Anyone retrofit your "old school stereo" with a bluetooth adapter?
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I have 30 year old Onkyo receiver and nice pair of JBL's that are about the same age collecting dust, so figured I might get one of those bluetooth adapters so as I can play tracks from via my android device.
I know about Google Chromecast Audio, but have heard it doesn't support gapless playback.
Curious if anyone has any luck with a particular bluetooth adapter you'd recommend that supports gapless playback of tracks residing on a shared network device (i..e USB thumbdrive or Hardrive attached to router)?
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: andy
I hooked a laptop up using an
I hooked a laptop up using an external DAC. Sounds great. I can stream everything. Spotify works great. Reslisten, even set on gapless, isn't gapless.
https://www.amazon.com/Signstek-Coaxial-Converter-Convert-Analogue/dp/B0...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: thinthread
I had no idea you could do
I had no idea you could do that. It would solve my issue
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: ________
does the receiver have rca
does the receiver have rca jacks
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_532BTA10/Harman-Kardon-BTA-10.html?tp=2051...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Highnote
Yes. I use an Amped BTSA1.
Yes. I use an Amped BTSA1.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 19.5 Degrees
does the receiver have rca
does the receiver have rca jacks
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_532BTA10/Harman-Kardon-BTA-10.html?tp=2051...<<<
Thanks, yes it does have rca jacks ... do you have one yourself?
Looks like that's where they start price wise on Crutchfield:
https://www.crutchfield.com/g_15260/Wireless-Adapters.html?tp=2051&pg=1
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: ________
you're welcome
you're welcome
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: An organ grinder’s tune
does it compress the file via
does it compress the file via bluetooth, rendering it a mp3?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
Ya it does I am not sure what
Ya it does I am not sure what the specs are but generally it's a poor way to go. I would guess there are multiple re-encodes going on when going over bt. There might be some apps out there that let you max out the bt bandwidth but either way it cant support say streaming a flac file. Best low cost option is using a rca to 1/8" adapter and use an old iphone, pc or droid unit as a player. External dac's are super nice too but not worth the $$ (300-3000) unless you already have system that will even allow you to hear the difference however once you do you will scoff at 44.1khz crap forever and then your wife will leave you because of the ever growing mountain of vintage speakers, parts and amps. That's not even mentioning the hunt for HQ stuff I just got done downloading the 30 Trips thing in 24/96 it took 2 months! There are some nice older onky's out there though depending on the model. You can also find nice free flac players for droid or iphone and I'm pretty sure the stock google play music app on droid plays them to.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: jazfish
William and Mary Won't Do...
William and Mary Won't Do...
This thread has made my brain fixate on that Steely Dan song for a few days now.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Fly
Almost same situation as OP
Almost same situation as OP 'cept Boston Acoustics. Good gear, still jams and I have been thinking about this. Thanks for thread. I personally tend to agree with Woobs. I decided to keep an analog system and am shopping for something for the smart TV. Just too much encoding, decoding, the further you get from the source seems no bueno.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: bweir I like cheese
I bought one of these analog
I bought one of these analog to digital converters and it did not work for what I was trying to do. If you want it shot me an email and I will send it to you.
it is this product
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F4ORTZ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
Fly, you can still use old
Fly, you can still use old gear with new digi stuff. For example my main music rig is older pre harmon infinity's with a massive carver 2 channel amp. I also have a newer avr with pre-outs for all 8 channels my L+R main pre outs go to the carver while the avr powers everything else. This allows my firetv box and macbook to feed via optical the avr and the much nicer carver amp to power the mains which would fry the avr as they dip to 2ohms often. The dac in the avr only works to 96khz but honestly unless your mixing or something it really is pretty hard to tell once your already in that range. It will also do all the dolby and dts decoding so I can control everything with one box.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 19.5 Degrees
Ya it does I am not sure what
Ya it does I am not sure what the specs are but generally it's a poor way to go. I would guess there are multiple re-encodes going on when going over bt. There might be some apps out there that let you max out the bt bandwidth but either way it cant support say streaming a flac file. <<<
Thanks for the general insight.
Forgetting lack of support for gapless playback for a minute, would it be a step up in quality to use Google Chromecast Audio in so far as the data being transferred over a wifi signal vs bluetooth? ... assuming adapter itself isn't too heavy handed re: encoding at the final transition to analog?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
From the looks of it the
From the looks of it the google box the thing does 24/96 which is really good light years better than bt. I am not to familiar with the Google thing but it also seems it only works with a few certain apps so you may want to check and see if your files are compatible with them. If I can ask why the need for wireless at all and also what would your main source of input on the android device be flac, mp3, streaming etc I am guessing its a phone or tablet type thing?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 19.5 Degrees
From the looks of it the
From the looks of it the google box the thing does 24/96 which is really good light years better than bt. I am not to familiar with the Google thing but it also seems it only works with a few certain apps so you may want to check and see if your files are compatible with them. If I can ask why the need for wireless at all and also what would your main source of input on the android device be flac, mp3, streaming etc I am guessing its a phone or tablet type thing?<<<
I suppose there's not a need in the absolute sense of the word, but it'd be very convenient ... moved my old stereo into my bedroom and would be nice to use a mobile device as a "remote control" without having to get up if I'm in bed. Also looking to setup a second adapter on my PA that's in the living room ... use this for listening to music and also to be able to play tracks while practicing guitar / keys. Ideally, I'd like to have a centralized repository of music tracks stored on a network storage device attached to my router.
Currently can't stream directly from the internet very much, since I'm on satellite ISP and have a data quota, but hopefully that will change this summer when our little town embarks upon installing broadband. So, in the meanwhile, I mostly have mp3's ... so it's not as if I've been used to audiophile level quality anyway, but by the same token I'm not looking to make matters worse than they already are.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
19.5, If this is the case the
19.5, If this is the case the google dohicky should work out perfect and most probably will exceed the sound quality playback abilities of mp3's for sure as well as anything cd quality. And the google music app on droid does do flac files so your in luck there.
Ideally, I'd like to have a centralized repository of music tracks stored on a network storage device attached to my router.
Ahh me too! I have tried a few setups for that but kept running into stuttering issues and just couldn't seem to get a fast enough speed from my hard drives to my devices. That was just on reg 16/44.1 flac files not even the high res stuff although mp3's should breeze though just about any connection. There are so called "network drives" that plug in via ethernet or wifi but keep in mind these are pretty limited and mostly for video streaming to your tv and you would have to have a player at the other end as well to receive and send the audio to your receiver. I have tried plex, kodi and a few other in attempts to set up my own server in home but again just kept getting bottlenecks somewhere in the loop perhaps my old mac? For me I have found the best way overall is to use my mac as a player which can be hooked up to various external drives then patch that to my receiver via a fiber cable. But I think you will be more than happy with the google thing for what your doing nor will it re-encode anything along the way. If you have an extra droid device you can just put a big mem card in it and dedicate it as your "new remote" besides who doesn't have a phone or 2 lying around. trust me when your using your current phone for playing music its gets annoying having the thing beep all the time.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 19.5 Degrees
Thanks for the detailed reply
Thanks for the detailed reply woobs. You've almost got me convinced to give Google Chromecast Audio a try, but the lack of support for gapless playback is very close to being a deal breaker ... for reasons I'm sure we all understand around these parts! But it might be worth the tradeoff of not having eveything sound like it's coming out of a tin can. Haven't done the research yet to see if the higher end bluetooth adapters are significantly better in terms of encoding issues, but know that I'm not looking to spend over $100 on such an item.
Yeah, I understand about mechanical hard drives being slow / lagging. Have you tried using a SSD or USB thumb drive as a the NSD? I finally bought a new router after having a Time Capsule for about 8 years, and made sure my new router had a USB 3.0 port ... seems a good number of modern routers have one or multiple USB ports. Yeah, that's a good idea re: old phone ... didn't stop to think it'd beep from other crap going on.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
Ya it did not seem to be the
Ya it did not seem to be the drive itself more like bottleneck in the computer somewhere that I was serving from. Best I was getting on my wifi was around 2MB/s plenty for mp3 but not enough for flac although my wifi theoretical speed is usually somewhere around 7MB. Im sure I was doing something wrong or just have a shitty interconnects in the mac. And one last suggestion for now you can get a long ass cable and just go direct droid to onkyo and leave it close to your bed 15 bucks spent and you can get gapless outa the droid flac players. The poor mans remote. But I would love to hear a review if you get that google thing. And I think the google thing is less than 50? If thats the case screw the bluetooth altogether.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
A good read if your
A good read if your considering supposed lossless bt notice the google thing will work with files 2x the qual of cd's
http://www.sereneaudio.com/blog/how-good-is-bluetooth-audio-at-its-best
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 19.5 Degrees
That's an interesting article
That's an interesting article, especially the "experiment" and samples. At $40, I think it might be worth giving Google Chromecast a try (even in light of no gapless) ... will post review if I do get it.
Yeah, I know the cord is the best sure fire way to go and have always been one to run them all over the place, and do have a long ass one, but finally decided to try and abandon the clutter. I have so many cords running from my guitar rig / PA in my living room, that I built a custom housing for my mixers and conduit for cords to better organize the giant spaghetti mess that's been plaguing me for years. So, trying to strike while the iron's hot re: some sort of wireless.
How old is your router / what's it's speed rating?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: ________
i downloaded 30 trips 96 in
i downloaded 30 trips 96 in less than a hr
jriver >dac > usb > receiver
it's not that hard
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
i downloaded 30 trips 96 in
i downloaded 30 trips 96 in less than a hr
Well it must be nice to be on fiber out here on dsl 88GB takes a looooong time..Not to mention having 88GB of free space. Whats your speed it must be incredible?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Chavo
How old is your router / what
How old is your router / what's it's speed rating?
Ha ancient. Its an older netgear but I am keeping it for now as it allows me to funnel all my traffic over a vpn. I hope to be doing an upgrade to my computing setup this spring and maybe then I will try a faster router. The ones I need are kinda pricey.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sycamore Slough
Not 'Bluetooth' but I have
Not 'Bluetooth' but I have an old AM / FM radio in a 3/4 ton pickup truck; door speakers were replaced by original owner. No CD or even cassette deck.
However, I can stream FLAC, WAV, or AIFF formats from an Android fone using a cheap FM transmitter. Mini jack plugs into fone and you select an unoccupied FM station on both car radio and FM transmitter.
It works with a home stereo as well. Of course you need a 'receiver' or 'FM tuner'.
The particular transmitter I have gets DC current from the truck lighter socket; so you would need to rig something for home use (old 12V DC 'wall-wart' and some tape, or solder).
So, a low-tech solution, but only ten bucks. If you have 5 different FM radios throughout the house, they will all pick up the signal within XX distance.