@pinwa While this looks like a good Bluetooth receiver, it's not the same as a dedicated streaming receiver. You can of course use it to playback a stream on your system, but a phone, computer, tablet, or other device is needed as a source. And while Bluetooth continues to improve, it is still a compromise over a directly connected Wifi/Ethernet receiver. And yes, while streaming receivers are often controlled by phones and tablets, the streaming takes place locally on the device. Many of the higher end streamers can be operation without a phone at all.
Where are the cheap home streamers?
When CD players were first introduced, they were $1000 and more new. And this was in early 80's dollars. New ones would eventually drop to under $200, and new players that also play most all formats can still be had around at that price or less. Sure, not the best quality, but they work well enough for most.
The new frontier is of course, streaming. Whether from a local host, online, and so on. Many options in the high end, but what seems odd is the lack of budget options. Probably the least expensive that's of decent quality is the Sonos Connect. Oh sure, you can pair a computer or tablet with a cheap DAC, and get by. Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi solution. And yes, most disc players are "smart" and can stream audio and video just fine. Among other issues, is that the budget options are defaulting to HDMI out, and omitting Optical, Digital, and Analog out.
There were some early efforts by Sony and Dlink a few years ago. Both not only required a display, but were pretty terrible implementations overall. We recently tried one of the Dayton WBA 31s. For a mere $50, expectations were of course also modest. As you might imagine, analog audio out is not great. Below that of many phones we'd say. It does however had an optical output. A dealbreaker for most of our clients in terms of added complexity. If produced in sufficient number, there is no good reason such a unit with a decent DAC couldn't be built and sold for $200 or so. Or maybe someone is doing this, and it's just not well distributed?
The new frontier is of course, streaming. Whether from a local host, online, and so on. Many options in the high end, but what seems odd is the lack of budget options. Probably the least expensive that's of decent quality is the Sonos Connect. Oh sure, you can pair a computer or tablet with a cheap DAC, and get by. Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi solution. And yes, most disc players are "smart" and can stream audio and video just fine. Among other issues, is that the budget options are defaulting to HDMI out, and omitting Optical, Digital, and Analog out.
There were some early efforts by Sony and Dlink a few years ago. Both not only required a display, but were pretty terrible implementations overall. We recently tried one of the Dayton WBA 31s. For a mere $50, expectations were of course also modest. As you might imagine, analog audio out is not great. Below that of many phones we'd say. It does however had an optical output. A dealbreaker for most of our clients in terms of added complexity. If produced in sufficient number, there is no good reason such a unit with a decent DAC couldn't be built and sold for $200 or so. Or maybe someone is doing this, and it's just not well distributed?
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- 79 posts total
- 79 posts total