[Verbout]

Nice little Bluetooth gadget to send music from tablet to hifi.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4KHjw4evU

 

[TheGrimJeeper]

Apple don't allow you to transfer music via Bluetooth.

That's a Bluetooth A2DP audio stream receiver.

 

[Paddy OPlastic]

I don't understand why Apple hamstring Bluetooth on their devices. Having to resort to WiFi just to get a wireless OBD2 dongle working with your phone is just plain stupid.

 

[Verbout]

Apple don't allow you to transfer music via Bluetooth.

That's a Bluetooth A2DP audio stream receiver.

The bloke in the video doesn't seem to have an issue transferring his Spotify music.

Do you mean Apple don't allow you to transfer their music?

 

[Paddy OPlastic]

The bloke in the video doesn't seem to have an issue transferring his Spotify music.

Do you mean Apple don't allow you to transfer their music?

Froggie's being pedantic. You're not transferring music with that device (which Apple doesn't allow), you're streaming it (which it does).

 

[TheGrimJeeper]

I don't understand why Apple hamstring Bluetooth on their devices. Having to resort to WiFi just to get a wireless OBD2 dongle working with your phone is just plain stupid.

Stops copying.



#LikeF**kItDoes.

 

[Verbout]

Froggie's being pedantic. You're not transferring music with that device (which Apple doesn't allow), you're streaming it (which it does).

Cheers PO:thumbup:

@tt4n......twart

 

[TheGrimJeeper]

You learned something, stop moanin'.

 

[Verbout]

I knew it was a streaming device and not transferring music having watched the video.

What confused me was your first post stating what I already knew.

And moanin' is what I excel at, I'm at that age:lol:

 

[TheGrimJeeper]

And moanin' is what I excel at, I'm at that age:lol:

17 years old, eh?

 

[biggreenzebra]

Bear in mind that Bluetooth is compressed and therefore it's use with a hi-fi is a contradiction in terms. There are many better solutions to stream music to a hi-fi using hi-fi level formats eg FLAC.

 

[Al Faromeo]

.../...There are many better solutions to stream music to a hi-fi using hi-fi level formats eg FLAC.

Spill the beans!

 

[TheGrimJeeper]

Apple HairPlay...?

No thanks.

 

[Verbout]

@tt4n, My humble apologies, I get your point and have edited my thread title. Doh.aperbag:

@bgz, what Al said. I have looked up Flac and it seems to me to be software related, is there a hardware gadget with it installed?

 

[biggreenzebra]

A Raspberry Pi with a HifiBerry DAC+ (about £80 all in) can be loaded with software that will allow it to stream FLAC (hi-res - free lossless audio codec) files from your PC to your connected hi-fi.
You do need to run some software on a PC (or another Pi) to act as the server. More and more providers are appearing online with hi-res streaming services e.g. Quboz, Tidal etc and the server can be configured to connect to these services as well.

Services like Google Play. Amazon Prime or Spotify are low-res in comparison and rely on compressed audio codecs - MP3 or in Spotify's case something called OGG. All of these are at a max of 320kbps. When you stream say a Google track from a phone to a Bluetooth device it is decompressed by the phone then re compressed for Bluetooth transport. It ain't Hi-Fi.

FLAC is CD quality or better. You do need decent wifi or wired network (preferred) and if streaming from the Internet a decent internet connection.

AirPlay is capable of handling FLAC and can work well but does introduce an extra hop into the delivery. Your iThingy receives the packets and sends them onto the AirPlay receiver whereas the Raspberry Pi is getting the packets first hand. If your AirPlay device is wireless the "playing" from a iThingy also connected wirelessly puts a bit of a strain on your wifi network.

Questions?

 

[Verbout]

Got it......... been on Youtube looking up about Flac.

Apparently my Marantz M-CR603 accepts Flac, but I need to check the documentation to confirm that.

Something that converts files to Flac on-the-fly before playing them would be ideal, but leaving them original. Does anything like that exist?

 

[biggreenzebra]

If your Receiver supports FLAC you just need to store them on a server (can be your PC) and make them available for the Marantz to see. This uses DLNA/uPNP protocols. You will find iThingy & Android controller apps.

Rip your CDs to FLAC using free software called dbPoweramp. Tag the files using mp3tag.
Or buy your music in hi-res format using Quboz or similar.

Check what formats the Marantz supports. FLAC should be OK but it may or may not support ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) - note .m4a files can be ALAC (hi-res) or MP3. The ones you buy from iTunes are the latter low red variety in most cases.

This will work OK but the RaspBerry Pi stuff I was referring to works even better because the server software and control apps allow much more flexibility in things like playlist management. Please be aware that DLNA is patchy in that Devices can be DLNA certified, DLNA compatible or DLNA capable. Different components in the chain may or may not work together properly. The standard is iffy.

 

[biggreenzebra]

Just had a look at Marantz specs. Yes you just need a "music server" to stream FLACs to it.
The music server can be your PC if you are happy to leave it switched on, an old PC converted to run headless, a NAS or a low power device like a Pi.

The good news is that you should be able to give it a try for zero cost on your PC. Slight caveat if it's W10 but if you look at Logitech Media Server software at Some Software Beta Downloads and find the latest Windows 7.9 version. The software is GPL. You just point it at your music files and it will catalog them and present the results to your Marantz in a format it understands. You may need to open up your firewall if you have one. The music files can be FLAC, ALAC, MP3 etc

There are Windows, Linux & NAS OS versions available.

 

[Verbout]

Cheers, I will have a look into that:thumbup:

I have AirPlay on the Marantz and an iMac as my main computer, but I like the sound of another storage device for my music instead of the Mac and its backup disc.

 

[biggreenzebra]

There's also a Mac version but I have little experience of that version. Plenty with most other environments.
Do you have an old PC lying around? If so see - vortexbox.org.