Music Streamer

[navin advani]

I am sorry. This is completely incorrect. When you send a analogue signal to any amplifier, all it does is amplify it.

Amplifier: usually refers to 2 ch and sometimes 2.1 like it,is possinle with the Yamaha AS 2000 actually the 2000 is capable of 2.2
Stereo Receiver: usually refer to 2 ch. ; amplifier + tuner
AVR : usually refers to 5.1 or more channels.

Yes 1020 has it all..You can just plug-in your HDD/iPod/iPad/iPhone via USB.

Actually i understand it has AirPlay so an iPod touch etc can stream wirelessly to it.

In all AVRs that can accept analogue signals, DSP is done for digital signals only. All of then have a what is called a 'pure direct' or 'stereo' mode where all processing is stopped, and the video circuitry completely side stepped. In some, the video circuitry is actually shut down, and all displays go off.

This is also my definition.

There is a difference between an AVR and a stereo receiver. A stereo receiver is an stereo integrated amplifier that has an radio receiver built in.

An AVR is an Audio/Video Receiver that can decode multiple digital signals in multi-channel format, scale video, understand LFE, act as a switch for multiple inputs, interact with a display device, etc. Though they are both receivers, there is an ocean of difference. You never call a stereo receiver an AVR.

I have already said that AVRs just amplify the analogue signals when set to pure direct or stereo mode.

Again this is also what I understand. I think this was a matter of confusion over terminology.

Just confuse things I was looking for 2 media players for lossless audio and 2 for video. I am building 2 systems.

System 1. Yamaha 3020 used in 4.1 mode ( phantom centre )
System 2. Yamaha AS2000 for stereo and 1020 for 7.1 the 1020 uses the power amp in the 2000 to drive front speakers.

In either case the media player/streamer application/requirement is the same. Just realised that in either case one MIGHT have to turn on the TV if one wanted to see what was on the Hard Disk connected directly to the AVR. A media streamer like the Marantz 7004, Cambridge Stream Magic would talk to the iPad or iPhone so there would be no need to turn on the TV. Is this correct?

Also is the Oppo iPad or iPhone controllable?

 

[navin advani]

1. Dune (HD Max & Smart B1) are about the one players that support FullHD, ISO, HD Audio, and are region free.

3. PCH - Again, support for Blu-Ray and all that. Is on the open platform and has innumerable applications that are available. Has a waiting period of about a month.

Dune, available in India through distribution channels. PCH is available only from their web site.

BUT, as I said before, unless you have changed your mind, none of these will suffice your needs for a good music streamer.

Cheers

Let's assume we get a music streamer from another source which is preferred Dune or Popcorn for video? Who sells and services Dune?

For music is there an alternate to Marantz and Cambridge (NTFS hard drive and iPad controll is essential)? Oppo?

 

[venkatcr]

Let's assume we get a music streamer from another source which is preferred Dune or Popcorn for video? Who sells and services Dune?

PCH is not sold in India, so that may be an issue with you. Dune is sold and serviced by Kripa India.

For music is there an alternate to Marantz and Cambridge (NTFS hard drive and iPad controll is essential)? Oppo?

What I am saying may be subjective, but for music streaming, you really do not need the video circuitry inside a box. That is where Marantz and CA score over Oppo. Literally every company worth it's salt is coming out with music streamers. So essentially the decision making will depend upon which company you have trust in and like. Companies such as Marantz and CA have been in the music business for a long time, and understand the needs of audiophiles.

Unless you plan to stick to drives that are less than 250GB and below, NTFS is needed. All new drives are NTFS, and for 3TB and above, a new format is yet to be arrived at. But FAT has no chance of reading even a 1TB drive.

iPad control is optional. Most of these music streamers do have their own remote control. But single line displays are so passe. You can do literally everything with a iPad. Personally, that is the first time that I found a iPad being useful. As a remote control. Ha Ha. . It is completely useless otherwise.

Cheers

 

[NetFreak]

This is absolutely not possible, in any sort of equipment:


Do you mean Analogue input --> ADC ?

Yaa that was a typo corrected that.

For some reason forum software compressed the scans that I have uploaded.

Basically, there are two paths:

1. In normal operation, Analogue goes to DSP and later audio out
2. In "Pure Direct", DSP is completely bypassed

To validate that, this specific AVR has Diag mode where you feed 1 KHz signal to Left/Right in Analogue and measure signal on Speaker terminals.

Diagram 2 shows AVR in Pure Direct mode.

 

[NetFreak]

Actually i understand it has AirPlay so an iPod touch etc can stream wirelessly to it.

With this AVR, this is the an easy-to-use setup:

1. NAS that supports Airplay :

E.g. : http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-DS111-Network-Storage/dp/B0047D68M0

2. WiFi router

With that, ALL your music would be available on iPhone / iPad and this AVR

 

[navin advani]

Dune is sold and serviced by Kripa India.

Companies such as Marantz and CA have been in the music business for a long time, and understand the needs of the audiophiles.

Personally, that is the first time that I found a iPad being useful. As a remote control. Ha Ha. . It is completely useless otherwise.

Thanks I will contact Kripa for the Dune.

Sadly there are no other options under 25K other than Oppo, CA or Marantz? Many audiophiles swear that even the Oppo 93 can run circles around most similarly priced CD players and Media Streamers. The Oppo 95 is another level up.

I use the iPad regularly. With a CDMA card it can do almost all I need from a laptop.

What do you think of a combination of the Oppo 93 and Dune HD? I know that both players play DVD and are hard disk media streamers (both video and audio) and are very similar in function. Does the Dune HD support streaming from Hulu/Netflix (video) or Pandora/Rhapsody (audio)? Are either of the iPad compatible? The Oppo could replace my modded 63KI CD player and either could replace the Sony DVD player.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Unless you plan to stick to drives that are less than 250GB and below, NTFS is needed. All new drives are NTFS, and for 3TB and above, a new format is yet to be arrived at. But FAT has no chance of reading even a 1TB drive.

This is nipicking, I know but...

NTFS does not describe a hard disk drive, it describes a file system. The same is true of Fat-16/FAT-32, ext3/4, and numerous other options for file systems.

When we buy internal HDDs, they are blank. There are no partitions and no file-systems: they are not NTFS discs, they are nothing discs. When we buy external USB drives, they usually come ready to plug in and use with the whole disk formatted as one partition/file-system and yes, that will almost certainly be NTFS. Plug it in to a Windows system, and see a "drive" with available space on it.

As far as I know, there is no obligation to keep it that way. As far as I know, a USB hdd can be partitioned and split into several smaller "drives" just like an internal disk can. I think you can even do this with thumb drives.

As far as I know = I haven't actually done it, not with any of my external USB drives, nor have I yet wanted to, although it has crossed my mind.

I have one internal hdd that has zero NTFS partitions on it. It does not even have an MBR. It would be invisible to Windows-anything.

[The historical MS-world restrictions on primary, extended and logical partitions are just horrible, and the larger discs get, the worse they feel. Being able to leave all that behind would, BIOS allowing, be one of the good reasons for an utterly MS-free PC. Offtopic. ]

There is life and filesystems other than that designed by Microsoft. Is it likely that any non-computer plug-in-a-thumb-drive would be able to recognise it? I doubt it. Is it probable that any such device would be able to recognise multiple partitions? I doubt that too.

Just because something has a USB socket on the front, it might be a mistake to think that it will recognise anything other than a double-digit Gb thumb drive with a single FAT partition, or maybe, if advertised as such, a portable player.

If, of course, one's music streamer was based on Linux, and open source, like a Squeezebox, then there is a chance that these restrictions would not apply, and, if they do, an even better chance that the Squeezebox community would or could find ways to make them not apply

 

[navin advani]

This is nipicking, I know but...
NTFS does not describe a hard disk drive, it describes a file system. The same is true of Fat-16/FAT-32, ext3/4, and numerous other options for file systems.

If, of course, one's music streamer was based on Linux, and open source, like a Squeezebox, then there is a chance that these restrictions would not apply, and, if they do, an even better chance that the Squeezebox community would or could find ways to make them not apply

I agree that NTFS is a file system (FS stands for file system) like FAT (file access table) etc but...the specs of many players like the Cambridge and the Oppo specififically state that they can play NTFS hard drives (or so I think).

Why do we all prefer NTFS? Well because of the size of the file and the size of partition. NTFS allows us to have a single large partition to store our music in and also allows us large file sizes so we can have a movie in one file. I don't know enough about Computers or Linux ( or Unix) to continue that discussion but suffice to say is that if a Media Streamer can read NTFS Hard drives it should read any other drive as well.

Coming back to Media Streamers what does SBT do that Oppo, Cambridge or Marantz do not? Yes it is about half the price as either of the others but unlike the Oppo or Dune it does not spin discs. Besides because of it's form factor it is difficult to integrate into traditional component stacks. That said can a Squeezebox Radio integrate wirelessly to an AVR? Can it for example read media files that on a hard disk connected to the AVR? Why do I ask? Because it's form factor make it a good kitchen table radio!

Coming back to the video media streamer. One of my friends got a Netgear NTV 550. So what's good about this device? It accepts SDcards with AVCHD video files and plays them! I think this is a must have for a video player. Direct from camera to TV. I don't think the Dune, Oppo, or even the Popcorn can do this; can they? Can WD? Asus? Xstreamer? TiVX?

Why did a mid- fi magazine rate dune so poorly? Is it's Blu-ray performance that bad? I take it the Dune is primarily considered for it's streaming. Should I then consider the Oppo 93 for Blu-ray playback ( if I need it) and let the Dune only be used for streaming? Are there better video streamers?. I do t have any Blu- ray in my collection as of now but it would be nice to have the ability to play them when I get them.
Dune HD Max review from the experts at whathifi.com

I was considering a Dune HD and Oppo 93 combination when I was told about the SDcard AVCHD feature of the Netgear.

 

[venkatcr]

What do you think of a combination of the Oppo 93 and Dune HD? I know that both players play DVD and are hard disk media streamers (both video and audio) and are very similar in function. Does the Dune HD support streaming from Hulu/Netflix (video) or Pandora/Rhapsody (audio)? Are either of the iPad compatible? The Oppo could replace my modded 63KI CD player and either could replace the Sony DVD player.

Why did a mid- fi magazine rate dune so poorly? Is it's Blu-ray performance that bad? I take it the Dune is primarily considered for it's streaming. Should I then consider the Oppo 93 for Blu-ray playback ( if I need it) and let the Dune only be used for streaming? Are there better video streamers?. I do t have any Blu- ray in my collection as of now but it would be nice to have the ability to play them when I get them.

I was considering a Dune HD and Oppo 93 combination when I was told about the SDcard AVCHD feature of the Netgear.

Couple of things.

1. As I mentioned before Oppo is not a replacement for a DVD Player. A Pioneer DVD player for around 3K will do the job beautifully. Yes, if you want to promote yourself to Blu-ray, DVD, SACD, and upscaled video and audio, Oppo is an excellent option.

2. The playback capabilities of Dune and Oppo cannot be compared. Dune does a decent job of just passing everything to external processors. Oppo scales video to full 1080P, has a very decent DAC inside and, in the 95, has built in circuitry for excellent audio playback from CD and SACD.

3. I do not understand the hulla bulla about SD card. Any player with an USB can read an SD Card. All you need is a SD Card reader that sells for 200.

4. If you get the Oppo, you don't need the Dune. Any simple non-disk, non-optical media player cum streamer (such WDTV) will be more than enough.

5. Regarding reviews, I have seen Dune working flawlessly for the last three years, and playing literally anything I throw at it. If you look at their web site, it has won more awards than you can count.

Cheers

 

[navin advani]

1. As I mentioned before Oppo is not a replacement for a DVD Player.

2. Oppo scales video to full 1080P, has a very decent DAC inside and, in the 95, has built in circuitry for excellent audio playback from CD and SACD.

3. I do not understand the hulla bulla about SD card.

4. If you get the Oppo, you don't need the Dune. Any simple non-disk, non-optical media player cum streamer (such WDTV) will be more than enough.

5. Regarding reviews, I have seen Dune working flawlessly

1. I figured if I get a Dune or Oppo why have the Sony DVD. I can give the Sony to my inlaws etc...no need to have 2 devices that can play DVD.

2. You making me itch for the Oppo 95! What does it retail for in Mumbai?

3. The Hulla Bulla was about AVCHD. I like the idea of Camera to TV.

4. Would a Oppo 93 and Dune combo give me almost everything I need including CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, movies and lossless music from NTFS Hard disks, AVCHD playback (from SD Card), streaming from Netflix/Hulu/Rhapsody/Pandora etc.. and iPad/iPhone control?

 

[navin advani]

Thanks I will contact Kripa for the Dune.

What do you think of a combination of the Oppo 93 and Dune HD?.

Yes, if you want to promote yourself to Blu-ray, DVD, SACD, and upscaled video and audio, Oppo is an excellent option.

2. Oppo scales video to full 1080P, has a very decent DAC inside and, in the 95, has built in circuitry for excellent audio playback from CD and SACD.

4. If you get the Oppo, you don't need the Dune. Any simple non-disk, non-optical media player cum streamer (such WDTV) will be more than enough.

5. Regarding reviews, I have seen Dune working flawlessly for the last three years, and playing literally anything I throw at it. If you look at their web site, it has won more awards than you can count.

What do the Oppo 93, Oppo 95 and Dune cost in India? Any retail stores in Mumbai where I can buy them?

Why does Oppo claim that the Oppo95 "is designated for North American Customers Only"? Is it the Blu Ray format?