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Topic: Receiver controlled by Andriod (Read 4150 times) previous topic - next topic
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Receiver controlled by Andriod

I have a fairly old setup now. Cambridge A500 amp, p500 amp (bi-amped speakers), DAB tuner, DAC magic (inputs DAB tuner, notebook and bluetooth receiver), mm cartridge amp, Creek headphone amp, bluetooth receiver takes Andriod phone output to DAC . All these could be replaced.

To be kept,  Mission floor standing speakers, Rega Planer 3 turntable and Sennheiser RS 180 headphones (at present plugged into Creek, plugged into A500).

Firstly my ears are very old so not looking to improve sound; say just similar what I have got.

Music mainly jazz and classical with a lot of the latter from Radio 3. Have 4000+ tracks (mainly FLAC) on micro sd card in phone and same on notebook (used less these days than phone; being digital same quality when hits DAC?).

A lot of listening now is via headphones, not in same room as hifi; Sennheiser Kleer works well for this. However phone to DAC magic, via bluetooth receiver, does not work from "headphone" room; Sennheiser phones do and very well, unlike Sennheiser direct into phone, ugh! The fact that the phone/tablet has to remain in the hifi room is the main failing of my present system.

Looking to be able to have a setup where I sit in "headphone" room and have my Andriod phone or tablet app controlling hifi so I can select either BBC radio app or my micro sd card and all other receiver controls. A receiver remote is no good because it has no screen and probably would not work in the headphone room either; I could not see the list of programmes available or select to track/album on the sd card.

I see that there are now receivers with memory stick USB input, DAC and wifi built in (WAPs/homehubs so whole house has good wifi so could hard wire receiver to router) and even bi- amping.

I have no use for a tv; if I want that I join my wife in her cinema room. Have been thinking of something like Spotify but I rarely buy much these days. Perhaps the odd CD or mp3 download.

Budget say <£500

I guess the phone/tablet app will drive the choice as much as the receiver facilities?

Any advice please?

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #1 –
£500 is enough for a decent modern AVR that allows network control (via app on the phone) plus DLNA and USB capabilities (i'm thinking denon 1300 or 2300 or their older iterations, but there's a good competition in this area from other brands).
you can host your music via some kind of DLNA server application (there are many to choose from) either on a phone, a computer, or some kind of media streamer (even something as tiny and cheap like raspberry pi will do fine), then use an app on the phone (i use bubble upnp) to command to play those hosted files on devices that can act as DLNA renderers, for example your new hypothetical AVR or the phone itself.
you've mentioned some unexplained aversion against sticking your headphones directly into the phone, so you better elaborate why, because  to me it looks like the best option to be mobile around your home with your music,.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #2 –
Chromecast audio is $35, does not require a TV, and is fairly well supported by Android apps. 

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #3 –
Thank you the the replies so far.

As I was typing my post I was "A B ing" the headphones connected to the hifi and direct to the phone;  sound quality not good. That's what I meant by ugh.

Had another thought. The bluetooth receiver is toslinked to the DAC. Maybe I could use a longer toslink cable and get the bluetooth receiver to where I can get useable/reliable connection between it and phone from "headphone" room. If so my main problem will be solved.

But I will still look at any suggestions; better half would like to see less boxes "cluttering" up the lounge.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #4 –
Chromecast audio

We do have a tv in lounge. The only times I use it is to play my model railway videos, that are on my phone, via an HDMI chromecast dongle.

So a chromecast audio dongle, toslinked to my DAC, maybe the answer.

If so, then to figure out how to remove boxes from lounge, leaving only speakers and their wiring; she would be pleased. She once saw speakers embeded in walls;  why can't we have those? She said.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #5 –
Quote from: athegn on

I guess the phone/tablet app will drive the choice as much as the receiver facilities?


AFAIK in 2017  a mainstream audio manufacturer (Yamaha, Sony, Pioneer, Denon, etc.) won't bring a non-budget full function AVR to market without iPhone and Android support. 

If the AVR design already  has a IR  remote control facility, all they need to do is add  some software, as the LAN support and audio/video remote control hardware  functions are already present. 

If the device lacks Android support but does have a remote control, there are general-purpose Android apps that come with prebuilt programming for most common modern audio products.

Many smart phones have IR emitters and the remote control software to drive it. My Samsung S5 for example.

Failing that,  there are products like Anymote that add an Android-accessible (Bluetooth, IR,  LAN) transponder with its own "IR Blaster".

It is an embarrassment of riches!

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #6 –
Quote from: athegn on
Music mainly jazz and classical with a lot of the latter from Radio 3. Have 4000+ tracks (mainly FLAC) on micro sd card in phone and same on notebook (used less these days than phone; being digital same quality when hits DAC?).

A lot of listening now is via headphones, not in same room as hifi; Sennheiser Kleer works well for this. However phone to DAC magic, via bluetooth receiver, does not work from "headphone" room; Sennheiser phones do and very well, unlike Sennheiser direct into phone, ugh! The fact that the phone/tablet has to remain in the hifi room is the main failing of my present system.
So the issue is wireless connectivity to hifi room in headphone room?
Radio 3 is via DAB rather than streaming? How does the DAB connect to DAC?
I'm wondering why the notebook can't be used as centerpiece in headphone room, unless you don't have wifi or streaming quality is poor vs OTA
Loudspeaker manufacturer

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #7 –
The digital inputs on my DAC are toslink or "S/P DIF co-axial – to obtain best results, use a high quality 75 ohm digital RCA interconnect cable
(not one designed for normal audio use)."

I see that only the Google store sells a conversion cable from 3.5mm to toslink:-

 https://store.google.com/product/optical_cable_chromecast_audio

at least in UK where I am.

Can I purchase a 3.5mm to S/P DIF co-axial convertor cable?

Any advice pleas?

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #8 –
Is this the same as the £15 cable from Google:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FosPower®-Plated-Toslink-Digital-Optical/dp/B00T8HWUVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502026675&sr=8-1&keywords=FosPower+%283+Feet%29+24K+Gold+Plated+Toslink+to+Mini+Toslink+Digital+Optical+S%2FPDIF+Audio+Cable+with+Metal+Connectors+%26+Strain-Relief+PVC+Jacket

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #9 –
"Can I purchase a 3.5mm to S/P DIF co-axial convertor cable?"

I can now see I don't need this as I want yo use my own DAC; not the audio this input needs.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #10 –
I keep pressing the wrong button to reply. Trying to sum up several failed posts; my apologies

Yes the main problem is bluetooth connectivity between my S5 and DAC. Google chromecast audio woud solve .

I do not say which is "headphone"room as the Sennheiser works in many. If I get the Chromecast I have my S5 connecting to my DAC from anywhere in thd house; all rooms have wifi.

Does this clear up matters?

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #11 –
"Radio 3 is via DAB rather than streaming? How does the DAB connect to DAC?"

If chromecast works I would only use my S5 phone for both radio (BBC app) and mp3 etc, stored on its 128GB micro SD card. Or anything else I can get on the phone e.g. Spotify
 

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #12 –
Update

Found a local store open today. Bought the Google ChromecastAudio dongle.

Got it working, but only into my Anker portable speaker, from any room in house using my S5. Have ordered the cable from Amazon Prime so should be here tomorrow.

Will report back on how it works with my DAC.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #13 –
The FosPower toslink cable now arrived. Installed and tested. Chromecast working from any wifi area to S5; in affect anywhere is house, garden and outbuilding.

I will probably only use my phone now for radio (BBC App; BBC seems to cover all I want), micro SD card for ripped/download music. May use something like Spotify, Amazon etc for downloads; have Amazon Prime but last download I wanted was not there - only CD, so bought that and ripped to FLAC.

Notebook maybe retired; fairly old anyway and I have a surplus of desktop PCs.

Now to find a music player, I like, that will also cast. Poweramp is the one I use on my phone but the developer has not yet added casting although he said he will. Trying a number. LocalCast seems the simplest, so far, but does not do genre.

Thank you for all the advice and especially Saratoga for the Chromecast suggestion.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #14 –
Quote from: athegn on
Looking to be able to have a setup where I sit in "headphone" room and have my Andriod phone or tablet app controlling hifi so I can select either BBC radio app or my micro sd card and all other receiver controls. A receiver remote is no good because it has no screen and probably would not work in the headphone room either; I could not see the list of programmes available or select to track/album on the sd card.
Hi athegn.

I'm running a Denon X2000 for a few years now und use D+M's App for remote controlling the X2000.
Mind you, I have to use an older version (v1.1.4), because my AVR is in a different subnet than my Android phone and they broke support for that in v1.1.5 and v1.1.6

Additionally, I use foobar2000 and its UPnP/DLNA plugin so that I can easily access my fb2k library and playlists for playback on my X2000.

Last, but not least, I use foobar2000 controller to remotely control my fb2k, eg. for adding queries to a new playlist, that I can access from my X2000.

Cheers,
Maggi

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #15 –
For android I use gonemad music player - this also supports casting to a Chromecast.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #16 –
Thank you for the Gonemad recommendation.

Now installed and working. Now to learn how to use its many options!!

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #17 –
Tried something else. Used Google > Home > devices > cast to Chromecast Audio. Disconnect when not needed. Advantage is that any audio on my S5 is cast to the dongle. So using Gonemad, Poweramp, BBC radio player in normal mode i.e. not casting as Home facility casts any audio phone is playing. Greater choice.

Re: Receiver controlled by Andriod

Reply #18 –
Another tip: Plex for hosting your FLACs. It's a great media server that also supports chromecast. Lossless streaming to your chromecast, it's a pretty sweet deal.