Answered my question! Thanks! You have fired up the audio bug in me again. Video suggestion if you haven’t already, Cambridge audio dac vs Soundavio dac? See you at the next cupa coffee…

Terrible nerdy queck quack . Not for ex analog cable FM listerers who are forced to go digital only. I look for understandable reviews dig tuners with internet and dig antenna for cable companies. But less expensive as Argon 3m .

Zen Blue, also unavailable.

No longer available. Do you have another suggestion?

My zen blue v2 just stopped working on digital out

I did the exact same thing

Absolutely. Thanks Randy!

Thanks. You can optical out right into the magni if you like the sound of that DAC or try it straight into your amp. It’s internal DAC is actually very good. Try the amazon hd music for free. And see if you can tell a difference. I have a link to a free 3 month trial to amazon music hd. Check one of my recent videos and there’s a link for it.

@@cheapaudioman have you found that your tab a 10.5 no longer supports the aptx hd codec? I'm not certain if maybe after updating mine to android 10 it disappeared, as I updated it prior to checking the bluetooth codecs available.

@@tonydeniro284 yeah. That’s what happened to mine too. LDAC still works though

@@cheapaudioman yes, ldac is still there, as well as at least regular aptx...kind of strange....I guess samsung is known to do this with the codecs...a bit disappointing, but I did hook up the bc3 last night to my musical fidelity v90 dac via optical, playing through my hifi and it works wonderfully!! Not sure, but can I use ldac with amazon music hd, if I decide to try it?

@@tonydeniro284 yes you certainly can. BT doesn't care about what it's sending as long as the device and the receiver both have the same codec and are configured for the same codec. The codec just packages data on the device side and unpacks it on the receiver side. I use LDAC with Amazon HD all the time, my friend

I hated my NA6006. I've loved marantz for years, but they QC is terrible now and customer care is beyond lacking. Be sure to keep the analogue outs connected else you won't be able to stream DSD :)

by using a dac u do the processing out of the pc so thas fine

Accurate

“Music lovers use equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment.” Best quote surrounding this hobby I’ve ever heard.

On a Pi, you can use a ton of different operating systems. I simply use Hifiberry OS which allows me to stream from any phone app that allows airplay. Nothing more to it. No Pi interface to deal with after setup.

You should put that on a T-shirt.

@@ericnortan9012 Could probably figure out a better slogan. “Listen to the Music not the Gear” or equipment.

Thanks, man

I really want to try one of those out

@@cheapaudioman I can only recommend it! It's great!

I’m a Tidal sub. I get the veterans discount so no significant difference in cost. But I tried Amazon HD. SQ was subjectively as good as Tidal. But no “Connect” feature was the killer. I understand that Amazon wants to push their product. But I like convenience.

Thanks. This is back when my videos were really bad. Now they're just bad. I think until the streamers are able to adopt a "spotify connect" type of connection for all of the streamer services it's always going to be clunky. A good example of great integration is Roon and I wish one of the streamer companies would buy roon and then use that platform for app integration.

@@cheapaudioman i agree on the “connect” style integration. I just finished testing tidal connect through airplay to the node 2 and it’s decent. Not familiar enough to rule out amazon music yet but I’ll do more testing. I bought the node through amazon so that I had a safety net to return it if I decide to take a different route. It’s great but probably does more than I really need it to. I don’t have any local music storage and I don’t use roon. Yet...😁

Thanks so much. Just have some fun and don’t worry too much about your equipment. After you’ve lived with something for a while maybe think about upgrading. Excellent video about the song receiver. For $200 you can be up and running and having a ball.

Same here. Good luck on ur journey.

Thanks. We've grown a ton since this video came out. Almost embarrassed by these

@@cheapaudioman Nah, you shouldn't be. You bring a subtle humor, Zach Galifianakis, style approach to your channel. 👍🏻

Additional info: I've compared bc3 and ibasso dx220 (via SPDIF). Ibasso sounds MUCH better! Going to buy it next month.

In theory it should if you are connected to the headphone out instead of the line out but in practice it doesn't. Actual volume needs to be controlled on unit itself or through whichever amp you're using.

For sure get the Amazon link and hook it up to Alexa. $200 and true streaming. I haven’t done the review yet but it your heavy Amazon music user it’s a no brainer.

@@cheapaudioman , thanks Randy ! Your the BEST 😎 Actually waiting for Prime Day in 2 more weeks, June 21st this year. The Echo Link is already sitting in my Amazon Save for Later checkout basket. Hoping there will be a significant discount on Prime Day 🙏 For anyone else interested, Amazon just recently lowered the price for Amazon HD Unlimited. If your a Prime Member, the monthly subscription is even lower. Plus the first 4 months are FREE, if your a new subscriber. Enjoy 😉

In the BT receiver going into your hifi

I think the rasberry pi with a hifi hat can be a very effective spotify end point. I'd recommend ethernet connection though as the wifi on mine is spotty at best. I think with a hardwired connection it can be a good lower cost solution. BT can and will drop out with distance of course. The BC3 is also small so the antennae will also be small. I think it performed as well as other BT devices but this would be an "in room" solution instead of streaming through the internet. I just don't think that internet streaming from dedicated devices is quite there yet. I also did a review on the Marantz NR1711 where I talk about it's streaming shortfalls. I'd like to get my hands on the Bluesound Node 2i as I've heard better things about it. Good luck and thanks so much for watching.

@@cheapaudioman thanks Randy. God bless brother

Funny you mention that. We talked about that quite a bit on the patron zoom last night

To be fair, even just using a soundbar will make a huge difference. Most soundbars have digital inputs, which also means they have a DAC built into them also. So it kinda covers both your cinc, you'll enjoy much better sound with better depth and clarity AND you'll be using a DAC and all in the one "box" :)

In short, no. The inputs on your cambridge (nice choice by the way) are at a fixed "line level " and without getting to in depth, a headphone output is not only variable, but also gives out way to much volume for a line input. Doing as you suggest would do more harm than good. Topping make great DACs and all the ones i know of have "line output" sockets at the back. Check yours. It maybe 3.5mm or they may be red and white phono/rca connections. Either way, the word you need to look for is "Line". All your inputs on any hifi equipment (except phono (turntable) ) require line level signals :)

Usb has issues, including noise, beyond the bitrate (and the zeroes and ones). Over my head but written about and talked about by a handful of reviewers. If you can try an A/B, probably best so you can see if you and your system noticed the diff

You have to use an operating system that supports spotify connect. I used Volumio. When you get it connected to your network then it will show up in the spotify app where you can connect to "end points" basically

+1 for Chromecast. I got mine for £24 and optical out into my DAC using Tidal. Sounds great.

I just use the TV's optical out to my DAC through my Chromecast. Works great. it upscales everything to 48khz but I don't mind or notice. Sounds great. And I get album art. But the tv does need to be on. Or I'll airplay to the tv itself which also goes out the optical to the DAC and also sounds great

If my son got a girl pregnant, I'd want to know his plans. If I caught my son being an audiophool, I would be ashamed beyond belief.

Forgive me to say, I would like the person who is telling about a thing to look me in the eye and say what he want to say. Through out the video you were looking down at your desk and the gadgets as if you are not confident enough to convince me with your thoughts. Nevertheless thank you for putting the time to produce this video and reading my comment. Have a nice day

You are so right! The probleme today is that most hifi reviewers are ignorant and probably tonedeaf!

I can elaborate for you : a NAS means "Network Attached Storage ". If you imagine it like a USB stick, but it can hold A LOT more data. U usb stick can hold maybe up to 30 gigabytes of data, where as a NAS can hold many terabytes of data (some even more). A NAS can be used for all manner of applications, they can store photos, videos, documents, you can back up your computer to them, pretty much the options of data types are limitless. However, those that have a passion for videos/ Movies, Music or both will have a NAS dedicated purely for these purposes. The word "Synology" was mentioned, that's just a brand name of NAS, there are many in the same way, computers have many brand names. As for "the concept " of streaming music, well depending upon your stand point with audio, firstly it allows you to be able to get rid of that pile of or wall of CDs and have them all in a small (ish) box as a series of zeros and ones (basically, stored on your NAS). You can also join "streaming services " like Tidal, Qobuz and ithers and download all manner of music that you like in very high quality (and believe it or not, even higher quality than cd). So, now you have a NAS, your CDs are in the NAS, it now also means that anything connected to your Internet router either by WiFi or LAN cable can acces the NAS and "stream " that music or video. It's definitely a convenience, but for some the initial outlay and/or the technical setup side is too much to take on and so don't venture down this route. I hope hope this gives you more clarity 🙂

which apple tv is that? did they just upgrade to a unit with an optical out? that would be awesome if they did.

@@cheapaudioman no, but that didn’t stop me 😆 ...cheapo hdmi (has optical) converter from Amazon.

@@artsmodelstation9396 I tried to do the same thing and I couldn’t get it to work. I think it was something going on with the receiver though. I’ve got one of those. I’ll try it again sometime.

The best thing to do is to choose the music streamer that uses all the horsepower of the devices you already have. It would have to be a CD quality or better streaming service. You should Notice a difference and they all have free trial. To see which one you like the best

@@cheapaudioman thank you for the response. So the equipment I already have is good enough and you suggest searching for the best streaming service? Thanks again.

@@ramondelgado6778 yes. Right now the equipment you have will support high res streaming to your BT receiver. Your bottleneck and weakest link is the music service you’re using. So look into a high res streaming service. Quobuz and Amazon HD are cheaper than Tidal. I prefer Amazon personally but both will give you much higher resolution than KZfaq music or Spotify. Good luck and let me know if you hear a difference.

Tidal is just a big scam

Just put this exact setup together, I use "FosPower (0.9M / 3FT) 24K Gold Plated Toslink to Mini Toslink Digital Optical S/PDIF Audio Cable"

Worth noting, you can also use a USB charging cable in the back of the TA-100 to keep the Topping charged up. Works great.

@@robotcowhand1276 Thanks, I was wondering about that.

Fiio's are great little DACs.

@@producer_ben I got lucky enough to find a Q5S with stock THX module[AM3D], that is one damn good portable dac amp. Sucks they are no longer producing it. Honestly, I would say it's better than some of desktop AIO units. It's no wonder that used and open box units are going for more expensive than its original MSRP

yeah that was an awesome product

My galaxy can put out 24bit up to 96. High res starts at 16 bit 44.1. So there is some high res ability in there. However, there still is compression getting it through the bt packaging requirement but it's still significantly more data than MP3.

@@cheapaudioman the Dayton BT/WiFi streamer wba 28/31 is another option around $60. I believe it’s full res over WiFi. Onboard DAC is crap but it does have spdif. I’m using it with airplay but I think it will pull various sources direct over WiFi and it also does dlna.

@@MrMatthewOrlando I’m don’t have any experience with that but I’ll try it out.

Roy. These seem to be difficult to come buy. Also, the functionality of these has proved to be more challenging than some. I would recommend the Ifi Zen Blue instead. amzn.to/32wEcmo

That was the topping BC3 but I would suggest the ifi zen blue