jch48
Novice Member
My CD shelves are more than full and I don’t wish to buy more.
Any downloads I buy won’t fit onto the laptop because its SSID is full, ditto my phone’s microsd.
Mu listening is 95% classical and I do not wish to commit to an online streaming service. I find spotify search is not particularly accurate and I fear beloved old recordings being removed from such services. I’m aware of Tidal and Quobuz but have not researched them.
A week ago I copied 100gb of itunes files to the cloud (onedrive) and am successfully playing by streaming from my android phone and thence to Bluetooth speakers. Most files are AAC 128kbps
I’m thinking about upgrading my main listening system which is a philips CD player, Pioneer A300 amp and Mordaut Short MS5.10 speakers – all dating from the 80s – and streaming to it from my phone etc.
I’ve found online an iFi blue zen device which will enable me to wirelessly stream from my phone to the amp and read the review here plus a few postings about it.
With a budget of £500 to £1000 what are my best options to maximise sound quality? Just speakers, a new amp and speakers or active speakers ? Managing without the amp box has a bit of appeal.
I don’t understand much about power ratings of amps and speakers. For the sake of other family members I do not play music very loud and the kit will be at one end of a through lounge-dining room.
A couple of retailers have mentioned the bluesound-node-2i at £499. I think this has a lot of features (multiroom, airplay) that I will not use and is a lot more than the iFi zen blue. I understand that DACs vary in quality and price. I guess there’s a limit to the quality I can get from lossy audio and I’m not prepared to re-rip all those CDs as lossless and I don’t want to go the NAS route. I’ve got a vague understanding from this forum of different levels of quality in Bluetooth.
For another room I have Monitor Audio WS100 speakers which I find give a good sound (for the money) and work well using the SKAA transmitting USB gadget. Would a phone to USB connector work here?
Thanks
Any downloads I buy won’t fit onto the laptop because its SSID is full, ditto my phone’s microsd.
Mu listening is 95% classical and I do not wish to commit to an online streaming service. I find spotify search is not particularly accurate and I fear beloved old recordings being removed from such services. I’m aware of Tidal and Quobuz but have not researched them.
A week ago I copied 100gb of itunes files to the cloud (onedrive) and am successfully playing by streaming from my android phone and thence to Bluetooth speakers. Most files are AAC 128kbps
I’m thinking about upgrading my main listening system which is a philips CD player, Pioneer A300 amp and Mordaut Short MS5.10 speakers – all dating from the 80s – and streaming to it from my phone etc.
I’ve found online an iFi blue zen device which will enable me to wirelessly stream from my phone to the amp and read the review here plus a few postings about it.
With a budget of £500 to £1000 what are my best options to maximise sound quality? Just speakers, a new amp and speakers or active speakers ? Managing without the amp box has a bit of appeal.
I don’t understand much about power ratings of amps and speakers. For the sake of other family members I do not play music very loud and the kit will be at one end of a through lounge-dining room.
A couple of retailers have mentioned the bluesound-node-2i at £499. I think this has a lot of features (multiroom, airplay) that I will not use and is a lot more than the iFi zen blue. I understand that DACs vary in quality and price. I guess there’s a limit to the quality I can get from lossy audio and I’m not prepared to re-rip all those CDs as lossless and I don’t want to go the NAS route. I’ve got a vague understanding from this forum of different levels of quality in Bluetooth.
For another room I have Monitor Audio WS100 speakers which I find give a good sound (for the money) and work well using the SKAA transmitting USB gadget. Would a phone to USB connector work here?
Thanks