Dlna enabled network music player with optical out

[saj2001ind]

Hey guys

Can you pls suggest me a good Dlna enabled network music player with optical out...need something to stream flacs from NAS and which can send clean unprocessed audio through optical spdif to speakers

 

[srisaikat]

Flac is compressed lossless format, so can not be passed unprocessed without decoding. One more point, what type of speakers you have that can be connected through SPDIF. So please reframe your question. However I can refer iboum.com for your queries related to media player.

 

[saj2001ind]

I have nad viso 1 it has optical input... Will there be lots of loss in quality of 96khz flac if I stream it through dlna

 

[srisaikat]

Optical interface have maximum support limitation of 24bit/96khz, so there will be no problem. Good news is most of the files are available within this limitation. But using a decent quality optical cable is necessary, if possible try to buy glass made for the best, but as you may not use it for full scale system so plastic fiber based one will serve the purpose.

'Sigma' chip based media player are generally good for audio as per maximum reviews. But for using the media player you need to use a TV or Monitor. So if you wish to use it only for audio purpose then streamer of Marantz, Denon, Grace (Grace Digital Wireless Hi-fi Internet Radio Tuner: Amazon.in: Electronics) etc. will serve the purpose better without monitor.

 

[rav_mk1]

Hi,
Try out the Dune HD TV 303d as it can read off your NAS and also has a HDD bay for expansion of storage it reads Flac from network and can stream movies too.. has optical out..only drawback ids no display and you have to switch your TV on to play this..retails for around 22500.00 and similar option cpoud be the med8r on hifimart..

Cheers
Ravi

 

[haisaikat]

Cubox i4 Pro can be another option

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&r...OkuYZjzhPibm94OImoxd4ng&bvm=bv.74115972,d.c2E

CuBox-i -Mini Computer for XBMC player, Android TV Box and Linux

 

[saj2001ind]

I have an old Himedia HD900B.. Will it be good option

 

[haisaikat]

I did see that in your signature but thought that you are going to use for some other purpose so looking for alternatives. Nevertheless if that is usable for this purpose go for it.

Also on your question about DLNA quality for lossless I would suggest to play from file share of NAS directly instead of introducing DLNA into the picture. I am not sure if DLNA supports Lossless transmission at all.

 

[saj2001ind]

I did see that in your signature but thought that you are going to use for some other purpose so looking for alternatives. Nevertheless if that is usable for this purpose go for it.

It's one of my option... But I am worried since it is not meant for ideal music... Will there be a lot of loss in quality through its optical out and when lossless music Flac streamed to it through dlna

 

[saj2001ind]

I did see that in your signature but thought that you are going to use for some other purpose so looking for alternatives. Nevertheless if that is usable for this purpose go for it.

Also on your question about DLNA quality for lossless I would suggest to play from file share of NAS directly instead of introducing DLNA into the picture. I am not sure if DLNA supports Lossless transmission at all.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/524-complete-guide-hifi-upnp-dlna-network-audio/

Dlna does seems to support higher bit rate ... I have a NAS and I use my htc one m8 as controller to render flacs to HD900B using bubbleupnp app ... and I do see 96 bit rate in the app of course 192 won't play bcoz optical does not support it

 

[haisaikat]

That is good then, but if I were you I would try to discount DLNA since that is just another redundant layer since the media player is itself capable of playing flacs by reading smb file shares. But I believe you may be opting for DLNA since you want to do remote control without using the TV right? Please do a A/B comparison for being certain about Audio Quality between DLNA vs direct network share access to be absolutely certain in your setup.

EDIT: On second thought, your media player has realtek 1186 which I believe can also boot in Android that can give you better control without using DLNA. There are lot of links on Google around this if you want to try.

http://www.nikingstore.com/blog/implementing-android-os-for-himedia-hd900b-guide/

 

[jsmithe]

Computer Audiophile - The Complete Guide To HiFi UPnP / DLNA Network Audio

Dlna does seems to support higher bit rate ... I have a NAS and I use my htc one m8 as controller to render flacs to HD900B using bubbleupnp app ... and I do see 96 bit rate in the app of course 192 won't play bcoz optical does not support it

I can confirm that it is possible to stream 24/192 audio via DLNA. I do this using Minimserver to a Pioneer N-50. Output of the N-50 is RCA though, not optical.

 

[haisaikat]

I can confirm that it is possible to stream 24/192 audio via DLNA. I do this using Minimserver to a Pioneer N-50. Output of the N-50 is RCA though, not optical.

Is the bitrate displayed 24/192 at the N-50 end?

 

[srisaikat]

Yes, dlna do support full hd audio. I had Marantz NA-7004, it used to support 24/192 khz files. So from practical experience there is nothing to worry about dlna except very unusual size of movie files with wifi networking; you just need good streamer and stable networking.

 

[haisaikat]

Yes, dlna do support full hd audio. I had Marantz NA-7004, it used to support 24/192 khz files.

My question is if the 24/192 figure used to be displayed in the NA-70004 side while streaming over DLNA. NA-7004 supports 192 HZ for LPCM only. And if your collection is in flac / wav you have to ensure that your media server is not downsampling to 48 KHz which the limit for all other no LPCM formats for NA-7004.

 

[jsmithe]

Is the bitrate displayed 24/192 at the N-50 end?

Yes. The N-50's front panel OLED does display the bitrate as 24/192 as does the Android Pioneer Control App.

 

[srisaikat]

I also had that doubt, so recently I did an experiment. I will share it. It gave me positive result. Just wait till I get little free time.

 

[srisaikat]

I have read the manual quite few time & know the specification of NA7004 very well, it have a DAC with signal handle capabilities of up to 24/192KHz (except USB input) sample rate. As per manual specification it can play Flac files up to 24/96KHz range as DLNA Network streamer or from USB stick. But believe me (or you can confirm with other owners) it can play 24/192 KHz files very well both from Network Server and USB stick. How it is possible? I have no idea, you have to ask the company, why should I bother when I am enjoying the bonus. Might be the regular firmware upgrade support (until NA8005 came to market) had done that magic, it is just my guess.

Now this first experiment was done few months ago-

You might know I had two DAC; Schiit Gungnir & Audio-Gd FUN. Between them Gungnir had support of 24/192 KHz files but FUN had 24/96 KHz.

As I have USB stick with only 32GB space so I installed DLNA compatible Serviio (hope you know the name) as media server on my PC to stream all the vast music collection saved on the pc. I made two separate folders, one for 192 KHz and another for 96 KHz Flac files.

NA7004 was connected through digital coax to my DAC. Now rest of the process was very simple. Played some 192 KHz files from Network server (Serviio) and form USB stick both through Gungnir & FUN (switching them). With Gungnir I was getting the audio, but with FUN there was no audio (because FUN have limitation of 96 KHz).

As usual there was no problem playing 96 KHz files by both DAC from Network server and as well as from local (USB stick) source.

Conclusion:- If that DLNA server (Serviio) would had done the down sampling of 192 KHz files then definitely there would be audio signal from FUN.

So that DLNA server (at least SERVIIO) did not altered the resolution of the files.

But it was not direct proof as the NA7004 do not display the file sample rate when playing it from local drive or network server (show only tag information). But if you use NA7004 as a DAC through it's Digital inputs (COAX & Optical) it shows the sample rate of the source file.

2nd Experiment (very recently) :-

First I want to write about 'Bubble UPnP' which I installed on my Xperia & Canvas4 to use the mobile as server. It's an amazing server apps which quite easily detects all running dlna server on a network including own (as a local server) and at the same time it will trace out all the dlna streamer on that network including own (as a local streamer). So 'Bubble UPnP' can be used as junction control point to feed files between various servers and streamers. I used to use it (when the PC is off) for playing files of the mobile through NA7004 or as a local streamer (playing files of my PC using Serviio or from local storage using Mobile speaker or headphones)

Recently I found that, DLNA component has been released for Foobar 2000 (just on November 2013). I have been using Foobar for a long time and always had a wish to use it as a DLNA server. So installed that component and the Foobar server started immediately. Now I had two server running on the pc, Serviio & Foobar. Began to access both from 'Bubble UPnP' for local streaming. During streaming, 'Bubble UPnP' display the sample rate of the source file (after recent update I noticed it) on the play interface (on mobile).

So now guess what it was displaying! Bingo! It displayed the same sample rate as the source. During the experiment I disabled all the audio transcoding option of all the related server apps.

Now the Foobar DLNA (or UPnP) service have many customize options for transcoding and down sampling as per your requirement. When I had selected to down sample files to 48 KHz or 44.1 KHz on 'Foobar DLNA', then the 'Bubble UPnP app' on my Mobile also displayed the sample rate accordingly.

Conclusion:- It is a bold proof that DLNA does not alter the sample rate unless you opted for that.

 

[saj2001ind]

Great work saikat it is of huge help for ppl like us and I too use bubbleupnp app it's amazing to use as remote controller on htc one m8 and between my synology Nas and himedia player connected to nad viso 1 through optical

I too get no audio with 192 files but 96 pls fine which proved dlna server is not at all altering bit rate

one more suggestion pls, I was looking at CA NP30 on hifimart http://www.hifimart.com/electronics...ver/cambridge-audio-np30-network-music-player
if I replace my himedia with this network player and use the same above setup, will I hear any difference in sound quality ?

my setup means Synology NAS as DLNA server -> HTC One M8 using bubbleupnp app as remote to beam music to network player -> himedia hd900 connected to nad viso 1 using optical out

now in same above setup if I replace with high end CA NP30 will I be hearing any sound quality difference ?

basically I want to know how much of processing is done in network player...ideally I will want it to send unprocessed raw signal to nad viso 1, bcoz nad's system is awesome with direct digital DAC and amazing speakers set for a small setup

 

[srisaikat]

As far my knowledge is concern, CA NP30 is optimized for 2 channel audio only, so it will be a definite step up over Himedia 900B. But CA NP30 is limited to 24/96 KHz sampling rate which I think is not a problem at all for practical purpose. Still a small problem is "88.2kHz sampling frequency not supported"

But you have a strong contender on same price range as a media player. Popcorn hour A-410 which is also optimized for Audio (along with Video).

Your have a third option - http://www.hifiads.com/ads/denon-dnp-720ae-network-audio-player-x2/, little bargain might cost you lot less. This "Denon DNP-720AE" also has the limit of 24/96 KHz but it supports 88.2 kHz sampling frequency.