Can someone confirm UI issues

[iamimdoc]

Have been away from streaming and hifi issues for a few years.

 

My current setup is JRiver on an older laptop next to the stereo plus ipad JRemote at listening chair.  This gives pretty nice response even on Win7 laptop.  Pretty happy.

 

Looking at the new music models such as Amazon HD.  I spent several hours fiddling with it and tried various options to keep my same functionality of a nice response at the listening chair and controls with IPad 

 

However, I see no easy and relatively inexpensive solution to use Amazon HD controlled on iPad without new hardware like BLUE OS. 

 

VNC works slowly, other desktop iPad to PC seem to have issues also. Just sort of a pain in my opinion

 

Are there other options I am not aware of that would allow the same nice functionality at listening chair to control Amazon HD  ( or other similar service) on IPAD that don’t involve all sorts of new hardware or expensive software(Roon as example )?
 

Thanks in advance 

[davide256]

JRiver gets high marks for UI, Roon is the only competitor I would consider “like”.  Free gets you limitations.

[Daren F]

The only other option to Blue OS that I know of to get Amazon Music HD bit perfect is with DTS Play-Fi. You'll need a receiver, preamp or processor with DTS Play-Fi and the Play-Fi app. It works well with my Anthem processor but does not sound as good as the NUC to DAC even though Windows is resampling the signal.

 

Denon or Marantz with HEOS, may work as well.

 

Edit - Forgot to mention Chomecast Audio will also work however will be limited to 24/48.

[Daren F]

Another similar service, if you're happy with a 320 kbps stream, is Spotify Connect.

[iamimdoc]

Let me lower my desires and reframe question this way

 

-Are there music services (with whatever software they provide)

-available (who have large large libraries)

-that would give similar user experience, speed and ease of use to JRiver with Jremote on an ipad (i.e.,  allow user to operate things remotely from the listening chair wirelessly) 

-without having to buy significant new hardware. 

-Lower quality (ie, mp3) might be acceptable.

 

Goal would be to dip feet in the streaming pool and see if it's worth the long term issues.  I'm not wanting/willing to get up to change every song, however

 

Thanks 

[Cebolla]

18 hours ago, Daren F said:

Edit - Forgot to mention Chomecast Audio will also work however will be limited to 24/48.

Where did you get that info from?

 

Amazon Music HD is not supposed to be supported on Chromecast, so presumably at best the Chromecast Audio is limited to Amazon Music's lossy 320kbps streams:

https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=14070322011

[Cebolla]

1 hour ago, iamimdoc said:

Let me lower my desires and reframe question this way

 

-Are there music services (with whatever software they provide)

-available (who have large large libraries)

-that would give similar user experience, speed and ease of use to JRiver with Jremote on an ipad (i.e.,  allow user to operate things remotely from the listening chair wirelessly) 

-without having to buy significant new hardware. 

-Lower quality (ie, mp3) might be acceptable.

 

Certainly looks like you need to lower your desires as far as using JRiver is concerned as JRiver Media Center doesn't support any online music services. However there are ways of getting their audio streams indirectly played by JRiver's audio engine and take advantage of any audio output settings you may have configured in JRiver.

 

So unfortunately you won't be able to use JRiver's own user interface (ie including JRemote) for searching tracks, creating playlists, controlling the playback, etc.

 

Given that restriction, I'd recommend installing the free Logitech Media Server on the laptop, as that (after a bit of configuration) should give JRiver indirect access to:

Deezer (restricted to its lossy 320 kbps streams);

Qobuz (includes its hi-res tracks);

TIDAL (restricted to CD-res) and

Spotify (receives its best quality 320kbps streams but requires Spotify Premium account).

 

[Daren F]

2 hours ago, Cebolla said:

Where did you get that info from?

 

Amazon Music HD is not supposed to be supported on Chromecast, so presumably at best the Chromecast Audio is limited to Amazon Music's lossy 320kbps streams:

https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=14070322011

Sorry, my mistake. I confused Android devices, that are limited to 24/48 with the Chromcast Audio.

[stefano_mbp]

21 hours ago, iamimdoc said:

Are there other options I am not aware of that would allow the same nice functionality at listening chair to control Amazon HD  ( or other similar service) on IPAD that don’t involve all sorts of new hardware or expensive software(Roon as example )?

unfortunately this seems like a huge lack of Amazon ...

you have a couple of alternatives:

bluetooth

airplay

both from your iPad using the Amazon app.

if your pre/ampli/dac do not have any of these features you could check

Advance Acoustic wtx-500 for Bluetooth 

https://advance-acoustic.com/en/multimedia-and-wireless/aptx-wireless-receiver/34-wtx-500

or consider a raspberry with Volumio or moOde which have AirPlay capability (and Bluetooth too)

A third solution, wired, could be to use the Apple Camera Connection Kit to connect your iPad to the dac

 

[stefano_mbp]

21 hours ago, davide256 said:

Roon is the only competitor

Roon doesn’t have any integration with Amazon services ...

[Cebolla]

4 hours ago, Cebolla said:

 

Oops! Here's the missing pics showing LMS's web browser UI:

 

 

 

[iamimdoc]

Not sure I am masking my self clear

 

I am not expecting to get to use JRIVER and JRemote to access these services.

 

But I would like the usability of JRIVER and Jremote to access these services

 

In my setup - PC and DAC at the stereo, across the room.  Jremote in my lap. I can quickly flip through artists, albums, songs. 

 

Most important to me 

I can explore an artist I just heard [other albums same artist] easily 

or

I can explore a song I just heard [other artists same song or same artist different performances] easily

 

Thanks

[Daren F]

6 minutes ago, iamimdoc said:

Not sure I am masking my self clear

 

I am not expecting to get to use JRIVER and JRemote to access these services.

 

But I would like the usability of JRIVER and Jremote to access these services

 

In my setup - PC and DAC at the stereo, across the room.  Jremote in my lap. I can quickly flip through artists, albums, songs. 

 

Most important to me 

I can explore an artist I just heard [other albums same artist] easily 

or

I can explore a song I just heard [other artists same song or same artist different performances] easily

 

Thanks

The easiest way to accomplish this is as follows:

 

1. Install the Spotify desktop app on your laptop.

2. Install the Spotify ios app on your iPad.

3. Open the app on both of the devices.

4. Subscribe to a free trial.

5. Make sure both of your devices are on the same network.

6. Start playing a track on either device.

7. Use Spotify Connect on the iPad to control the laptop.

 

In the Spotify settings, set the quality to very high. This will give you the best quality Spotify offers at 320 kbps. This is very close to CD quality.

 

If you are happy with this it will cost you $9.99/month. There are no free alternatives.

 

Other streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz require a third party app like Roon or Audirvana to accomplish the same thing. Their streams are higher quality but setup is more complex and more expensive.

 

 

 

[davide256]

7 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

Roon doesn’t have any integration with Amazon services ...

Evil empires like their walled gardens😉

[iamimdoc]

Daren F - thank you

 

Will check it out

 

Amazon will create similar I suspect.

[Daren F]

6 minutes ago, iamimdoc said:

Daren F - thank you

 

Will check it out

 

Amazon will create similar I suspect.

Unfortunately, Amazon does not offer a feature similar to Spotify Connect.

[Mayfair]

On 10/4/2020 at 9:55 AM, iamimdoc said:

Have been away from streaming and hifi issues for a few years.

 

My current setup is JRiver on an older laptop next to the stereo plus ipad JRemote at listening chair.  This gives pretty nice response even on Win7 laptop.  Pretty happy.

 

Looking at the new music models such as Amazon HD.  I spent several hours fiddling with it and tried various options to keep my same functionality of a nice response at the listening chair and controls with IPad 

 

However, I see no easy and relatively inexpensive solution to use Amazon HD controlled on iPad without new hardware like BLUE OS. 

 

VNC works slowly, other desktop iPad to PC seem to have issues also. Just sort of a pain in my opinion

 

Are there other options I am not aware of that would allow the same nice functionality at listening chair to control Amazon HD  ( or other similar service) on IPAD that don’t involve all sorts of new hardware or expensive software(Roon as example )?
 

Thanks in advance 

Since you already have JRiver, you might try its WDM driver (/tools/options/general/features to enable in JRiver.  You'll have to restart JRiver after enabling the driver.  Once done, that should let you play Amazon Music (via the Microsoft Amazon Music app, or through accessing Amazon Music through a browser like Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) through JRiver.    You'll need remote access software to control the browser from your iPad; there are free remote access options out there especially for personal use on a home network.  I use the Amazon app or browser to select and play the music, everything else (e.g. volume) runs through JRiver.  

[Cebolla]

13 hours ago, Mayfair said:

Since you already have JRiver, you might try its WDM driver (/tools/options/general/features to enable in JRiver.

 

My posts above also suggested keeping JRiver to indirectly play the online music service streams (though would have been via JRiver's DLNA renderer rather than via its WDM driver), but given the OP's reply to those posts, it appears that using the already installed JRiver that way isn't a priority.