Music PC

Wireless, my DAC does not support.
Toslink I can try as Digi + has a Toslink out

Which cable should I try? Any brand you have in mind?
Not any costly one as this is just for experiment sake

BlueRigger or Amazon Basics. You'll find on Amazon India site.

More expensive I'd go with Lifatec Glass... they have been exceptional in my system.
 
Lets see if someone compares RPi and Hiberry+ combo against CCA to see whether the extra expense and complexity is worth the SQ.

I've been meaning to get both HiFiBerry and IQAudio and test it for myself. I've read good things about them and honestly at their budget one cannot really complain. You can have both amp and DAC based Pi setups and for all its worth they might even make for better cohesive units.

I do believe they are snap on easy and a single power adapter will power the entire unit, though rikhav would have better answers as he is using a digital output addon.

TOSLink is also my favorite but for most DACs it's limited to 24/96 whereas on Coax they support 24/192. That's the only reason I prefer Coax. Even better now I only use BNC, true 75 ohm connection.

Chromecast Audio is also limited to Toslink and 24/96. Not really an issue for me as I'm limited to audio CDs and FLAC rips. Most of the music I listen to also does not get to high rez.
 
Connecting a hifiberry digi+ board to a RPI is as easy or difficult as connecting a RCA interconnect
 
Fon Gramofon.

I was planning on ordering a couple of them since they also work as Wi-Fi extenders/repeaters, but quite a lot of negative reviews, in particular about it creating an open Wi-Fi network as part of the Fon Network.

Fon obviously sells this as a service, as part of their Wi-Fi network services. So basically all users will be contributing bandwidth to the Fon network and this is not disclosed as being part of the product.
 
Yes, a serious review by you and Rege would be immensely helpful. I am planning to set up a whole home audio using the Chromecast Audio if things work out well. I am contemplating between the Chromecast Audio and the Fon Gramofon. I plan to have simple inexpensive amps in each room connected to reasonably good speakers such as the Aperion Audio or Andrew Jones.

Thanks

I will hopefully get some time this weekend to do a good comparison. Having said that, Rege has already made detailed posts about his impressions.

Based on casual listening, CCA works quite well, and "just works". Setup is a breeze. It literally took 2 minutes.

One thing to note about the way Chromecast (and CCA) works. Every Chromecast device broadcasts itself to all Android or Chromecast enabled software (if you are using a PC or Mac or something else). So if you get 3-4 Chromecast devices, one for each room, you will name them something like:

Chromecast - Living Room
Chromecast - Bedroom
Chromecast - Kitchen

and so on.

When you are casting audio from, say, your Android phone (from Pandora, Tidal, Spotify, etc. - or from a browser with the Chromecast plugin - or from a UPnP client audio browser/player) - you select which Chromecast you want to stream/cast it to. That Chromecast then picks up the command and directly connects to the source and starts playing it.

So you can play Tidal in your listening room by controlling the songs from your cellphone, while your wife can play Pandora in her kitchen by controlling her songs from her cellphone.

I do not have a multi-room setup (but do have the older and newer CC devices) - but I imagine this is how CCA would work in a multi-room setup. Rege, please correct me if I am wrong.

On a side note, a good wifi router would really help in ensuring good audio quality. I personally benefited immensely when I upgraded from Netgear to an Asus router with 3 antennae. The Asus is so much more reliable and stable and has a lot more broadcasting power as well. Only downside is the price - the AC routers are all so expensive and Asus models even more so.

CCA actually supports AC too!

In hindsight, I would have probably ditched the Asus router and gone for a Ubiquity UniFi based router solution. Review here. It has so much more flexibility. For example, if you have bad coverage in a remote section of the house, just buy another wireless access point and it will attach itself to the existing setup and network seamlessly. And it allows you to create multiple wifi networks each with its own policy. And despite it being an "enterprise grade" product, it is still cheaper than the high end consumer routers. And is still reasonably easy to manage. But I digress.

Finally, here is a really good objective review of CCA with tons of measurements.

CCA analog output review

CCA digital output review
 
So you can play Tidal in your listening room by controlling the songs from your cellphone, while your wife can play Pandora in her kitchen by controlling her songs from her cellphone.

The question is can CCA deliver multi-room integrated music. In other words, same song playing in all rooms, or the same song switching from one room to another as you move.

I think both Sam and Rege have said this is not possible.

Thanks
 
The question is can CCA deliver multi-room integrated music. In other words, same song playing in all rooms, or the same song switching from one room to another as you move.

I think both Sam and Rege have said this is not possible.

Thanks

Hmm... not sure why I said that or maybe it was lost in translation.

It's possible and I've been doing it for a while now. Same song across any number of rooms and in any combination is possible.

In the sense taking above example, Tidal can be in bedroom and kitchen, and Pandora can be in the den and the living room at the same time.

You can also move the music from one room to another.
 
The question is can CCA deliver multi-room integrated music. In other words, same song playing in all rooms, or the same song switching from one room to another as you move.

I think both Sam and Rege have said this is not possible.

Thanks

This was my post in the previous pages

Yes I agree situations can be achieved by different permutations and combinations, but with LMS everything is/can be done from one location/one application and one controller. Be it your Mobile or PC you do not have to change the controller or application or anything else, if Mobile is what you have you can do everything with LMS application on mobile. Like the second example you gave "want a different song/album in a different room, then I'm all set if I use another smartphone or tablet." with LMS no need for a different phone or TAB.

Third example "wife wants her own songs in the kitchen or bedroom, she simply uses her smartphone. Everybody has one these days." ........ With LMS she does not need her smartphone, all she needs is to yell at you... Hubby please play my this song in the kitchen and all you need to do is to select the kitchen player from LMS interface and play the song that's it ......... you then start to feel to listen to the same song running in kitchen in your bedroom, simply sync the two zones and thats it ....

YOu cannot also sync between zones, via CCA...... My point is CCA is a good layman or poor man's multiroom audio I agree, with decent audio quality. But for a dedicated Multiroom audio with complete control over server, renderer, playlist, volume, syncing ..... few other I cannot remember as of now, the cheapest best possible solution is LMS with Picore player on Rpi. (with a decent USB DAC ofcourse)

BTW .... OT ..... since @asliarun brought it I would like to mention.... I have been using Ubiquity UniFi access point and it IS an amazing piece of hardware, and any one looking for an Access Point to create a wifi zone. Ubiquite UniFi is highly recommended hardware and its much cheaper than quite a few professional AP out there, from the likes of cisco and netgear ...
 
I re built my pcs
1 is a NAS
That has 18tb of Storage.
In the same NAS I have 6tb of Storage.
This machine runs on Free Nas.
Then I have a 4tb Synology NAS....
Finally a playback pc...
That has a 6tb Enterprise Hdd and a 2tb Hdd.

Basic Playback is via J River on DLNA to Lumin X1 on Ethernet Cable via SOTM Switch. On optical Cat Cable...
Should all start soon...
Last stage of set up is in progress..
Hopes are high..
Let's see how it performs..
80 percent plus as close to my CDT and I shall be a happy soul...
Bhagwan
9th April 21
 
Oh, I am searching for simple and better sounding media player. Tried most of free players suggested on forum. Whenever l play anything on audacity, I feel rest of free media players do not come close to it.Soundstage and musicality.Its a saw and may not create a playlist l guess. Only player which sounds good is Cplay. It needs cue files and can't add music files directly.
 
Oh, I am searching for simple and better sounding media player. Tried most of free players suggested on forum. Whenever l play anything on audacity, I feel rest of free media players do not come close to it.Soundstage and musicality.Its a saw and may not create a playlist l guess. Only player which sounds good is Cplay. It needs cue files and can't add music files directly.
 
I use an Aqua CDT and Aqua DAC.
Formula xHD is the dac...
Beautiful..
I can see it has a custom CDMPro2 and even has a rare ST output !.

Any idea on its comparison with the esoteric from your experience ?
I know its difficult to compare objectively without the same system/DAC but looking for a subjective feel of how a tweaked CDMPro 2 can compare with the esoteric in terms of resolution and timing
diva_dx_1600.jpg
 
If you're serious about a music pc look into something like this : https://stordiau.com/products/phasure-stealth-mach-iii-audio-pc-with-linear-power-supply

There are many similar alternatives too. Innuous zenith is one example.

Also you can look into a dedicated low noise, low phase noise clocked pcie to usb card like jcat femto and couple it to a decent power supply like ifi ipowerx.

Do note significant portion of sq changes come from optimal software choices and often can be free .

With your existing pc try one of these softwares.
1. Junilabs player and file optimizer
2. Wtfplay
3. Xxhighend
4. PlayPCM win.

I use the Junilabs file optimizer + xxhighend on my laptop. I hope to build a workstation for scientific computing and might look into audiophile tweaks during that time (use of LPS, better sounding RAM, cleaner motherboard etc).

I have a massive comparison of like 25 music players on my pc (things can be system dependent, so you gotta try on your system to judge for yourself), I can share it if anyone is interested but the above 4 are my favourites.
 
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With your existing pc try one of these softwares.
1. Junilabs player and file optimizer
2. Wtfplay
3. Xxhighend
4. PlayPCM win.

Thanks for the recommendations!

I tried one of them so far and results are encouraging. Now, I am tempted to try rest of your recommendations!
 
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