Playing digital music on my antique system?

[AMD500]

Hi, hope everyone is doing okay during the pandemic. I'm very new to the world of Hi-fi. My father is a big audiophile and passed along his old system a few years back (well many years at this point). I received a Mac4100 integrated amp, Techniques 1300 Turntable, and set of Thiel speakers I really doing know much about. Been getting a lot of use out of the system playing records for my toddler during the lockdown. Still sounds awesome to my untrained ears, and my girl loves the ritual of choosing a record to play.

Joined the forum because i would really like an inexpensive way to stream music from my computer or phone to the system (think this is call a DAC?), and have no idea how to even begin to do this. Hoping the experts can help point me to some reasonable options, or tell me that this is crazy....

Alex

[Paul-H]

Hi

There will bo loads of options, but I used one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XKG6ZX5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Worked realy well and now I can stream from my PC or phone without a hitch, just plug it into and aux input, set the unit to receive mode and pair your devices, it BT 5 so had to get a BT 5 dongle for my PC for a reliable connection but that was only a fiver.

Sound quality is excellent.

There are loads of options though many costing quite a bit more.

[Bencat]

Given you are not sure about what you want to end up with as a full system and incase you might find streaming a really good thing I would make the suggestion that you spend as little as possible to have a try and see if this does what you want it to .

Given that I would suggest a look on e-bay for a Google Chromecast Audio unit . Should not cost you over £30 and this can then be plugged directly in to your current amplifier as a source using a 3.5mm to two RCA phono adaptor as below . The sound quality from this little unit is surprisingly good and will let you access your music now for little cost. Then if you find streaming is for you then you can look at better solutiuons if you need them .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/REALMAX%C2%AE-Meter-Stereo-3-5mm-1Meter-White/dp/B01GOCOW6K/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=3.5mm+plug+to+two+rca+phonos&qid=1588417608&sr=8-3

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Google-Chromecast-Audio-2nd-Generation-Music-Media-Streamer-Refurbished-FFP-UK/372978387733?epid=8037669501&hash=item56d73e8b15%3Ag%3AFCYAAOSw33FeY5jl&LH_BIN=1

[AMD500]

Thanks so much for the tips. Ill give the chromecast a try and report back

[Paul-H]

I used to have a Chromecast, but found it a little unreliable with sound dropouts etc, I found I needed my device so close to get a reliable link I might as well just used a wired connector. The type I linked to has a proven range of over 100 foot so good enough for anywhere in my house.

It's your choice though

[Bencat]

Hi Paul-H not trying to offer somehting better than what you suggest but following that link to amazon shows the item as unavailable which is why I offered an alterantive . looked around for a similar item and was not able to see any . If you have an alternative link to currecnt model stock that would be of great help to the OP .

[Stratmangler]

I used to have a Chromecast, but found it a little unreliable with sound dropouts etc, I found I needed my device so close to get a reliable link I might as well just used a wired connector. The type I linked to has a proven range of over 100 foot so good enough for anywhere in my house.

It's your choice though

I've found the opposite with Chromecast, although in my case it gets used as client in my Squeezebox setup, which probably makes things more dependable.

I've noticed that streaming and casting to Chromecast from my Android phone does something the Squeezebox setup does not. and that's streaming the songs from phone to Chromecast, and one at a time, whereas the Squeezebox setup controls the whole playlist with only one wireless hop. whilst still using the phone to control things.
I'm using an app on the Squeezebox server to control things.

The long and the short of it is that if you want to do things as simply as possible (ie cast from wireless rendering device (smartphone/tablet) to wireless client Chromecast), you need excellent WiFi coverage for all devices, because you're playing with 2 wireless links, not 1.

[paulf-2007]

A dac with Bluetooth receiver is good for a phone or tablet. No need for a physical connection to kit the other side of the room.

[AJSki2fly]

.....

Joined the forum because i would really like an inexpensive way to stream music from my computer or phone to the system (think this is call a DAC?), and have no idea how to even begin to do this. Hoping the experts can help point me to some reasonable options, or tell me that this is crazy....

Alex

So if you have about £100 buy yourself one of these or similar, https://volumio.org/product/allo-boss-player/, it will get you started and you'll be surprised at the sound quality. If you wan better SQ at the start then the most cost effective route in my opinion is a RaspberryPi(RPI) with a digital HAT card like a https://volumio.org/product/allo-digione-player/ or RPI with HifiBerry https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/bundles/hifiberry-digi-bundle-4/ (I have this but a lesser version of the Digi card, you then feed the digital out from this into a DAC and the best SQ for £'s is Beresford Caiman SEG (http://www.homehifi.co.uk/S/tc-7535.htm), you can spend lots more to get as good IMO. If you email Stan he can advise on the basics and possible upgrade now or in the future. A better PSU is well worth it.

I know you are new to this so I will try and explain simply, you use Volumio for free on the RPI(card computer) the is a software GUI program running on Unix operating system, you connect to Volumio from either you web browser on you computer using the URL volumio.local, or download the Volumio App onto a tablet or mobil phone. You configure Volumio simply in its settings, if you have a NAS(network access server) drive with music on you can connect to it to see and play your digital files, you can also connect to you PC to do so say from iTunes library. If you want to stream music from say Spotify, Tidal or Qobuz then you pay a subscription to Volumio to enable that feature and you join a subscription for the ones you want to use, you can then access them in Volumio. Also you can stream music from digital Radio stations from all over the world. If you want high sound quality the Tidal is the one I find is best with a large varied library.

I hope the above makes sense and helps.

[worrasf]

A dac with Bluetooth receiver is good for a phone or tablet. No need for a physical connection to kit the other side of the room.

+1

I use a Chordette Gem DAC which has both BT and USB inputs. I use the BT if streaming from iPhone and USB if from MacBook.
Superb SQ (review here: https://www.whathifi.com/chord-electronics/chordette-gem/review)

No longer in production but come up on eBay

[RDC7]

I have a raspberry pi 3b running MoOde audio operating system but their are others Volumio, Rune etc, it has a board called a hat attached to it, very simple just plugs on, the one i use is the Hi fi Berry Digi one Pro, this gives a coaxial spdif output, to feed a dac, this all in a small metal case, using a standard raspberry pi power supply or a 2 amp 5v phone charger, the whole thing comes in at a £100 or so, for a bit more you could fit a hat to raspberry pi, that is a complete dac with RCA outs to go to an amp Allo make several good ones. still well under £150, an ifi power supply for about £50 is an upgrade you could do later.

The MoOde operating system is headless so you control it from your phone or laptop / i pad that is connected to the same wireless network, MoOde is a Spotify client ( Premium acc needed ) has a no of internet radio stations streaming at high bit rates many 320 kps, you can connect a USB hard drive preferably self powered to a USB input on the pi with music files on WAV FLAC etc, and play them via MoOde, the way to go for the cash strapped but does require a little bit of technical ability . but basically a quality streamer for peanuts

Cheers Chris