Streamer recommendations

Does this not have built in streaming services? Does it have a digital input and on-board DAC. Either of those should do what you want. Otherwise adding an Apple TV would give you Apple Music at a low cost.

The 9000 can stream ā€˜TV’ etc but you need to see the screen to operate (in my case a 134" screen and PJ) and this is not workable and I have no clue how good the ā€˜streamer’ is, I want to keep the set up as two channel on one setting and film (9000 player) on another it also gives me the ability to see just how good the modded 9000 is and allows me to critically asses the upgrade gains by moving to a unit with digital out (Not a processor as this is only possible with a Ā£20k unit like Storm/Trinnov) and then you need DAC’s on top

I wont use a Processor ahead of my 9000 and naim set up as they are nowhere near as good

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The Blue Node is a waste of money. It is no better than the Wiim, but with a lousy app. If you go south of $/€ 1,000 the Wiim is the best choice.

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It seems your 9000 can also stream music via the Home Network and Network Media Playback or Media Renderer features, . You could do an experiment to quickly set up a UPnP server with a few CD rips on your local network and try the mConnect app to use as the DMC (Digital Music Controller per your Panasonic manual) and choose your P9000 as the renderer. If it works and you like it, you can also try Tidal as the mConnect source. Who knows, maybe you already have what you need?! Seems pretty cool…

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Actually I’d like to have USB digital out as well as SPDIF out as well as I have a few DAC’s in mind over time

Alan

Thanks I’ll have a read I’m not sure I have a UPnP server (MacBook Pro 2020) I am also not sure how the 9000 will send any streamed information as I have removed the OpAmps from the 2 channel power lines in the 9000 as Panasonic went to the trouble of removing the supply to the multichannel opamp rails when playing 2 channel and as I only use the player for film I adjusted this when fitting the linear power supply to power only what I wanted. But might run out of the L,R multichannel player as a CD does and the CD will also run out digitally

Well, I’m not sure how your mods would affect things, but as a first check to ensure network functionality, you could try streaming a Netflix show (it appears to have an app built in) and be sure the sound works for that as you’d like.

Here’s the manual page description for using your P9000 as a renderer (I had never heard of this and went looking haha):

You could just run the mConnect app on your phone (as in the lower image). It can apparently serve music from your iPhone as well as local servers and Tidal.

I’ve just downloaded it and tried it with my UPnP server to my Naim streamer, which works fine. I can’t figure out how to play files from my iPhone, because it only shows my Apple Music + files, and it can’t send them; I don’t see a way to select a different local storage directory.

There are many UPnP servers you can run on your Mac; Asset is popular, Universal Media Server is a free Open Source project that gets good reviews. Or you could start your free Tidal trial and see if that works.

The forum expert on setting up UPnP bridges to serve local and Tidal content is @simon.pepper so if you get to the point where basic functionality is working and you want an optimal small-server solution (eg with Roon and Roon Bridge) then he’s your guy.

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I bought one. great sound. great looks great app. returned it in 3 days as signal dropped every 5 min. I tried every troubleshoot under the sun. You don’t really want to have to disconnect every other wifi thing in the house just to listen to music

Mine hasn’t missed a beat in 2 years. A brilliant device for the price, it replaced my dac, media server and squeezebox.

cool. I did not try the dac in it. used digital out.

I use a TEAC NT-505X streamer in one system it’s very good and around your budget. But…

  • It doesn’t support external power supplies.
  • Local NAS streaming is hard coded to only recognize Minimserver. I don’t know why. It’s a documented restriction and sure enough in testing, it’s true.
  • No digital output so cannot be upgraded.

The TEAC app works fairly well.

In another system I use a Ifi Zen Stream. Worth noting some users really hate this device for lack of certain features promised and not delivered. I use it for web radio and local streaming and on those it is is flawless. And I use it with an McRU power supply that costs more than the streamer. It’s a transport only and you’d need a DAC but it would only take up a fraction of the budget. And it doesn’t need an app. It just uses a local web page to expose full control. It will accept 6v to 12v DC power. It’s caveats are:

  • Check the forums against the functionality you want. It might not have it.
  • The physical unit, while small, is an ugly design fail.

Ultimately the Ifi into a really good DAC will outperform the one box TEAC. I like both for different reasons. I run the Ifi into a Luxman DAC and it performs very well. So you can definitely hang on to it as you move from a low cost DAC to something more serious.

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We recently heard the Auralic S1 Aries streaming processor.

£2k with optional £1k power supply (new prices).

Fits the bill. Pop up used from time to time.

Has coax and USB outputs.

If you want a DAC there is the Vega (combined streamer/DAC) at same price.

For a DAC I would recommend looking at Chord Qutest - a search of the forum would pull up lots of info. I haven’t heard it myself but was very impressed by the original Hugo. And no need to boher messing about with power supplies and clocks (unless that is a hobby of yours). there are many possibilities for a streaming source, the Wiim Ultra getting good comments on here (it has built in DAC, but likely far beneath the Chord in sound quality - however maybe budget-wise start with WiiM using its DAC, and add Qutest later.) I assume you’re aware that the choice of DAC is critical to sound quality.

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Innuos pulse mini.. usb and spdif out and built in dac

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I’m sending Pulse back. It does a lot of things great but eventually I find my modified Lindemann Bridge II have better performance and synergy in my setup. Bridge II is crazy good value :+1:

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