening through different speakers, it was educational.
Did you notice much of a difference?
I went through a few different options. One was a decent single piece speaker (naim muso), great yoke. Far better than bluetooth modular speakers. Advice was there’d be no appreciable difference on that yoke until you went up to a decent set of stereo speakers. So listened to about 30 seconds of a few songs on that, and then the same on about four different sets of stereo speakers stepping up the grades. You would notice a difference in quality alright. The drawback of stereo speakers though I find is that if you’re not sitting in the sweet spot the value of them is somewhat wasted.
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I have Apple Music and Spotify.
Spotify is way better
I’d listen to vinyl too but mainly at the weekends.
This is the correct answer. You get a bit more than Spotify because of the live stuff from YouTube. Plus you avoid YouTube ads etc and get downloads from YouTube. And the price is excellent.
do you need a vpn to do this or is it easily enough rigged?
You do just to sign up. But anything free and basic like Hola will do the job. And then don’t need again.
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Not an endorsement but are you talking about something like this? FiiO M11 Plus Digital Audio Player (ESS version) https://amzn.eu/d/itxrQXB
I would permanently hook up a laptop myself but one of these is more discreet and portable.
Any hifi set up needs to be hardwired in.
Open to correction but I think all music streaming services have this issue, happens when the label change the format of the file (in Amazons case to HD or ultraHD).
On your music server question, before shelling out big bucks try the Andover Songbird, it’s around 100 notes. Supports Airplay and high res and you can connect to your amp with a 3.5mm to RCA cable. Has an inboard hi res DAC.
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You’re a gent. Thankyou I’ll try that.
Getting anyone to explain hifi in simple terms is like waiting for Godot. I love hifi wigwam, but then you get posts like this :
A couple of weeks ago, I installed a set of Isoacoustic Gaia II’s on my Katalyst Akubariks, after hearing what they did to my friend’s new PMC Fact8 Signature speakers.
With my Akubariks, the Gaia’s improvements were astonishing, with significant gains in sound quality. What surprised me the most was that as the Gaia’s settled in with the weight of the Akubariks on top of them, the sound quality continued to improve, over the next 12 hours. In fact, my Akubariks have taken on a whole new persona, transformed to a new sound signature that I had not experienced before from my Akubariks. It would be an understatement to say that I was staggered at the wonderful transformation.
‘Earlier this year, I visited one of my Linn dealers, and purchased a set of 4 Isoacoustic Orea Bronze pucks, which were placed under my Akurate Hub, with great results. Then about a month ago, I picked up a pair of Isoacoustic Apertas, to place under my Akurate 225 Centre Channel speaker. Again an unimaginable improvement in sound quality. I have been extremely pleased with my new purchases and thought about the next steps.
I recently found out that Isoacoustics also sell a professional line of audio products aimed at musicians, not targeted for audiophiles. They are more reasonably priced than their audiophile cousins. These are isolating devices meant to be placed under guitar amps, speakers , studio monitors, and electronics. It turns out my favourite music instrument store sells these Isoacoustic products, including ISO Pucks, ISO Pucks Minis and Stage 1 Platforms. All of these products were on sale for Black Friday Week, so I purchased some.
The fun began when I got home, to decide what to do with my new ISO Pucks, 1 set of 8 ISO Puck Mini’s, and a Stage 1 platform, that would normally be placed under a guitar amp. I laid them all out on the coffee table and decided where to place them. I removed the Aperta’s under my Akurate 225 Centre Channel speaker and put the Stage 1 platform in its place. The Aperta’s now sit under my Akurate Exaktbox I behind my sofa, which powers my rear speakers.
‘I placed 4 ISO Pucks under my Shunyata Denali power conditioner, and another set of 4 ISO Pucks under my Akurate Exaktbox 6.
I still had 8 individual ISO Puck Mini’s to place. The first set of 4 placed under my QNAP NAS, and the next set of 4 find a home under my Environmental Potentials 2460 wave form correction device.
The improvements in sound quality to my HiFi system was immediately apparent, but the real surprise was hearing the transformation in sound quality in real time, with each album, as the weight of the electronics settled into place on top of the pucks. The improvements continued over the afternoon and evening, and were a similar level to the improvements I heard with the Gaia’s. The combination of the ISO Pucks and the Gaia’s was extraordinary.
The music store had another 2 boxes of 8 Isoacoustic ISO Puck Mini’s in stock, at the Black Friday price, which l quickly purchased yesterday.
Today, I open the 2 boxes of 16 pucks, placed them on the coffee table, wondering where to place them. One set of 4 went under the Akurate 4200 amp that powers my centre channel speaker. Another set of 4 went under the OPPO BluRay player, in combination with my Still Point mini’s.
8 more pucks to go. 4 are placed under my network switch, and the last 4 under my HD box for my TV.
‘Time to sit back and play some 5.1 music. It does not disappoint. There is a sensational new balance to my surround system, with new found boogey factor. The bass is deep, musical and detailed. Listening in an adjacent room and out in the building hallway, virtually no extraneous bass bloom. The mids and highs are extremely detailed, with well separated instruments, voices carry unprecedented emotional connection . The overall balance and realism is fantastic.
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I share an office with a sound engineer, a fella who has done a PhD on sonic something or another. A fella who would have put huge Soundsystems together for reggae/dub/rave nights. He said there is some amount of bullshit in the hi Fi business. Don’t get him started on cabling. I went with him to Richer Sounds and he came out and said your man working there was a snob looking to make the upsell.
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The hifi buffs are all lovely folk. Hifi wigwam do a meet up every few months. It’s like an episode of the Simpsons. Lads paying 5 grand for a stylus, the same for cables, like, just two cables.
The most beautiful valve amps you’ve ever seen. 200 thousand pound systems built by lads driving oul fiesta vans. They bring them, set them up, go around and admire each others, then pack up and go home. But, like the hebden bridge brass band, they are intelligent, interesting and absolutely lovely. Generous to a fault with time and with equipment.
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