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Do I need a network audio player?


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Hi all

I am new and am looking for some advice I have a Marantz pm6005 amp q-aqoustics 3050i speakers and project carbon esprit turntable which this set up is mostly used for, but I was considering a the NA 8005 for streaming from my laptop using Spotify, internet radio, etc. Stored music on laptop.

But is it necessary to have a network audio player if I can go through the amplifier built in DAC, direct from the laptop, do I need an external DAC or the best way to use the built in DAC, I am not sure at all how best to proceed here I don't want to spend all that money on something like the NA8005 if I don't have to. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

thanks hoggie3245

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Others here can give you much more detailed responses than I can, but the Marantz amp's built-in DAC is very likely to be a decent unit - not super high-end, but very respectable, and certainly far better than whatever DAC might be built into your laptop. So I would definitely pick up the appropriate digital audio cable and/or adapter to go from your laptop to the Marantz's DAC.

 

Once you do that, I am guessing you'll be pretty happy. At that point you'll face two issues: (1) Sonics - do you want higher fidelity sound via a separate DAC and/or possibly a dedicated computer for your music streaming? And (2) Convenience - do you want a simpler way to control your music than your laptop cabled up to the Marantz?

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What you have will work great. As tmtomh said, just get a cable to send digital output to your amp. If it is a Windows laptop, get software such as foobar2000 that can bypass the Windows audio processing and output to a wasapi driver to give you finer control.

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If it is a Windows laptop, get software such as foobar2000 that can bypass the Windows audio processing and output to a wasapi driver to give you finer control.

Forgot about that - that's an excellent point. Using a decent software player is a cheap/free way to get better sound.

 

If you're on a Mac, there's a $9.99 app in the Mac App Store called BitPerfect that sits between iTunes and the computer's audio output back-end, enabling better quality audio output, especially if you have a mix of CD-quality and high-res files.

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What you have will work great. As tmtomh said, just get a cable to send digital output to your amp. If it is a Windows laptop, get software such as foobar2000 that can bypass the Windows audio processing and output to a wasapi driver to give you finer control.

See my signature for what I use.

 

Before I purchased HQPlayer, I spent several weeks evaluating Foobar2000. I mainly focused on WASAPI v ASIO support, and found ASIO sounds better and more detailed on my system. I still use foobar2000 mainly for playlist metadata editing, which supports that functionality better than anything I've seen on the market.

 

BTW, you will need an ASIO driver. ASIO4ALL driver is also available in 32 bit version as well, if that's what you require:

ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver

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My laptop is HP and the bass cant even be adjusted, so if the foobar improves that it would be great, I presume the connection is toslink from the headphone jack to the optical port in the amplifier, do I need anything in between like a convertor?

Since you're in the "Networking" forum, I'm assuming you want to connect your HP laptop to a network to which an AVR is connected. This plugin may be the network audio adapter you're searching for:

foobar2000: Components Repository - UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point

 

... if not, a complete list of plugins is located here:

foobar2000: Components Repository

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Since you're in the "Networking" forum, I'm assuming you want to connect your HP laptop to a network to which an AVR is connected.
I wouldn't have thought that assumption is correct seeing the title the OP's given to this thread! Or are you actually advising the OP should get an AVR to network stream via UPnP/DLNA from Foobar's music library, in reply to the question in the title?

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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My laptop is HP and the bass cant even be adjusted, so if the foobar improves that it would be great, I presume the connection is toslink from the headphone jack to the optical port in the amplifier, do I need anything in between like a convertor?
This will only work if you are certain your HP laptop's headphone jack is a dual purpose analogue audio & digital audio via toslink output. In which case you'll either need a mini toslink to toslink cable or a mini toslink adapter plus a standard toslink cable to connect to the amp.

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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If I don't have to spend money on something I don't really need than I wont, If I can use my laptop to stream iradio Spotify etc through the integrated amp via a cable fromt the laptop then great, if I cant then I will get what I need to do so, I am not big into tech so I am fairly green when it comes to tech, will the toslink from the pc to the amplifier do this adequately or is there something else I need

Thanks

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If I don't have to spend money on something I don't really need than I wont, If I can use my laptop to stream iradio Spotify etc through the integrated amp via a cable fromt the laptop then great, if I cant then I will get what I need to do so, I am not big into tech so I am fairly green when it comes to tech, will the toslink from the pc to the amplifier do this adequately or is there something else I need

Thanks

To get full range dynamics with reduced digital irritants you need to use some kind of asynch USB solution between laptop and AVR. The Gustard U12 I use is an economical choice at around $170 with shipping from china.

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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To get started, all you need is whatever cable or adapter will get you from a digital audio output on your laptop to one of the digital inputs on your amp/receiver. Once you get it working, you can listen and see if it's a type of setup you're going to want to keep. If so, then you can start investing in improvements. IMHO the best bang for your buck in terms of improvement might be an external DAC. Why? Because it will give you the async USB connection davide256 mentions above, while also giving you possibly better sonics than the DAC in your amp - and it might also give you the capability to play more different types of digital files (for example 176 or 192kbps and/or DSD, if your amp's DAC doesn't support those).

 

But for now, just get something inexpensive to make the connection and try it out.

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Since you're in the "Networking" forum, I'm assuming you want to connect your HP laptop to a network to which an AVR is connected. This plugin may be the network audio adapter you're searching for:

foobar2000: Components Repository - UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point

 

... if not, a complete list of plugins is located here:

foobar2000: Components Repository

 

I wouldn't have thought that assumption is correct seeing the title the OP's given to this thread! Or are you actually advising the OP should get an AVR to network stream via UPnP/DLNA from Foobar's music library, in reply to the question in the title?

Please clarify your post as it's not clear what you're on about.

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Iain

 

Simply that your responding post quoting the OP's question about whether some sort of convertor was required to connect the laptop's (digital audio) headphone out via toslink to his stereo ampflier's optical input seemed a bit odd.

 

Even if you had mistakenly quoted that specific post by the OP & therefore were not actually responding to it, so may be making a more general statement about hoggie3245's original thread question, it still doesn't make sense.

For example, how can you assume that the OP requires a UPnP/DLNA network streaming capable full blown AVR with its (to the OP) redundant multichannel amp section, given that the first post mentions misgivings about getting a (simple) stereo network audio player/streamer like the Marantz NA8005 (to connect to the non network capable PM6005 stereo amp) in the first place?!!

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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Since you're in the "Networking" forum, I'm assuming you want to connect your HP laptop to a network to which an AVR is connected. This plugin may be the network audio adapter you're searching for:

foobar2000: Components Repository - UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point

 

... if not, a complete list of plugins is located here:

foobar2000: Components Repository

Iain

 

Simply that your responding post quoting the OP's question about whether some sort of convertor was required to connect the laptop's (digital audio) headphone out via toslink to his stereo ampflier's optical input seemed a bit odd.

 

Even if you had mistakenly quoted that specific post by the OP & therefore were not actually responding to it, so may be making a more general statement about hoggie3245's original thread question, it still doesn't make sense.

For example, how can you assume that the OP requires a UPnP/DLNA network streaming capable full blown AVR with its (to the OP) redundant multichannel amp section, given that the first post mentions misgivings about getting a (simple) stereo network audio player/streamer like the Marantz NA8005 (to connect to the non network capable PM6005 stereo amp) in the first place?!!

 

Amazing!

 

Perhaps you failed to read my post in it's entirety. As the OP expressed an interest in foobar2000, I included a link to more plugins in the second paragraph which you conveniently failed to quote, that might work better for him.

 

If my post is of no help to him, perhaps it will be to someone else.

 

You shouldn't be so pedantic of others posts. "Those who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones"

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What's so amazing about questioning your assumption that the OP wants anything to do with an AVR?

 

If I was being pedantic, I would have quoted and gone through the whole of your post, as for example, casually suggesting Foobar2000's foo_upnp (UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Media Server, Control Point) plugin component may be the 'network audio adapter' (whatever that means) the OP's searching for, without actually explaining what it's for and how it needs to be set up & used. The foo_upnp plugin can be quite daunting to those not familiar with UPnP/DLNA streaming and especially to those not used to the clunky nature of Foobar2000 itself.

 

However, I thought just pulling you up on you randomly mentioning an AVR in response to the OP's question about connecting an optical audio cable between laptop and stereo amp would be enough.

 

So what's your explanation for mentioning an AVR in the first place?

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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