It's that sinking feeling when you buy something, you're all excited, then you plug the f$&&er in. 5 seconds later all you can think about is how you're gonna have to try and send the piece of $h!t back.
You never fail to impress me my friend, I am so glad you sent that POS back. That smaller than spec screen they through in there as a cost saving move looked ridiculous. Pioneer used to be a good company that made respectable mid range equipment, ah the good ol' days.
+Atka59 Old post but meh.. They still do make great equipment but sometimes they just drop the ball (Like with this) and bring out a half baked product, which sucks.
SirTerning I must have been tired when I wrote that comment, I spelled threw improperly. Yes, Pioneer was, and I suppose is still, very popular for good reason. Back in the 70's Yamaha put out some awesome amps with really clear high frequencies, and I had a Fosgate Amp in my Dodge Van with similar characteristics.
When I wanna hear a CD I usually take a CD and put it into a CD player. Maybe that's just me. To be clear this isn't a critique of digital music or digitizing CDs it's just when I want to specifically hear an album on disc...I just listen to one in a regular disc player.
3800TType you seem to be an intelligent, freeeee individual. 2nd best comment on yt. my nr 1 was: "I have a sennheiser 20$ headphone and listen to my laptop. I don't need more". congratulation. not to be a slave of all these salesmen. there are better things in live, to spent your precious money into all these neo-capitalists pockets.
Way too complicated. The guy clearly is intelligent, but talks way too fast. He does know what he wants and knows how to achieve it. I like high quality audio, but can't be bothered with this. CD & LPs with good amp and speakers is enough. Maybe because I'm old and cannot keep up with technology.
Very same for me .. spent the time ripping my 200 or so CD's 7 or so years ago thinking this was the way forward .. now only 40% artwork showing with track 1 of A lot of my albums missing and with tracks of albums scattered as individual albums ... AHHH! ... Considering rebuilding my 'attic' CD collection by purchasing 200 blank CD jewel cases to 'get back' and recover the full enjoyment that I had and loved.
Dude, all you have to do is have the apple ipod classic 160 gig and feed it into auxilary and you can spin lightning fast through all of your stuff. And it plays lossless. It is beautiful.
I ripped all my CDs to a HDD which is connected to a Raspberry Pi with KODI installed on it. I control the Pi and the stereo system with a remote control and turning on/off takes just a few seconds. Great solution, can recommend.
+Andrew Piatek Who even gives a thing about what it's for manufacturers? Touch-, mediaserver- and cloud-stuff is garbage. Not because it doesn't do the job, but because it fails. Every fail is then also an inexplicable cheap-indian-programmer-brain-fart that you don't want to be smelling when about to listen to music.
I ripped my recordings to FLAC files, not MP3s, because if I need them downconverted this can be done on the fl in the server. I use a combination of Grace Digital and Squeezebox units around the house, they're the least obtrusive (and they're cheap). The main amplifier has a tuner like device, the IRDT200, which hooks up to the amplifier using a fiber. (This tuner does FM as well, BTW.) The other units are either standalone table radio types or are used through vintage amplifiers -- I have a Quad II and a Neoteric. (I set up Pandora radio stations with period music for them.) The real headache are the media servers. I'm using the Logitech one for the Squeezeboxes and Twonky for the Grace units. They're marginal at best. This technology should be straightforward but its wrecked by companies trying to monetize entertainment instead of just selling us boxes. As I'm newly retired I think this may be the retirement project I'm looking for..... BTW -- If you must keep your music compressed use something like AAC. Also -- I hear you about finding stuff.....it really is easier to get out the CD......but we have to keep trying......
You need to re-embed the artwork in iTunes no doubt. If you go to the Album, do get info, go to the art tab, click on the art work, and to CMD-V, CMD-X, CMD-V (copy, cut, paste), and OK that, it will embed the artwork into the file. Should work with every file type, apart from WAV's.
I've had one of these for almost 3 years. During that time, I've had a couple of months in early 2016 when a firmware upgrade meant that I couldn't do anything that involving the HDD. Now, the Import CD function has now stopped getting metadata from Gracenote - I can import (rip) CDs and they would just go to Unknown Album. Despite these problems, this is one of the best bits of hi-fi kit I've ever owned. It now has TuneIn rather than V-Tuner internet radio - much better bit rates, and Spotify Connect. Rather than use the internal HDD, I've got a 2TB USB HDD plugged into the USB port. You can still use the HAP Transfer software to send files to this external drive but I find it quicker to just unplug it, plug it into my laptop and send files directly to it. Reconnecting it to the HAP and selecting Rescan (differing items) puts any additional songs and removes deleted ones from my library. I do use the amplifier section and I'm quite happy with the sound. I've also got my turntable wired up to it as well as a Yamaha CDR-HD1300 CD recorder. One box almost does do it all!
Techmoan !! That wifi password entry was a total tease to us old guys, and I'm a little green that I didn't think of something that clever for my own network!! 😊 You do a great job with your reviews and your editing.
Wow I watched Part 2 first and it is truly incredible how much nicer the Sony was, the screen alone knocked this one out of the park, although I guess you get what you pay for. (Feel like that scale for what you get for your money is a bit high though.)
- Hey! I should rip all my CDs! - Goes on iTunes and rips in AAC After a few weeks goes audiophile, - Installs EAC/XLD, has to rip the whole library again - This time in FLAC - But aawww, it sounds soooo much better!
Put your DAP(X3ii, X5 or X11s) on a docking station then connect it directly into your DAC via spdif coax/optical as a transport then into your headamp-preamp /AVR and call it a day. Thousands cheaper, just as good. Better if it's your desktop setup. A phenomenal alternative for us cheapies.
I bought a cheap little blue-tooth stereo boom-box (Memorex brand) out of the bin of house goods at T.J. Max and I connected it to my home theater receiver via a mini-to-Y cable. Now I can sit on the couch 10 feet away with an iPod Touch, which is a blue tooth source, and I can just scroll through internet radio stations, essentially using it like a remote control, and the sound is pretty good. Also, I installed an Apache Webserver on the Windows computer upstairs that has the external harddrive with all my mp3 files. I used WAMP server, which has a nice little system tray interface menu, which lets you set up "alias directories" - essentially allowing you to view the contents of designated windows folders in a web browser pointed at the server. I can browse to the server over my wi-fi network on the iPod Touch and pick out songs in my collection and play them, but this is a little tedious, scrolling through a directory of thousands of songs on that little screen, but the sound is fine. One solution to that might be to write a web app that would organize the music on the fly and let you search for titles, artists, define playlists, etc and run it under the apache server
Pioneer in the past has made some of the nicest hifi equipment ever, but any time I see something with their new logo on, it just strucks me how cheap their product finish has become...
...and that's just about when Pioneer gear began to get cheesy looking...actually, that began *before* the logo change; mid to late 1980s, save for their "Elite" gear. However, most consumer mid-tier audio gear hot cheep n' cheesy in the mid 1980s.
@@cardtrix1970 the good news was that it was a gradual decline: the green led racks after the last blue line were a step down, but still of a high standard. Actually non of the sub 1000 dollar av-receivers you can buy today, are made anywhere near the build nor sound quality of a mid 80s pioneer stereo amplifier. =(
@@FrightfulAccountant Even though I've never owned "anything Pioneer"(or any other brand)from 1982, forward, you are probably correct on that. I only say...probably, because I haven't really "checked out" anything as far as amps/receivers in, like, 25/plus years, any way. One exception(I just recalled this)would have been in 1994/1995, I purchased a Pioneer VSX53(?)Audio/Video receiver for my late wife. I did this because she watched a lot of TV/Movies, and I was "curious" about the Audio/Receiver "thing" if that era. Nothing(build-wise)like the SX Series of the 1970s/early 1980s, but I had various soundstage settings & a center channel input that projected a good "movie sound". Still have it; still works! OK...for what it was/is.
Thanks for your videos Techmoan. Squeezebox (not a Logitech product originally) still does a good job, even though Logitech didn't manage to keep the standards high with the newer products. You should have a look into that, also the Logitech media server does a great job as a music server. These little boxes are great you can sync them and the controls are very advanced so one can really achieve what is desired.
I went simpler. I bought a $30 (USD) Bluetooth receiver and play everything via Google Play. It's fast, simple, and holds up to 50,000 of my songs (which I haven't filled yet, since I'm only around 20k.) It works very well, is not complicated (you probably don't even need the manual), but it's also discrete. There's no large metal box with buttons for you to fiddle with.
You know, you hit the button right on the head! I too put a lot of my music onto iTunes and just like you, I tend not to play them, it just seems too fiddly. As you say, I think I prefer that older style of big knobs and buttons to press, I guess we're back to there is more to the music than the audio, it's the equipment it's played on. I would never bother with an "app", as that is more like computer way of thinking. Another reason is that computer based tech usually decides not to work for some reason and I then have to spend time working out what the problem is. I just want to press a button, something to go "clunk" and we're off!
If you want an easy way of putting album art onto a disc, you can use musicbrainz Picard, that has a very simple way of quickly adding album art from the musicbrainz database onto cds. alternatively, you can go in iTunes and click on File > Library > Get album artwork, and it'll do all that for you automatically.
I think what you want is a Logitech Transporter. Physical controls, high-res, dedicated remote, and all the features of the newer streamers (phone/computer controlled). It's brushed aluminum, and has a snappy vacuum fluorescent display which would fit your existing stereo aesthetics. Sadly discontinued, but buying used is a perfectly good option -- the library software is open-source, and there's a superb third-party app called iPeng for your phone.
I rip my cds uncompressed wav. Then I convert them to 24bit Flac 48Khtz and it is perfect for me 👍. Much better than mp3 or streaming especially if you like your music loud and CLEAR 🤘
Wouldn't ripping straight to FLAC save a few steps? Also, not going to hear much of a difference ripping 16-bit 44.1kHz CD-quality audio to 24-bit 48kHz.
0:26 The last video of yours I watched was on handheld TVs and I left a comment about how I had the TV80. So imagine my surprise at spotting one of those very same devices, clearly heavily modded, within half a minute of the very next one of your videos I watched!
iTunes , android/iOS device, decent external dac and monitors, job done. It's instant. I use iTunes with the native remote app, or plex (for flac cd rips) app going to a TC Electronics HQ DAC to some Dynaudio studio monitors.
Why are you using MP3s anyway? CDs have much higher sound quality than MP3s, plus you get the satisfaction of using physical buttons like you were saying earlier.
I have a Roku connected to my sound system and screen to stream media from any server on my home network or the Internet. Over the Internet, I get most my movies from an Amazon subscription. I stream my music collection (mostly MP3s) from my main tower computer in the other room. Roku shows my album covers, many on the screen at once and I typically play them in random order (or I could go directly to one I have to hear right away). I could group them as classical, big band, pop, acid rock, etc. but I rarely do as I am extremely lazy. I started ripping my CDs decades ago before I had learned much about the technology so many are not the best quality. I also have a Blu-ray that play MANY formats including high resolution audio.
Hendrik Hendrikson I think this heap of dogs doings is a very poor substitute for just using the mac mini as a multi media server via a good quality USB DAC and a valve pre amp.
Hey Techmoan, I have a question. I picked a HAP-S1. I created a few playlist, is there anyway to organize the list via albums? I go into edit, but it only allows me to move each song one by one. Thank you
Files on computer in my main rig, HTPC in my living room to play everything through windows network shares. I suppose you really like to have a device for everything, but it has to be a huge mess. I can use any video and audio player I like, it gets regular updates and is upgradeable. Can't really beat a regular PC for this job. I can't imagine there being much software support for such eccentric devices like network music players. It amazes me that there is a consumer group for these. Looks cool though.
(after two minutes viewing ) I had to type this in. I TOTALLY agree on the SONOS - it flatters to deceive in that you switch the thing on - be impressed by the admittedly above average quality coming out of the hardware, then spend the next 6 months getting gradually more and more frustrated and unimpressed with the app-based playing which is not a) very lovely to look at and b) is very "press-heavy" insofar as songs buried under menus are not pleasurable to access. That in itself confirms why most of my audio listening comes through my car which as you can guess has my ipod nano connected through an FM receiver /transmitter. SONOS are also guilty of the affliction which is starting to dog Apple - adding needless "features" and "refinements" at the expense of intuition and useability (sp?) Tim C and Jony I would probably kill me for saying this, but since he died, Itunes has gone from (admittedly the competition was not strong) being the best audio app by a country mile to being bloated, bug-ridden and above all and unforgiveably, absolutely fiendishly difficult to use and get along with. (three clicks rule anyone?) Having got that off my chest let's get on with the rest of the review. 1 December 2016 - 1840hrs, NZ.
I use a program called Album Art Downloader to search the internet for album art. It doesn't work for every album, but it is better than a simple google search and ANYTHING is better than iTunes for that. I then use another program called MP3Tag to add the artwork to each album. I also use it to correct the tagging on the albums because there are many digital albums I've purchased over the years that are horribly misspelled, or downright wrong that they need correcting. Both of these programs are free, but you can donate to the programmers for their work
+DistroJump Thanks - it may well be due to that, but it happened a couple of years ago now. You'll see that the Sony HAP-S1 sorted it all out, so things worked out in the end.
+Techmoan just buy a Fiio X1 man. Be done with it! Astell & Kern would never be enough buttons for ya, but the iBasso might work too. Also, Marantz makes a really nice home hi-rez audio player you'd actually like.
Men just find some guy with electronics skill and he will do what you need. Rasberry-pi can do anything for you and you can fit it in any kind of 'mechanical-box' with any kind of programmed interface - in 'as you wish' style with good sound quality of course.
I feel this way about mobile phones, felt sense, ...there isn't any, if you're tired, or angle the touchscreen, it makes accurate choosing harder, also, if my phone gets damp, even from being in my pocket on a hot day, the screen doesn't work.
I've bought this a few months ago. And i think it's really good. I wanted a device that i could use for streaming, like Spotify connect,internet radio and playing my flac-files. And i think it works perfectly. The app to control it isn't the best but i use the Spotify-app and it works perfectly. And the display could have been better. But you get what you pay for. So,i must be one of the stupid ones who likes this device ;-). Anyway,Love your videos,keep up the good work!
Over the years of ripping my CDs and some of my friend CDs and also when I fix someone's PC I back up all their data on my harddrive and if they had decent music I would keep it. Now I have 17,000 or so MP3s and since I did it using windows my Sony Blu-ray player can play all my music and movies and also the Samsung TV out in the living room can also see the files. I've been at this since 2002.
Did you realize how much time you employed before to be able to listen to one of your piece? That's what disappoints me a lot about "new" technology ... In many cases it seems that immediacy is neglected
right, but when I want to listen to music: I want it on that moment. not after a lot of selections sub menus etc ... And new tech can do it. Just the way in which it's programmed is cumbersome
If find your approach very confusing. I think part of your problem is mixing too much gear and varying formats, old and new. What I have done is quite simple: I ripped my complete CD collection into iTunes then using iTunes Match I uploaded the titles to Apple’s storage cloud known as Apple Music. From there I have access not only to my ripped CDs but 40 million titles. My gear is limited to Bose Sound Touch Speakers with Apple Airport Express or Apple TVs attached to the speakers into order to access my Apple Music subscription. Even without the Apple Music subscription I have access to my ripped library. I can navigate quite easily my tunes either on my iMac, iPhone or iPad. All my album art is present with the exception of a couple albums which were easily restored. My whole system is wireless and cloud based. No optical drives, no hard drives or home based servers. As a result, everything works efficiently and sounds great. No mix and match of old formats either music or hardware.
I just got a second hand Pioneer XC-HM82-K all in one receiver/Network player thingy... The interface is identical, the reboot after network setting is identical... I think they reused the design as they always do, and just mix and match modules and designs from different products to build new ones. Which usually works out, as good amps, DACs are just good. Except when that digital player was barely running, and you kept reusing it while other companies had moved on to better designed systems... I can totally see people getting peeved and throw this thing out of the window...
The way to fix the issues with the pioneer is to use an app on a tablet. :-) driving Sonos :-) I've tried a lot of these alternative devices and they all either have too small a screen or they need the TV on to set them up and use them. I got a Sonos and leave my tablet in the living room as the UI. I spend a bit of time creating play lists of the music I like for different moods and once that's done I can just select one and listen to a lot of songs that I like. If I want to listen to an album then the Sonos is again not much effort, it's only when playing a single song that it gets tedious, but when I compare that to finding the right single (I have 500+) or the album (I have 300+) I soon find Sonos is much better. As to missing album art, I just take a digital photo of the album or browse the web for the correct image and because it's not from iTunes it doesn't disappear. I would say that the only thing missing from Sonos is an on/off switch. Anyhow, the long and the short of it is I've already looked at all of these alternatives and for me Sonos is the best compromise.
If you have some way to get AirPlay to work, you can stream media directly using that through iTunes. Then on your iPhone you can use home sharing or iTunes Remote.
I have a Yamaha receiver that is IPod capatible, so when I use my iPod all the files are shown my TV screen. I can pick and choose whatever I want to play, by artist, playlist, genre, song etc. Curious to see how you solve your problem.
I have a question, If a CD Recording maximum frequency is 16Bit/44.1, the entire human hearing Range, and humans cannot hear past this, Even bats only hear up to 80khz humans 20khz, then why is there the need for the High res Audio crap at frequency's we physically cannot hear as a human??.
Techmoan i know the feeling, there something with AMD computers on how they hate me, my first computer back in 2010, an AMD Athlon X4 I think, it worked for 1 hour then CPU died, took it back they exchanged it for a i3 3.2 ghz, then 2 months ago i bought an amd A8 3.2 GHZ and guess what? same thing! now ive got a i5 3.2ghz computer witch im typing this on now, and yes that i3 one is still working to this day!
I can't bring myself to use those batteries that ship with the devices, I'm far happier using the more well known brand, anyway good to see WOPR still has some uses
I use the Logitech Squeezebox. There is the server you can download, it will install on any OS you like. The there are 3 or 4 "players" you can choose from. I have 2 radios and one Duet. There is also the boombox and the touch. There is also a very nice app called IPeng. I like it very much.
Some of this new gear is just...too over-engineered, too many bells & whistles; I wouldn't have the patience. I'm with you sir; I just want the music to play...after I hit ONE button.
Yeah I thought the same thing. That player can almost certainly stream all the lossless formats. Years ago MP3 made more sense, it doesn't now with storage being so cheap.
@@cbcdesign001 The point made early in the video is that all the CDs were all ripped some time ago--hence MP3--and the idea is to use the existing files so that work doesn't have to be done again. I know that while I archive to flac nowadays I have no desire to revisit my back catalogue of CDs, some of which were ripped nearly 20 years ago to MP3 (assuming the discs haven't rotted away in the decades of storage).
Shame Plex didn't work for you. I use Plex to organize and stream all my media, and it does so beautifully. Although Plex doesn't (at the time of writing) support gapless playback of music like on a CD or record player, so you may have dodged a bullet there.
Hmm. Being an electronics developer and sharing your feeling about needing an app to control my Sonos system, this video got me started. Why not build a third-party Sonos control surface, if Sonos themselves have discontinued theirs? Could be a Kickstarter project. It could have high-end finish, a slick rotary encoder, some tactile buttons and a touch screen and would likely end up costing around 150-200 USD, comparable to Sonos' original plastic controllers but with much greater appeal. So of course my question is: Would such an upmarket Sonos accessory appeal to you or are you "over" Sonos for other reasons?
I 've got a 1992 technics hi fi system and I would like to replace my old CD player with an hi-res audio player/ CD ripper (like the cocktail audio X40) that also allows me to listen to Spotify on my system instead of connect my phone to an RCA audio input . Should I do that?
If you use a mac or any pc and play music through the standard operating system then it doesn't matter what res your files are, the system will play them at its inbuilt sample rate which is crap. You need something like roon that bypasses the standard audio software that's built in to your computer.
Did you found any FLAC-compatible player? I look for one that also got a line-in to record at the same quality.... nothing on the market. Even on audiophile-forums they keep telling "use a PC!"... meh.
DelphiTheDolphin get a Mac or a PC as it is the only way forward. You need to go open source to bypass all the anti copy DRM measures embedded into commercial software and hardware.
Thank you for the info. Great job. I do like the physical buttons too, remote is nice too especially when very basic. My confusion and question is thus: If I just want a 2.0 or 2.1/2.2 system mainly for music listening, but like to use the front mains in place of my TV speakers, how can I do this without using an powered AV. I have a Mitsubishi DA A15DC vintage amp and the DA P10 preamp. Can't I just get a AV processor and connect it to the preamp? I hear HDMI are better to use than optic, so this is the only reason I am interested in AV processors because I see many integrated amps out there (not that I would get one with my current unit) but many items out there offer optic connection but not HDMI. Seems like I can only get HDMI thru a typical AV processor. Also. I need a source and am thinking of some kind of network player that has a visual display rather than go thru a computer to DAC option. I see the Sony HAP and a few Cambridge Audio, and ProJect and Naim Uniti music player seem to be the only companies offering this option of visual display. I have a computer now that functions fine but I don't want to buy another just for music streaming, but eventually I guess it would be nicer than the aforementioned. What do you think? Thank you.
It would be the perfect device for someone who only has 4 albums in their collection.
It's that sinking feeling when you buy something, you're all excited, then you plug the f$&&er in. 5 seconds later all you can think about is how you're gonna have to try and send the piece of $h!t back.
Brick Vader yep that's exactly what happened. Surprised I had enough footage to put the video together because it was hate at first sight.
Techmoan lol, i know that feeling!
Techmoan And it looked like it weighed like a pack of smokes.
1:45 Much prefers mechanical/physical buttons.
5:45 Complains about lack of touchscreen.
Come on man?! COME ON MAAAAN?!
Love you Techmoan!
Funniest moment when complained about rebooting after selecting network connectivity with a comment " a bit old skool". Now I get "TechMOAN"
You never fail to impress me my friend, I am so glad you sent that POS back. That smaller than spec screen they through in there as a cost saving move looked ridiculous. Pioneer used to be a good company that made respectable mid range equipment, ah the good ol' days.
+Atka59 Old post but meh.. They still do make great equipment but sometimes they just drop the ball (Like with this) and bring out a half baked product, which sucks.
SirTerning I must have been tired when I wrote that comment, I spelled threw improperly. Yes, Pioneer was, and I suppose is still, very popular for good reason. Back in the 70's Yamaha put out some awesome amps with really clear high frequencies, and I had a Fosgate Amp in my Dodge Van with similar characteristics.
Pioneer really dropped the ball on this.
When I wanna hear a CD I usually take a CD and put it into a CD player. Maybe that's just me. To be clear this isn't a critique of digital music or digitizing CDs it's just when I want to specifically hear an album on disc...I just listen to one in a regular disc player.
3800TType you seem to be an intelligent, freeeee individual.
2nd best comment on yt.
my nr 1 was:
"I have a sennheiser 20$ headphone and listen to my laptop.
I don't need more".
congratulation.
not to be a slave of all these salesmen.
there are better things in live, to spent your precious money into all these
neo-capitalists pockets.
ps: LIFE
Way too complicated. The guy clearly is intelligent, but talks way too fast. He does know what he wants and knows how to achieve it. I like high quality audio, but can't be bothered with this. CD & LPs with good amp and speakers is enough. Maybe because I'm old and cannot keep up with technology.
You are not alone in this
I agree with all of You.
Very same for me .. spent the time ripping my 200 or so CD's 7 or so years ago thinking this was the way forward .. now only 40% artwork showing with track 1 of A lot of my albums missing and with tracks of albums scattered as individual albums ... AHHH! ... Considering rebuilding my 'attic' CD collection by purchasing 200 blank CD jewel cases to 'get back' and recover the full enjoyment that I had and loved.
Almost 500 dollars and for what? A wireless receiver for just music? I didn't even know these existed.
much more practical than cassete, CD or gramophone...
You can do the same with a blu ray player plus have video capabilities. This is a waste of money.
@@techocrazy My Oppo wipes the floor with this gadget.
@@oldestpunkinargentina7766 Does your oppo do 4k and HD audio formats such as DTS HD MA, Dolby True HD??
@@techocrazy Touché dude !!
Dude, all you have to do is have the apple ipod classic 160 gig and feed it into auxilary and you can spin lightning fast through all of your stuff. And it plays lossless. It is beautiful.
This was recorded 8 years ago, 5 years before your comment, so things had changed a bit……
HAHA your wireless network is named "WOPR" from War Games LOL!
Hope you remembered to clear those settings before sending it back.
Shall we play a game?
I ripped all my CDs to a HDD which is connected to a Raspberry Pi with KODI installed on it.
I control the Pi and the stereo system with a remote control and turning on/off takes just a few seconds.
Great solution, can recommend.
I am quite surprised that most people don't realize that touch screen interface is the cheapest solution for manufacturer.
+Andrew Piatek I do, and I fucking hate touch screens.
+Andrew Piatek Who even gives a thing about what it's for manufacturers? Touch-, mediaserver- and cloud-stuff is garbage. Not because it doesn't do the job, but because it fails. Every fail is then also an inexplicable cheap-indian-programmer-brain-fart that you don't want to be smelling when about to listen to music.
@@andreatomassini202 Living in the wrong century then aren't you?
Part 2 HERE ruclips.net/video/yNwB50bN0Do/видео.html
Kudos on the name of your wireless network, Mr. Falken. :)
I ripped my recordings to FLAC files, not MP3s, because if I need them downconverted this can be done on the fl in the server. I use a combination of Grace Digital and Squeezebox units around the house, they're the least obtrusive (and they're cheap). The main amplifier has a tuner like device, the IRDT200, which hooks up to the amplifier using a fiber. (This tuner does FM as well, BTW.) The other units are either standalone table radio types or are used through vintage amplifiers -- I have a Quad II and a Neoteric. (I set up Pandora radio stations with period music for them.)
The real headache are the media servers. I'm using the Logitech one for the Squeezeboxes and Twonky for the Grace units. They're marginal at best. This technology should be straightforward but its wrecked by companies trying to monetize entertainment instead of just selling us boxes. As I'm newly retired I think this may be the retirement project I'm looking for.....
BTW -- If you must keep your music compressed use something like AAC.
Also -- I hear you about finding stuff.....it really is easier to get out the CD......but we have to keep trying......
You need to re-embed the artwork in iTunes no doubt. If you go to the Album, do get info, go to the art tab, click on the art work, and to CMD-V, CMD-X, CMD-V (copy, cut, paste), and OK that, it will embed the artwork into the file. Should work with every file type, apart from WAV's.
I've had one of these for almost 3 years. During that time, I've had a couple of months in early 2016 when a firmware upgrade meant that I couldn't do anything that involving the HDD. Now, the Import CD function has now stopped getting metadata from Gracenote - I can import (rip) CDs and they would just go to Unknown Album.
Despite these problems, this is one of the best bits of hi-fi kit I've ever owned. It now has TuneIn rather than V-Tuner internet radio - much better bit rates, and Spotify Connect.
Rather than use the internal HDD, I've got a 2TB USB HDD plugged into the USB port. You can still use the HAP Transfer software to send files to this external drive but I find it quicker to just unplug it, plug it into my laptop and send files directly to it. Reconnecting it to the HAP and selecting Rescan (differing items) puts any additional songs and removes deleted ones from my library.
I do use the amplifier section and I'm quite happy with the sound. I've also got my turntable wired up to it as well as a Yamaha CDR-HD1300 CD recorder. One box almost does do it all!
"GTA SA Bounce FM!" well well fancy seeing you here!
YO love that you show classic hip-hop cassettes cd ect. respect! props!
Techmoan !! That wifi password entry was a total tease to us old guys, and I'm a little green that I didn't think of something that clever for my own network!! 😊 You do a great job with your reviews and your editing.
I use a Raspberry Pi + Android remote (Yatse) to do the same thing. But it has way more functions: random play, play everything from one artist...
Wow I watched Part 2 first and it is truly incredible how much nicer the Sony was, the screen alone knocked this one out of the park, although I guess you get what you pay for. (Feel like that scale for what you get for your money is a bit high though.)
- Hey! I should rip all my CDs!
- Goes on iTunes and rips in AAC
After a few weeks goes audiophile,
- Installs EAC/XLD, has to rip the whole library again
- This time in FLAC
- But aawww, it sounds soooo much better!
I love the comment about spending ages ripping CDs into iTunes, bagging the CDs up and then never listening to them again! Exactly my experience.
When he lifted it out with one hand .. i was like....Hmmmm
Just when I could not enjoymyour videos anymore you buy another thing I really need in my life
Put your DAP(X3ii, X5 or X11s) on a docking station then connect it directly into your DAC via spdif coax/optical as a transport then into your headamp-preamp /AVR and call it a day. Thousands cheaper, just as good. Better if it's your desktop setup. A phenomenal alternative for us cheapies.
You can right-click albums in iTunes and click "Find Album Art". I had the same problem. Happy listening!
I bought a cheap little blue-tooth stereo boom-box (Memorex brand) out of the bin of house goods at T.J. Max and I connected it to my home theater receiver via a mini-to-Y cable. Now I can sit on the couch 10 feet away with an iPod Touch, which is a blue tooth source, and I can just scroll through internet radio stations, essentially using it like a remote control, and the sound is pretty good. Also, I installed an Apache Webserver on the Windows computer upstairs that has the external harddrive with all my mp3 files. I used WAMP server, which has a nice little system tray interface menu, which lets you set up "alias directories" - essentially allowing you to view the contents of designated windows folders in a web browser pointed at the server. I can browse to the server over my wi-fi network on the iPod Touch and pick out songs in my collection and play them, but this is a little tedious, scrolling through a directory of thousands of songs on that little screen, but the sound is fine. One solution to that might be to write a web app that would organize the music on the fly and let you search for titles, artists, define playlists, etc and run it under the apache server
Pioneer in the past has made some of the nicest hifi equipment ever, but any time I see something with their new logo on, it just strucks me how cheap their product finish has become...
...and that's just about when Pioneer gear began to get cheesy looking...actually, that began *before* the logo change; mid to late 1980s, save for their "Elite" gear. However, most consumer mid-tier audio gear hot cheep n' cheesy in the mid 1980s.
@@cardtrix1970 the good news was that it was a gradual decline: the green led racks after the last blue line were a step down, but still of a high standard. Actually non of the sub 1000 dollar av-receivers you can buy today, are made anywhere near the build nor sound quality of a mid 80s pioneer stereo amplifier. =(
@@FrightfulAccountant Even though I've never owned "anything Pioneer"(or any other brand)from 1982, forward, you are probably correct on that. I only say...probably, because I haven't really "checked out" anything as far as amps/receivers in, like, 25/plus years, any way. One exception(I just recalled this)would have been in 1994/1995, I purchased a Pioneer VSX53(?)Audio/Video receiver for my late wife. I did this because she watched a lot of TV/Movies, and I was "curious" about the Audio/Receiver "thing" if that era. Nothing(build-wise)like the SX Series of the 1970s/early 1980s, but I had various soundstage settings & a center channel input that projected a good "movie sound". Still have it; still works! OK...for what it was/is.
Thanks for your videos Techmoan. Squeezebox (not a Logitech product originally) still does a good job, even though Logitech didn't manage to keep the standards high with the newer products. You should have a look into that, also the Logitech media server does a great job as a music server. These little boxes are great you can sync them and the controls are very advanced so one can really achieve what is desired.
I ripped all my old DVDs and I use Plex and Roku to stream them. Works great. I love that I can shuffle and it'll only play TV shows that I like.
So true and insightful - you truly are the God of home entertainment!
The preamble to the review, I mean (the review being top notch, natch). Just to clarify!
Another really entertaining story from a consumate narrator.
What happens to the entertainment equipment you do not put in your system.
I went simpler. I bought a $30 (USD) Bluetooth receiver and play everything via Google Play. It's fast, simple, and holds up to 50,000 of my songs (which I haven't filled yet, since I'm only around 20k.) It works very well, is not complicated (you probably don't even need the manual), but it's also discrete. There's no large metal box with buttons for you to fiddle with.
You know, you hit the button right on the head! I too put a lot of my music onto iTunes and just like you, I tend not to play them, it just seems too fiddly. As you say, I think I prefer that older style of big knobs and buttons to press, I guess we're back to there is more to the music than the audio, it's the equipment it's played on. I would never bother with an "app", as that is more like computer way of thinking. Another reason is that computer based tech usually decides not to work for some reason and I then have to spend time working out what the problem is. I just want to press a button, something to go "clunk" and we're off!
Good taste in music..I notice you like a lot of hip hop from the Golden Age
+Terrence Coccoli I was thinking that too! Amerikkkas most wanted, 2pacalypse now! what great albums!
+Terrence Coccoli I was thinking that too! Amerikkkas most wanted, 2pacalypse now! what great albums!
You mention good taste in music. THen you talk about hip hop. Please make up your mind. Good taste or hip hop
@@torbenlarsen4294or hip hop or music
The fact that I see that you have all of Ice Cube's album is enough for me to subscribe and like this video! cheers
If you want an easy way of putting album art onto a disc, you can use musicbrainz Picard, that has a very simple way of quickly adding album art from the musicbrainz database onto cds.
alternatively, you can go in iTunes and click on File > Library > Get album artwork, and it'll do all that for you automatically.
I love that your Wifi is called WOPR!
Mine is just called 007, to be in top of the list, above my neighbors'.
I think what you want is a Logitech Transporter. Physical controls, high-res, dedicated remote, and all the features of the newer streamers (phone/computer controlled). It's brushed aluminum, and has a snappy vacuum fluorescent display which would fit your existing stereo aesthetics. Sadly discontinued, but buying used is a perfectly good option -- the library software is open-source, and there's a superb third-party app called iPeng for your phone.
I rip my cds uncompressed wav. Then I convert them to 24bit Flac 48Khtz and it is perfect for me 👍. Much better than mp3 or streaming especially if you like your music loud and CLEAR 🤘
Wouldn't ripping straight to FLAC save a few steps? Also, not going to hear much of a difference ripping 16-bit 44.1kHz CD-quality audio to 24-bit 48kHz.
awesome mix vol.1! nice tribute to guardians of the galaxy!
Super happy to see your Abba collection! My favorite group ever! What's your favorite song of theirs?
0:26 The last video of yours I watched was on handheld TVs and I left a comment about how I had the TV80. So imagine my surprise at spotting one of those very same devices, clearly heavily modded, within half a minute of the very next one of your videos I watched!
iTunes , android/iOS device, decent external dac and monitors, job done. It's instant. I use iTunes with the native remote app, or plex (for flac cd rips) app going to a TC Electronics HQ DAC to some Dynaudio studio monitors.
You have a fascinating and informative channel, I just subbed and started watching it. Thanks for the work put into these and sharing!
Why are you using MP3s anyway? CDs have much higher sound quality than MP3s, plus you get the satisfaction of using physical buttons like you were saying earlier.
I have a Roku connected to my sound system and screen to stream media from any server on my home network or the Internet. Over the Internet, I get most my movies from an Amazon subscription. I stream my music collection (mostly MP3s) from my main tower computer in the other room. Roku shows my album covers, many on the screen at once and I typically play them in random order (or I could go directly to one I have to hear right away). I could group them as classical, big band, pop, acid rock, etc. but I rarely do as I am extremely lazy. I started ripping my CDs decades ago before I had learned much about the technology so many are not the best quality. I also have a Blu-ray that play MANY formats including high resolution audio.
Thanks.
That thing indeed is a heap of overpriced garbage.
Hendrik Hendrikson I think this heap of dogs doings is a very poor substitute for just using the mac mini as a multi media server via a good quality USB DAC and a valve pre amp.
+MrDegsy69 why do you need a pre amp when using a DAC?! I thought pre amps where for record players to boost to line level...
Hey Techmoan, I have a question. I picked a HAP-S1. I created a few playlist, is there anyway to organize the list via albums? I go into edit, but it only allows me to move each song one by one. Thank you
Files on computer in my main rig, HTPC in my living room to play everything through windows network shares. I suppose you really like to have a device for everything, but it has to be a huge mess.
I can use any video and audio player I like, it gets regular updates and is upgradeable. Can't really beat a regular PC for this job. I can't imagine there being much software support for such eccentric devices like network music players. It amazes me that there is a consumer group for these. Looks cool though.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound 5 fits all your criteria :D
(after two minutes viewing ) I had to type this in. I TOTALLY agree on the SONOS - it flatters to deceive in that you switch the thing on - be impressed by the admittedly above average quality coming out of the hardware, then spend the next 6 months getting gradually more and more frustrated and unimpressed with the app-based playing which is not a) very lovely to look at and b) is very "press-heavy" insofar as songs buried under menus are not pleasurable to access.
That in itself confirms why most of my audio listening comes through my car which as you can guess has my ipod nano connected through an FM receiver /transmitter. SONOS are also guilty of the affliction which is starting to dog Apple - adding needless "features" and "refinements" at the expense of intuition and useability (sp?)
Tim C and Jony I would probably kill me for saying this, but since he died, Itunes has gone from (admittedly the competition was not strong) being the best audio app by a country mile to being bloated, bug-ridden and above all and unforgiveably, absolutely fiendishly difficult to use and get along with. (three clicks rule anyone?)
Having got that off my chest let's get on with the rest of the review. 1 December 2016 - 1840hrs, NZ.
I use a program called Album Art Downloader to search the internet for album art. It doesn't work for every album, but it is better than a simple google search and ANYTHING is better than iTunes for that.
I then use another program called MP3Tag to add the artwork to each album. I also use it to correct the tagging on the albums because there are many digital albums I've purchased over the years that are horribly misspelled, or downright wrong that they need correcting.
Both of these programs are free, but you can donate to the programmers for their work
The album art disappeared because you have iCloud syncing on, I believe. RUINED my library. Sidenote, your channel is spectacular.
+DistroJump Thanks - it may well be due to that, but it happened a couple of years ago now. You'll see that the Sony HAP-S1 sorted it all out, so things worked out in the end.
+Techmoan just buy a Fiio X1 man. Be done with it! Astell & Kern would never be enough buttons for ya, but the iBasso might work too. Also, Marantz makes a really nice home hi-rez audio player you'd actually like.
Men just find some guy with electronics skill and he will do what you need. Rasberry-pi can do anything for you and you can fit it in any kind of 'mechanical-box' with any kind of programmed interface - in 'as you wish' style with good sound quality of course.
I feel this way about mobile phones, felt sense, ...there isn't any, if you're tired, or angle the touchscreen, it makes accurate choosing harder, also, if my phone gets damp, even from being in my pocket on a hot day, the screen doesn't work.
I've bought this a few months ago. And i think it's really good. I wanted a device that i could use for streaming, like Spotify connect,internet radio and playing my flac-files. And i think it works perfectly. The app to control it isn't the best but i use the Spotify-app and it works perfectly. And the display could have been better. But you get what you pay for. So,i must be one of the stupid ones who likes this device ;-). Anyway,Love your videos,keep up the good work!
6:41 GTA SA Bounce FM! Techmoan you lad!
Over the years of ripping my CDs and some of my friend CDs and also when I fix someone's PC I back up all their data on my harddrive and if they had decent music I would keep it. Now I have 17,000 or so MP3s and since I did it using windows my Sony Blu-ray player can play all my music and movies and also the Samsung TV out in the living room can also see the files. I've been at this since 2002.
Loving the Vinyl Alexander O'neal in the opening :) Great video ;)
Did you realize how much time you employed before to be able to listen to one of your piece?
That's what disappoints me a lot about "new" technology ...
In many cases it seems that immediacy is neglected
Modern tech might fail, but it does a hell of a lot more than an old piece shit.
right, but when I want to listen to music: I want it on that moment. not after a lot of selections sub menus etc ...
And new tech can do it. Just the way in which it's programmed is cumbersome
Tony Jaksn I do fully agree
Plex works. You have to go into the settings and turn on the DLNA feature. Once that's on, your streamer will pick up the Plex server.
If find your approach very confusing. I think part of your problem is mixing too much gear and varying formats, old and new. What I have done is quite simple: I ripped my complete CD collection into iTunes then using iTunes Match I uploaded the titles to Apple’s storage cloud known as Apple Music. From there I have access not only to my ripped CDs but 40 million titles. My gear is limited to Bose Sound Touch Speakers with Apple Airport Express or Apple TVs attached to the speakers into order to access my Apple Music subscription. Even without the Apple Music subscription I have access to my ripped library. I can navigate quite easily my tunes either on my iMac, iPhone or iPad. All my album art is present with the exception of a couple albums which were easily restored. My whole system is wireless and cloud based. No optical drives, no hard drives or home based servers. As a result, everything works efficiently and sounds great. No mix and match of old formats either music or hardware.
I would've just installed foobar2000 on the Mac mini and be done with it.
Album artwork, high res playback, and much much more with plug-ins
I just got a second hand Pioneer XC-HM82-K all in one receiver/Network player thingy... The interface is identical, the reboot after network setting is identical...
I think they reused the design as they always do, and just mix and match modules and designs from different products to build new ones. Which usually works out, as good amps, DACs are just good.
Except when that digital player was barely running, and you kept reusing it while other companies had moved on to better designed systems...
I can totally see people getting peeved and throw this thing out of the window...
New subscriber, years as a vinyl head and old hi-fi mad collector. Great channel!!
The way to fix the issues with the pioneer is to use an app on a tablet. :-) driving Sonos :-) I've tried a lot of these alternative devices and they all either have too small a screen or they need the TV on to set them up and use them. I got a Sonos and leave my tablet in the living room as the UI. I spend a bit of time creating play lists of the music I like for different moods and once that's done I can just select one and listen to a lot of songs that I like. If I want to listen to an album then the Sonos is again not much effort, it's only when playing a single song that it gets tedious, but when I compare that to finding the right single (I have 500+) or the album (I have 300+) I soon find Sonos is much better. As to missing album art, I just take a digital photo of the album or browse the web for the correct image and because it's not from iTunes it doesn't disappear. I would say that the only thing missing from Sonos is an on/off switch. Anyhow, the long and the short of it is I've already looked at all of these alternatives and for me Sonos is the best compromise.
If you have some way to get AirPlay to work, you can stream media directly using that through iTunes. Then on your iPhone you can use home sharing or iTunes Remote.
I have a Yamaha receiver that is IPod capatible, so when I use my iPod all the files are shown my TV screen. I can pick and choose whatever I want to play, by artist, playlist, genre, song etc. Curious to see how you solve your problem.
I have a question, If a CD Recording maximum frequency is 16Bit/44.1, the entire human hearing Range, and humans cannot hear past this, Even bats only hear up to 80khz humans 20khz, then why is there the need for the High res Audio crap at frequency's we physically cannot hear as a human??.
What is the orange box at the top left called (7:44)? VU-Meter?
KBDESIGNZ It is this ruclips.net/video/MdUcQmuLrfA/видео.html
Thanks ♥
Techmoan i know the feeling, there something with AMD computers on how they hate me, my first computer back in 2010, an AMD Athlon X4 I think, it worked for 1 hour then CPU died, took it back they exchanged it for a i3 3.2 ghz, then 2 months ago i bought an amd A8 3.2 GHZ and guess what? same thing! now ive got a i5 3.2ghz computer witch im typing this on now, and yes that i3 one is still working to this day!
R DDR rx nuthouse knowDyn!!
KBDESIGNZ
OMG YOU HAVE THE ABBA STUDIO RECORDINGS BOX 😱😱😱😱 im sooooo jealous...
I can't bring myself to use those batteries that ship with the devices, I'm far happier using the more well known brand, anyway good to see WOPR still has some uses
Wow every ice cube album but the best one, the preditor
I use the Logitech Squeezebox. There is the server you can download, it will install on any OS you like. The there are 3 or 4 "players" you can choose from. I have 2 radios and one Duet. There is also the boombox and the touch. There is also a very nice app called IPeng. I like it very much.
what's that little sinclair screen you have next to your turntable??
It's the TV80, which was a portable television back in the 80s.
Some of this new gear is just...too over-engineered, too many bells & whistles; I wouldn't have the patience. I'm with you sir; I just want the music to play...after I hit ONE button.
Why do you rip your CDs in MP3 not FLAC files?
Yeah I thought the same thing. That player can almost certainly stream all the lossless formats. Years ago MP3 made more sense, it doesn't now with storage being so cheap.
@@cbcdesign001 The point made early in the video is that all the CDs were all ripped some time ago--hence MP3--and the idea is to use the existing files so that work doesn't have to be done again. I know that while I archive to flac nowadays I have no desire to revisit my back catalogue of CDs, some of which were ripped nearly 20 years ago to MP3 (assuming the discs haven't rotted away in the decades of storage).
Nice ABBA collection!
Shame Plex didn't work for you. I use Plex to organize and stream all my media, and it does so beautifully. Although Plex doesn't (at the time of writing) support gapless playback of music like on a CD or record player, so you may have dodged a bullet there.
Hmm. Being an electronics developer and sharing your feeling about needing an app to control my Sonos system, this video got me started. Why not build a third-party Sonos control surface, if Sonos themselves have discontinued theirs? Could be a Kickstarter project. It could have high-end finish, a slick rotary encoder, some tactile buttons and a touch screen and would likely end up costing around 150-200 USD, comparable to Sonos' original plastic controllers but with much greater appeal. So of course my question is: Would such an upmarket Sonos accessory appeal to you or are you "over" Sonos for other reasons?
I 've got a 1992 technics hi fi system and I would like to replace my old CD player with an hi-res audio player/ CD ripper (like the cocktail audio X40) that also allows me to listen to Spotify on my system instead of connect my phone to an RCA audio input . Should I do that?
At 0:28 - what is that Sinclair bit of kit in the background?
7:48
I laughed out loud at this summation, damn son.
That's why I've gone back to minidiscs and CDs
What's the cute little display that's behind the "purple" record?
You have a Drobo! I loooove my Drobo.
If you use a mac or any pc and play music through the standard operating system then it doesn't matter what res your files are, the system will play them at its inbuilt sample rate which is crap. You need something like roon that bypasses the standard audio software that's built in to your computer.
Good helpful review. Can I compliment you on your music taste too!
Love the channel.. What was the Sinclair eq looking thing at the beginning?. I had a Spectrum back in the 80s and I don't remember seeing that item?
Did you found any FLAC-compatible player? I look for one that also got a line-in to record at the same quality.... nothing on the market. Even on audiophile-forums they keep telling "use a PC!"... meh.
DelphiTheDolphin get a Mac or a PC as it is the only way forward. You need to go open source to bypass all the anti copy DRM measures embedded into commercial software and hardware.
Thank you for the info. Great job. I do like the physical buttons too, remote is nice too especially when very basic. My confusion and question is thus: If I just want a 2.0 or 2.1/2.2 system mainly for music listening, but like to use the front mains in place of my TV speakers, how can I do this without using an powered AV. I have a Mitsubishi DA A15DC vintage amp and the DA P10 preamp. Can't I just get a AV processor and connect it to the preamp? I hear HDMI are better to use than optic, so this is the only reason I am interested in AV processors because I see many integrated amps out there (not that I would get one with my current unit) but many items out there offer optic connection but not HDMI. Seems like I can only get HDMI thru a typical AV processor. Also. I need a source and am thinking of some kind of network player that has a visual display rather than go thru a computer to DAC option. I see the Sony HAP and a few Cambridge Audio, and ProJect and Naim Uniti music player seem to be the only companies offering this option of visual display. I have a computer now that functions fine but I don't want to buy another just for music streaming, but eventually I guess it would be nicer than the aforementioned. What do you think? Thank you.
What quality did you ripp you CDs to? I did the same thing but decided on 192 kbs - I think it may be a bit on the low side.
Great review. I see your point - grab an LP, put it on the turntable and listen. Of course it helps to keep your albums in alphabetical order...
Bob Woolcock Mine are in reverse random order.
Techmoan Makes sense to me.
It's a shame that all of our music CD's are basically garbage nowadays. You can bet that future hipsters are going to want them.
Anything Pioneer is doing with electronics now is total garbage. I had couple of their car stereos and they were completely useless.
Use FLAC not MP3. MP3 is good but flac is better.
MP3 isn't good.
It can be ok in hi RES but FLAC is much better that said I agree with you
Still a better lovestory than [insert cheesy teenage girl movie here].