What should I buy/do to be able to stream/listen to Hi Res to my Yamaha RN803 integrated amp.

[Avinash Pai]

Hello,

I have a Yamaha RN 803 integrated amp and KEF Q700 floor standing speakers. I listen to music - FLACs, ALACs streamed through Apple music on my MacBook/iPhone/iPad, or TIDAL through the Yamaha music cast app. I am able to stream CD-quality audio wirelessly. The Tidal app on Musiccast can't do MQA. I cant stream hi res through Airplay 1 which is what the RN803 has. My questions are:

1. Is there something by which I can stream hi-res music to the amp? I have a Google Chromecast audio but there too the streaming rates are not full hi res.

2. Which is the best way of getting hi res wired music out of my mac/iPhone/iPad - What connecting wires/cables would I need to connect what input to what output. Say I am playing a hi-res FLAC or DSD on my mac. What specific connector should I use to connect the mac to the amp? I have tried the 3.5mm headphone out of the mac to the CD in on the amp. The music quality did not seem satisfying enough with that. Which way of taking music out of the Mac and into the amp would provide the best fidelity to the music?

3. I was looking at budget portable hi-res music players including the sony walkman, Shanling Q1, Activo, etc. Can I connect these to the amp with a 3.5mm headphone out to CD resulting in better sound than through the mac?

Thanks in advance.

Mods please delete if not in the appropriate section.

Thanks,
Avinash

 

[chander]

Hi,

I am not the best person to guide you on this - however -

1 - You can buy a streamer - something like Bluesound Node2i or whatever else your budget permits, they should allow you to have the hi-res audio played directly on your amp - a simple RCA to RCA. From the website -

Supported File Formats = MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS​

Hi-Res formats - FLAC, MQA, WAV, AIFF​

Native Sampling Rates = 32 - 192 kHz​

Bit Depths = 16 - 24​

2 - I would say streamer again - as that should allow you to use all your apple devices as remotes over wifi (not airplay 2) to guide the streamer to play whatever you want - the devices work as a remote rather than a cast - all streaming happens directly within the streamer. For the FLAC/DSD you can dump it all on an ssd/thumb drive and plug it directly to the streamer and play using the streamer's app. For Node 2i I need a windows formatted harddrive, but other streamers might support an apple drive.
- the other option is a network drive that some streamers support.

3 - Some portable devices will work too. Most of them will be limited with 3.5mm jack which will always be an issue however some like the FiiO M11 can support SPDIF out, if your amp supports that.

Wait for the others to chime in and see what they suggest.

 

[Avinash Pai]

Hi,

I am not the best person to guide you on this - however -

1 - You can buy a streamer - something like Bluesound Node2i or whatever else your budget permits, they should allow you to have the hi-res audio played directly on your amp - a simple RCA to RCA. From the website -

Supported File Formats = MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS​

Hi-Res formats - FLAC, MQA, WAV, AIFF​

Native Sampling Rates = 32 - 192 kHz​

Bit Depths = 16 - 24​

2 - I would say streamer again - as that should allow you to use all your apple devices as remotes over wifi (not airplay 2) to guide the streamer to play whatever you want - the devices work as a remote rather than a cast - all streaming happens directly within the streamer. For the FLAC/DSD you can dump it all on an ssd/thumb drive and plug it directly to the streamer and play using the streamer's app. For Node 2i I need a windows formatted harddrive, but other streamers might support an apple drive.
- the other option is a network drive that some streamers support.

3 - Some portable devices will work too. Most of them will be limited with 3.5mm jack which will always be an issue however some like the FiiO M11 can support SPDIF out, if your amp supports that.

Wait for the others to chime in and see what they suggest.

Thanks for your inputs.

 

[Pancho]

Hello,

I have a Yamaha RN 803 integrated amp and KEF Q700 floor standing speakers. I listen to music - FLACs, ALACs streamed through Apple music on my MacBook/iPhone/iPad, or TIDAL through the Yamaha music cast app. I am able to stream CD-quality audio wirelessly. The Tidal app on Musiccast can't do MQA. I cant stream hi res through Airplay 1 which is what the RN803 has. My questions are:

1. Is there something by which I can stream hi-res music to the amp? I have a Google Chromecast audio but there too the streaming rates are not full hi res.

2. Which is the best way of getting hi res wired music out of my mac/iPhone/iPad - What connecting wires/cables would I need to connect what input to what output. Say I am playing a hi-res FLAC or DSD on my mac. What specific connector should I use to connect the mac to the amp? I have tried the 3.5mm headphone out of the mac to the CD in on the amp. The music quality did not seem satisfying enough with that. Which way of taking music out of the Mac and into the amp would provide the best fidelity to the music?

3. I was looking at budget portable hi-res music players including the sony walkman, Shanling Q1, Activo, etc. Can I connect these to the amp with a 3.5mm headphone out to CD resulting in better sound than through the mac?

Thanks in advance.

Mods please delete if not in the appropriate section.

Thanks,
Avinash

conisder a dedicated streamer .....go through cambridge / auarlic .....the list is huge!