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mRendu and ClassicsOnline--impressive and some questions


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I like classical music and I just discovered ClassicsOnline the other day. It is apparently run by Naxos and offers both a streaming service (for 14.99/m), plus downloads of all the music (apparently) you can stream. Excuse me if I'm late to the party ;)

 

Moreover, many of their albums are Hi-Res 24 bit, 48 or 88 or 96 kHz. My streaming service of (reluctant) choice so far has been Tidal (I haven't succeed in tunneling to Qobuz from US), which plays well with Lumin and Kazoo dependably. I say reluctant because my taste in music "older" than the crowd Tidal caters to in its new music sections. I prefer jazz, acoustic, bluegrass, and increasingly classical.

 

The ClassicsOnline app for the computer is intelligently designed and seems to work very well; search capabilities are excellent (probably because Naxos keeps better metadata than Tidal). There is also an iPad app that does pretty much the same thing as the desktop. This strikes me as a very promising service for those interested in classical music. (I'm surprise I can't find more discussion of it on CA.) Anyway, I have a few questions for anyone who might be a ClassicsOnline subscriber and uRendu owner.

 

1. Besides Tidal, Qobuz, and ClassicsOnline, are there other major streaming services (that focus on jazz and classical esp.) I haven't heard of? I'm embarrassed to have only stumbled on ClassicsOnline the other day (someone mention it on the great Album of the Day thread), and it really seems excellent at this stage.

 

2. More to the mRendu piece of this post: Shairport, the Airplay emulator, seems to be the only uRendu output to connect with the ClassicsOnline apps. Am I correct about this, or are there work arounds that might produce a better sound quality (if Shairport is in some ways limited)? The apps' Settings have an "audio output" setting that recognizes the uRendu as if its Airplay and places (44 kHz) next to it. Which leads to . . .

 

3. In what way is Shairport in uRendu limited in term of bitrate and sample rate, etc.? Jesus recently wrote in another thread that he was working on improving Shairport sound quality. But besides that hint, does someone know the actual specs of what the Shairport output is capable of streaming? When I stream Hi-Res 24 bit, 48 or 88 or 96 kHz recordings from ClassicsOnline via Shairport am I getting the benefits of Hi-Res or more or less hearing redbook material? If so, then under what conditions could one get full Hi-Res out of the app? Even the "Built-in Output" options in Settings has (44kHz) next to it.

 

Since I'm not terribly computer savvy, I find this confusing. Perhaps this could be fixed in the Midi settings of my Mac?

 

Anyway: my preference would be to stream from my MBP laptop or iPad from my listening positing without cables, i.e. via Shairport or DLNA or something that works and actually takes advantage of the Hi-Res this service offers.

 

Thanks in advance and sorry for the tome. I've learned a ton at this site in the last couple months!

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I have felt like a lone voice in the wilderness for ClassicsOnline, but there is some prior discussion of this wonderful streaming service here: Naxos Classics Online HD

 

Thanks. Yes, I had seen that thread when I wrote mine. The computer app from ClassicsOnline is working splendidly, but the app for my iPad crashes a lot. It might be my iPod2 is just too old to handle all the features of the new app. Do you use the tablet app, and is it stable for you?

 

Would appreciate some help with the mRendu technical questions about Shairport I posted from Jesus or someone who knows the emulator's capabilities . . .

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Thanks. Yes, I had seen that thread when I wrote mine. The computer app from ClassicsOnline is working splendidly, but the app for my iPad crashes a lot. It might be my iPod2 is just too old to handle all the features of the new app. Do you use the tablet app, and is it stable for you?

 

Would appreciate some help with the mRendu technical questions about Shairport I posted from Jesus or someone who knows the emulator's capabilities . . .

Shairport will receive 44.1 from your device. Your best bet for hi-resolution content is to download it and stream it to the microRendu.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been in contact with customer service at Classics Online, and they say that they are planing on offering DNLA support. Wouldn't commit to a timeline, but this would be good news for uRendu owners and others wanting to take advantage of their many Hi-Res offerings. Cheers.

 

By the way, I upgraded to a new iPad mini 4 (since my 5 year old iPad was very, very slow and crashed trying to process the Classics Online app). The new iPad has had no trouble with their app, so both computer and tablet apps seem really excellent.

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Roon integration would be a good strategy for Classics Online. That way Roon users can upsample their Redbook offerings to DSD.

 

Perhaps. I think they've invested heavily in a very good UI. They probably see Roon as competition in that respect. From CO you can actually read extensive liner notes. That's something classical nerds appreciate even more than, say, a nicely framed a Roon bio imported from Allmusic . . .

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  • 2 weeks later...

Those are good points, sockpit. I would still like to have Roon integration, because I could still go back to CO's application to read liner notes should I care to. But more important to me, and probably more likely for CO to produce given the concerns you note, would just be an iOS remote control to let me operate the desktop CO application without having to get up and walk over to my Mac Mini (which is set up next to the stereo).

 

Also, I forgot to respond to your earlier inquiry regarding stability of the CO tablet and iPhone applications. I run the iPhone app with zero problems, but the Android app running on my Samsung Tab is worthless and crashes routinely.

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