Got my Music Streamer II today...

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Puma Cat, Sep 14, 2010.

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  1. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Just showed up in the mail, got it "used" (thought it looks brand new) from a seller at Audio Circle for $40 off, a budget-busting $110.

    Will post initial impressions once I get home from work and get it set up tonight...my "old" black MacBook is going to become my music server.
     
  2. TONEPUB

    TONEPUB Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    How can you go wrong for $40?
     
  3. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Ha! No, it was $110, it was $40 off new MSRP, but it looks like it was never even taken out of the packaging...hooking it up momentarily here.
     
  4. Still a great deal...enjoy!!
     
  5. Jim in Houston

    Jim in Houston The Godfather of Alt-Country & Punk

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    I have never been able to understand how these things work. So doe sthis reside at the computer or at the stereo?

    In my mind, I see it plugged into the stereo w/analog cables and then to a wireless internet bridge. Then it would recive the data via my wireless router with all the music selection done at my computer.

    Do I have this anywhere near correct?

    Thanks
     
  6. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Puma,

    Congrats and look forward to your thoughts on the sound quality.
     
  7. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Hi Jim,
    No, it's simpler than that. It resides like a very small component between the computer and the stereo.

    It's simply a small, thin, device about 3 1/2 lnches long.

    You plug a USB cable into it at one end, and a pair of analog RCA ICs out at the other.

    Connect the USB to your computer, and the RCA ICs to your stereo, set your computer's sound settings to use the Music Streamer for output, bring up iTunes or Amarra, and start playing music.

    I listened to it a bit last night and it sounds really good.

    Surprisingly good, actually.

    I will post a pic later...
     
  8. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I'm really excited about this product at that price, especially with the preliminary indications that it sounds like a quality piece. PumaC, will you post some additional thoughts on the sound as you spend some more time with it? Many thanks, SB
     
  9. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Oh, yes, absolutely, I plan to. I thought I would do some direct comparisons on the same content ripped to lossless and played directly the from CD on my Oppo BD83SE.
     
  10. Jim in Houston

    Jim in Houston The Godfather of Alt-Country & Punk

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    Problem is that my computer and stereo are in two different rooms. That's where the wireless connections come in.

    You did, however answer my question about the content needingg to be controlled by the PC.

    Thanks
     
  11. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    I think what you want then is a Logitech Squeezebox Touch, Logitech Transporter, or a Sonos wireless system.
     
  12. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Okay, here's the setup:

    The basic Streamer II and cables...
    [​IMG]

    View from the top connected to my old black Macbook and Firewire drive:

    [​IMG]

    The setup:
    [​IMG]

    It still sounds quite good, I'm impressed.
     
  13. maraisdecygnes

    maraisdecygnes New Member

    Location:
    Princeton/NYC
    Try a Belkin Gold USB cable (on amazon for about $10). Kevin .H recommended this tweak to me and I was happy with the results.
    Still loving my Streamer MkI !!
     
  14. sushimaster

    sushimaster Forum Resident

    Jim you should look into the Squeezebox Touch and maybe Cambridge DAC Magic. It's a pretty popular combo on here. I have a Squeezebox and external DAC and it has changed the way I listen to my CD collection.

    - Sushimaster

     
  15. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    Thanks, I will be getting a Wireworld Ultraviolet USB cable for it...
     
  16. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Love it, could hardly be simpler. I can hardly wait to ditch the Squeezebox software at this point . . .
     
  17. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    SqueezeCenter?
     
  18. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I think that's what it's called, though I'm not in front of it right now. Regardless I've found it frustrating. I don't understand why it can't scan a disk of music as well as something like MediaMonkey or foobar can -- it often screws up the artwork and/or breaks up albums into parts. And the searching and sorting is really lame compared to MM, which is what I'm familiar with. (For example, the only way you can search by composer is by dumping all the composers into the artist list, and then finding them in there.) Plus it just works really slowly, as if every command is getting bounced off some distant satellite before it hits the computer.
     
  19. therockman

    therockman Senior Member In Memoriam

    I have been using this product since June and I love it.
     
  20. TigerMMG

    TigerMMG New Member

    Location:
    NJ
    So therockman and Puma Cat, let us know how much difference there is between the computer sound card you got and this new MusicStreamer... that would help a lot.
     
  21. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    I have a good friend who is trying to use it to stream 24/96K FLAC files wirelessly from his MacPro to his Transporter...no way. This is, of course, because the Mac will not work with FLAC. His only solution is to use convert to the Apple Lossless codec via Max or something similar. Anyway, Squeezecenter has been frustrating for him, too.

    I just use good 'ole iTunes on the MacBook to go via USB to the Music Streamer; I have a lot of content purchased from the Apple Store from before I got seriously back into audio, but I only have a small set of Redbook CDs, maybe 50-60, so it's not that much content we are talking about at this point in time. That may change, though, with getting the Oppo, which really is a terrific player. I'm a very much a "vinyl guy", so the vast majority of my music collection is vinyl.

    Did a comparison between the Music Streamer on the same content ripped to Apple Lossless and via the actual Redbook CD from the Oppo BD-83SE and the Oppo sounds better....not a lot better, but it is slightly richer, more full-sounding, dimensional, musical, and natural sounding. But it's pretty dang close, the little Music Streamer certainly holds it own and for about $149, it's one of the audio bargains of the decade.

    I set up my iPhone so I can control my Macbook/iTunes Library via the iPhone to send content to the Music Streamer.

    Now, that's convenient...
     
  22. maraisdecygnes

    maraisdecygnes New Member

    Location:
    Princeton/NYC

    I am Just using my Ipod Touch w/ remote as a remote for itunes, can you explain the content thing above, curious ??

    My Music Streamer MKI sounded very musical with good detail after breaking in. Was very happy. Tried tweaking more expensive interconnects and using it into a audio switcher as it lost something, so went back to a very basic setup and average interconnects and am back to where it was, sounding very good indeed.
     
  23. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    By content, I just meant Redbook CD music content that was to ripped to Apple Lossless codec and are in my iTunes library. The actual files are resident on the external Firewire drive.

    I use the iPhone Apple Remote app to look up my playlists and control iTunes to send content to the Streamer II.
     
  24. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Oh, you're not kidding. I've seen how that can work. That is the one thing that tempts me about the Apple world right now, how the phones and things can become remotes for your computer music program.

    Just ordered myself one of the MusicStreamer II's. Had to plunk down a bit more dough to get it from Amazon by the weekend ($149) but I'm dying to check this out, and it's still a fair price I think.
     
  25. maraisdecygnes

    maraisdecygnes New Member

    Location:
    Princeton/NYC
    ohhh, ok, me too! ;)

    The Remote app on the Ipod Touch can also route itunes audio to any of the airtunes wireless stations in my house as well as the main music streamer output, which is a whole nother level of cool and made great use of the 4 Boston Acoustic bookshelf speakers I had in the attic from my old surround sound rig. :D
     
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