Hi friendly friends! I just bought some new Klipsch RP-600M ii speakers (on sale) to pair with my Onkyo TX-8220 Stereo Receiver and Onkyo CD player. I'd love to start dipping my toe into hi-res streaming. I have a Qobuz subscription and Macbook, but need a way to get best quality between laptop and receiver. I like using the Qobuz app on my television (Hisense TV), but not sure if I can get hi-res w/ simple DAC. Also the optical input on TV seems busted... Was hoping to get something reasonable under $750. Any ideas?
Easy…. Bluesound Node. Then add a DAC later. Good user interface, continuous updates. Very good sound quality, works with almost any Apple or Android as long as it meets min App requirements I think the latest one outputs digital Via Tos, Coax , and USB. You can connect it digitally to your receiver and may find you like it’s DAC better I bought a Vault 2i in late 2019 and it totally hanged the way I listen to music. Wish I had done it sooner
USB out of Macbook (use an Apple Camera Connection kit dongle if needed) to a Topping E50 DAC ($299?). Analog output from E50 to your receiver. Run Qobuz (or TIDAL, or consider Roon) on the Macbook. You’ll have all the high-res, glorious sound you can handle. The Topping E50 is an excellent DAC.
I'd suggest the WiiM Mini that quite often is for sale on Amazon for $79. It's currently back to $99 even at that price it's a great basic streamer. I use it mostly to stream Qobuz using the WiiM Home app with my iPhone. I had the Bluesound Node for awhile but found that for the money it was overkill for my needs. I connect the WiiM Mini to my Marantz SA-KI Ruby via optical. Overview - WiiM Mini - WiiM
Another vote for the <$100 WiiM Mini, one of which streams into my Yamaha S-801’s optical input. Another one streams into my main room’s older Sony HT receiver via RCA line input. The onboard DAC is fine for me and that system. I stream Spotify at the moment, but it is bit-perfect (since a f/ware upgrade a few months ago) for Qobuz (which is probably my next stop) for hi-res. There are many YouTube vids. singing its praises. If you don’t have a good wifi conn., however, the Mini is not your choice. The soon-to-be-on-sale WiiM Pro has a network port, for more $ WiiM’s app. integrates seamlessly for me. Control through a phone or tablet. Almost too easy/cheap.
I went with Qobuz a few months ago. I have an annual subscription to Tidal through the $79 deal at Best Buy. Once that runs out it will not be renewed. I haven't listened to Tidal since subscribing to Qobuz. The WiiM Mini just flat out works great with no issues in my system. No Wi-Fi issues here so that's not a problem. Good point about the upcoming WiiM Pro if one has Wi-Fi issues.
Two advantages to the upcoming Wiim Pro: the ethernet input should be better than Wifi. And, there is a coax output as well as Toslink. Darko, or someone, recently said they thought the price would be around $150. We'll see.
Don't recall where I read it but possibly sometime in December is a possibility. Found it... Could be by 12/10 or earlier depends on Amazon distribution, but we'll keep you all posted on when inventory has hit the Amazon US listing. Other non-US listings may be a different date. Please stay tuned! We're filled with anticipation too!
Darn, now I'm thinking I may have bought the wrong receiver for streaming hi-res... Onkyo TX-8220 Is there still a way to hook up Wiim w/ this receiver for hi-res streaming from Macbook/phone?
You don't need a physical connection to the MacBook or iPhone, it works wirelessly. You need a subscription to one of the HiRes streaming services and a stereo system of some sort. You conect the analog output of the Wiim to one of the line level inputs on your amp/receiver. I am using this setup on my living room system and works just fine.
Your phone/app will control it. Depending on your preference of DAC, you can go optical out from the Mini (remember, bit-perfect streaming) into your receiver and use the Onkyo onboard DAC. If you go analog into the Onkyo, per above and the line in, you’ll use the WiiM Mini’s DAC. The WiiM application will run on your phone/tablet and configure the streaming srvcs. you have available to you. Others can describe the Qobuz experience, and what that looks like from a MacBook. Spotify is pretty straightforward, whether it’s iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air or HP Latitide - and I do not have a music file repository/server.
I've asked this before but can I plug a hard drive straight into the Node and play/navigate an ALAC library with it? No PC or network involved? Thanks in advance!
Check out the cheap audio man on YouTube. There's a vid on the upcoming new Wiim from a couple of weeks ago. He just did one on budget DACS- loves the Geshelli (sp) Labs.
OK cool! Good navigation with your metadata for the files on the app? Album art? Now I just need to confirm ALAC. Thank you!
Yes. Navigation among folders/albums and songs is good. Recognized all my album art, etc. The only issue I have is that I did not save any playlists or favorites on my SSD drive (which was intentional) so new ones I create in Node are at the Node level (rather than at the SSD drive level) if that makes any sense.
Sure does! Can it navigate more than one hard drive/ library? Glad I don't need to get the Vault for this.
Bluesound Node 2i is a really nice streamer. the internal DAC is really too. You will have to spend a lot more to better it. I use Qobuz you can select what output you want, sounds awesome with the Node 2i.
