D*A*M Forum

Does anyone still use decent hifi equipment these days? In a world of streaming digital music , what do people use to listen to it?

I’ve still got my old 90s hifi “rack” with a Rega planar turntable, an Arcam amp, Marantz CD player and a Yamaha tape deck….which is fine for me but is there anything around I could add for streaming through it?

Nice setup stella. I've been going back to vinyl, cassettes, and lossless audio files lately for the fun of it as it really does sound so much better than Spotify. Lately the streaming services are beginning to add HD options for streaming and the music catalogs are beginning to grow, but it's still somewhat limited depending on what genre you are into. Tidal and Apple seem to be leading the charge but others are catching up. I don't have one yet, but the Cambridge Audio CXN seems to come up a lot when looking for a decent network audio streaming box. Something like that will be my next component for my setup.

I run a Rega Planar deck and Denon CD player through a NAD 3020D amp which has a bluetooth option so you can stream from your phone or pc through it. All that goes into a huge pair of Q audio speakers - love it!

kluskie wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:44 pm I run a Rega PLanar deck and Denon CD player through a NAD 3020D amp which has a bluetooth option so you can stream from your phone or pc through it. All that goes into a huge pair of Q audio speakers - love it!

That's what I'm doing right now as well, just have a little bluetooth receiver plugged into the AUX input of my non-bluetooth Rotel amp and stream from my phone or pc to the system. Rega P2 turntable here as well with a Nakamichi CR-3A tape deck out to a pair of Revel Concerta2 speakers. If I want to listen to lossless audio files I'll just plug my laptop into the AUX.

pothole wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:53 pm

kluskie wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:44 pm I run a Rega PLanar deck and Denon CD player through a NAD 3020D amp which has a bluetooth option so you can stream from your phone or pc through it. All that goes into a huge pair of Q audio speakers - love it!

That's what I'm doing right now as well, just have a little bluetooth receiver plugged into the AUX input of my non-bluetooth Rotel amp and stream from my phone or pc to the system. Rega P2 turntable here as well with a Nakamichi CR-3A tape deck out to a pair of Revel Concerta2 speakers. If I want to listen to lossless audio files I'll just plug my laptop into the AUX.

Cool! Been listening to Koss all day :)

I have a Denon turntable and Yamaha rack CD player plugged into a Lafayette receiver my father bought in the 70's. The CD player has bluetooth and media input. I download .wav files, don't like mp3.

That Cambridge Audio CXN looks amazing, may have to book a trip to the local shop and hear it in person

I’m now looking at amps with a Bluetooth option as well…..I thought fuzz was a rabbit hole, hifi components are just as bad lol. I shouldn’t have started looking as it gives serious gas for a whole new system

Great to see others in the Rega club too , it’s a great reliable turntable

Being a bit of a nerd, I built a little RaspberryPi / HiFiBerry box. That has RCA outs so can go straight into my amp. I've just sent that off to my father-in-law so I'll be building another soon.

There are possibly more choices than ever now, which is kind of strange. I have a mixture of middlin to high end gear (just the speakers are high end).

It's a Dynaco tube pre, Crown power amp, Rega table (not one of the higher end ones), a shitty Denon rack cd player, and Raidho speakers.

If I can divert my attention from pedals and guitars, I would like to upgrade.

I like my hi-fi like I like my fuzzes, guitars, and amps...made during the classic time of manufacturing from the 1950s to the 1970's. I run two different "vintage" stereos with mixes of McIntosh, Klipsch, & Altec Lansing equipment. I still play vinyl, cd's, and old cassettes. I do spend a lot of time just streaming music from computers because it is so easy to do quickly. Youtube, Spotify, Sirus XM. I don't do all the high end streaming services.

In order to get the best streaming sound for what I do with the hi-fi's (not ear buds) there are three things to consider. No bluetooth connection. It squashes the frequencies and degrades the sound. No streaming directly from the computer. They have very cheap DAC's in them the make the sound thin. I do use external DAC's connected between the computer and the stereo. They don't have to be overly expensive. I'll just connect them up using RCA plugs into an Aux input and then crank up the volume!

You can easily A/B between just the computer and an outboard DAC and hear the difference.