![]() Home Theater Reviews for Systems and Audio Components - Audio Visual Product Reviews, Technical AV Guides, Home Theater Equipment and Product Reviews. Amazon.com: Mass Fidelity Core 120W Portable Hi-Fi Wireless Speaker System in Black with Holographic Sound and iOS/Android Compatibility: Amazon Launchpad. ![]() Richer Sounds - The UK's Hi- Fi, Home Cinema & TV Specialists! SPEAKERS Your speakers are the last part of your system, where electrical energy is finally turned into sound. As you're probably already aware, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. If you need to know the differences between them, you've come to the right place. Giles Street, Norwich,NR3 1. No account yet? Registering is free, easy, and private. Discuss in the forum, contribute to the Encyclopedia, build your own MyAnime lists, and more. History Check out some of UHF Magazine's history, since 1982. Reference Systems UHF maintains two high-end two-channel audio systems, on which all evaluations are. TIDAL is the first music service with High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos and Curated Editorial, expertly crafted by music journalists. Get the latest News news with exclusive stories and pictures from Rolling Stone. The What Hi-Fi? Forum is the place to discuss the latest AV news and products, and share experiences and opinions about hi-fi and home cinema kit. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide. Australian music-streaming services compared. Choosing a music-streaming service can be confusing. Here's the low-down on each one that's available in Australia. JL0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Mansfield Road, Nottingham,NG1 3. HD0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. West Way, Botley Road,OX2 0. JB0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Exeter Street, Plymouth,PL4 0. AH0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Church Street, Preston,PR1 3. BQ0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Oxford Road, Reading,RG1 7. NE0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Bell Street, Reigate,RH2 7. AQ0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Main Road, Romford,RM2 5. EL0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Whitham Road, Sheffield,S1. SR0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. London Road, Southampton,SO1. AA0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. St. Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells,TN4 9. NT0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. C St. Albans Road, Watford,WD1. RD0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Church Street, Weybridge,KT1. DL0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. St. Sampsons Square, York,YO1 8. RN0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. High Street, Eton,SL4 6. BD0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. York Place, Bath,BA1 6. AE0. 33. 3 9. 00 0. Birmingham Road, Lichfield. WS1. 3 6. GF0. 33. Smithfield Square, Belfast BT1 1. FN0. 28. 90 3. 21. How to stream audio from computer to hi- fi. Streaming Audio. Stream music from your computer to your hi- fi. Here's how, by network engineer and reader Jim Roberts. Cambridge Audio Stream. Magic 6 Network Player. This player – and the many like it – read music from the computer, or from a memory stick. Most can also receive internet radio, making at least 1. Streaming means sending music through a computer network, from computer to a . The player acts as a receiver, as it were, receiving music in digital form from the computer, converting it to analogue through a Digital- to- Analogue convertor (DAC) so it can be output to the hi- fi, usually through phono sockets as an analogue connection. There are no compatibility issues. The signal output is the same as CD, so you connect up to any CD input or any Aux (line level) input on a stereo amplifier. You . This music collection can then be streamed across the network, from computer to player. The advantage of this is that your entire music collection is then just a click away. I can browse my whole CD collection from my armchair and play any track that takes my fancy – even though the physical CDs are now gathering dust out in the shed. However, the network can have a simple arrangement – just a straight wire – or complex with a switch unit in the loft and cables through the house. Or wireless, if you don’t want cables. I’ll explain here what your options are, and how to use such a network. PLUG AND PLAY. DLNA stands for . They may stand alone as separate devices or be combined into a single device (e. The hardware can be a desktop PC, a laptop or a dedicated . There is a USB socket for long term storage of music on a memory stick, an ethernet socket for connection to the network, and both XLR (balanced) and phono socket (unbalanced) analogue outputs. Also included are optical and electrical digital outputs, for an external DAC or digital amplifier, and digital inputs so the player can be used as a DAC as well. Think of a streaming player (renderer) as a . It is part of the hi- fi system and retrieves the music on your computer, sending it through the hi- fi. Bear in mind that if you have a huge music collection on your computer, seeing it all displayed on a player the other side of your lounge raises difficulties. Budget players have a one line display only (Cambridge Audio), or even no display – a TV must be used (Yamaha). Some models have a colour screen (Musical Fidelity) that you peer at across the lounge, whilst Cyrus players have this on a remote control. Because such screens draw current the remote has to have high capacity, rechargeable cells. Or you can use an App on your i. Phone or i. Pad, where the manufacturer makes this available (most now do). CONTROL POINTThis allows tracks on the computer to be selected and may be part of the player, as discussed above, or an App on a portable device like an i. Phone or i. Pad. Pictured at right is a Cyrus remote control with the player's music menus legible a small bright screen. I have just explained that a u. Pn. P system requires three . Nonetheless there are good reasons to opt for three separate boxes. I use a NAS box for my server, a dedicated Linn streamer for my renderer and various control points on the family i. Pad. This means the server can be outside the music room, I can change my renderer should I wish without affecting my music collection, and I can control it all with the convenience that comes from an i. Pad. THE NETWORKYou cannot stream without either a simple ethernet cable link or a full network. There is no getting around the fact that getting a full network up and running requires a degree of commitment and knowledge – see more in the Boxout at the end of this piece. Pictured at right, an inexpensive network switch like this 5 port Netgear unit allows streaming players, receivers etc to be connected into a network. An ethernet computer network takes the form of a star, at the centre of which lies a Switch. However, whilst you can wire up your home like this, most people are likely to have a simple straight link between internet modem and their computer, which actually amounts to the same thing, being one arm of a star. Further Switches can be added in, into which you may hook up your hi- fi through the Streamer. Just note that switches form the centre of the star, with links to connected devices on this network. This is a basic layout. The Modem & Router is usually combined with the Switch in one box. RIPPING AND TAGGINGThe process of copying music from your CDs to your server is called . Computers display files in a directory tree. Whilst you need directories to organise files when saving them on your server, directories are not the main way u. Pn. P views your music collection. Instead u. Pn. P uses . Tags contain . There is an . It would be a bad idea to do so, but you could if you wished put all of your music tracks in the same folder, and as long as they are tagged correctly the server will still present them to the control point organised correctly by artist, album, genre, etc. It does this by reading the metadata for every track when it starts up, putting it into an internal database. It really is a good idea to get your tagging right from day one. This leads to the decision about what music file format to use. The open standard is FLAC – Free Lossless Audio Codec – and this is supported by all of the mainstream hi- fi companies (two exceptions are Apple and Microsoft, but neither are hi- fi companies). As the name suggests, FLAC is lossless – and free! As a result FLAC is now very popular and a good choice. Some companies sell server devices that do the ripping for you, but I prefer to rip on a computer then . It reads and re- reads discs until it gets a bit- perfect rip. It confirms this perfection by comparing with an on- line database of previous rips done by other customers. It also automatically downloads tag information and cover art graphics. I buy second hand CDs off Amazon for pennies. It doesn’t matter if they are a bit beat up. Wonderful! I also use the excellent . Despite its name it works with FLAC. BACKUPSIt took me a year to rip my CDs and I don’t want to lose this work the day a disc fails – as inevitably it will. So I need backups. I backup in two ways. I have a large capacity hard drive in the computer I use for ripping and periodically copy everything from my NAS to this drive. I also bought a large capacity USB 3 external hard drive which I keep at a friend’s house. In this way, if I am burgled, they may get my kit but they won’t rob me of my music! Whilst a RAID array does ensure against failure of a single disc in the array, through redundancy, it won’t save you if you accidentally delete a bunch of files, or from the burglar! With 6. 4GB memory sticks and SSDs (solid- state hard drives) now becoming affordable these are potential alternatives, or you can back up to cloud (off- site) storage like i. Cloud of course – another whole topic. CONCLUSIONSwitching to a streaming solution is the best hi- fi move I have made in forty years in the hobby. The sheer convenience of browsing my entire music collection from the comfort of my favourite chair is unbeatable. Streamers also work up to top 2. CD. They are the way music replay is going, so I encourage you to try it and hope my explanations and suggestions help. ETHERNET WIRED AND WIRELESS NETWORKSAll home networks use a technology called . Most wired networks use . Permanent cables run from the patch panel through the building to be terminated in RJ- 4. Clearly the problem with a wired network is running the cables. You will need to drill holes in walls and lift floorboards. Wired networks are more dependable than wireless ones. High- end streaming products such as those sold by Linn are wired only. Most NAS boxes also require a wired connection. He did a great job and the price was not bad compared to what we sometimes pay for our kit. The easier alternative is to use wireless networking. Here radio waves replace the cables. It’s still Ethernet and still a star – but the switch has a . Wi- fi standard 8. Mbps and this is at the lower end of what wireless can achieve. However, data rate falls with distance and wi- fi is never as dependable as wired. Whether wired or wireless, every device on the network needs a unique identification number called an . These can be configured manually or automatically using a piece of software called a . Google this, then recruit the help of a mate who knows what he is doing – probably a teenager! Wired or wireless, get your network operating reliably before you start setting up your streamer. ABOUT THE AUTHOR, JIM ROBERTSFor the last 1. I have made my living in computer networking. I have three . I’m also a hi- fi nut.
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