Network Audio Players: CD’s, NAS, Streaming join forces!

Network Audio Players: CD’s, NAS, Streaming join forces!.

So you have a bookcase full of CDs, you have thousands of songs downloaded on your computer at home, maybe you have spent some time ripping the CDs to your PC and subsequently you have a music streaming subscription such as TIDAL, or Spotify.  Here is your dilemma, you don’t want to totally forget about your beautiful, collection of Compact Discs, or disregard your iTunes collection of songs. This recent problem gave birth to a new type of hi fi component: The Network Audio Player.

What’s in a name?

Generally speaking, a network audio player is a device that (depending on the model) lets you play tunes from:

1. your iTunes library or other types of music files stored on your computer, smartphone, or tablet
2. thousands of free Internet radio stations
3. a variety of online music subscription services that offer intriguing ways to discover and mix songs

With music streaming services being all the rage, and having thousands of files of music stored on your computer, a network audio player has the appearance of being the most straightforward option to spice up your hi fi system and to create order in the chaos that is your music library.

But just let’s be clear first: we’re not talking about the all-in-one solutions that have amplifiers and speakers built-in like the small room Sonos wireless music players. While these are perfect for background music in small rooms, they are not what we choose to discuss today.

Don’t confuse it with Network Media Players either like the ones that are built into TV’s, Blu-ray players and some AV receivers. You may well be able to use those to play music in your home theatre room. But they’re impractical in many listening locations. And the average user tends to find them difficult to operate in this context.

What started with portable music players or MP3 players and the convenience of converting and compressing CD music into music files morphed into the network music player. Thanks to a connection with the home router (often wireless) the network music player connects to the internet and enables access to Internet streaming resources like Spotify, TIDAL, etc. But also, the home network can access your collection of music on a computer or on a NAS device dedicated to store your music files as well as connect to thousands of internet radio stations.

Reading specs

What’s an NAS I hear you ask? NAS stands for Network-Attached Storage. It is a storage device connected to a network that allows authorized network users to store and retrieve data. It’s rapidly gaining in popularity because it is an effective, easy to operate and low-cost storage solution; it’s a bit like having your own private cloud in your office that gives you complete control.

While we are throwing fancy words around, now may be a good time to refresh your memory on Audio Formats like WAV, FLAC and DSD in our previous blog about Hi-Res Audio. You can find it here.

Wireless connectivity may or may not be important to you, when dabbling in the world of network audio players. Some product companies like network music player king-of-excellence Cambridge Audio recommend wiring for the most reliable performance, but most network audio players offer the possibility of going wireless. Here are the options:

The biggest difference between Spotify and popular streaming option Bluetooth is that it uses higher-quality Wi-Fi connectivity, which is less susceptible to dropouts, sounds better and has a much wider range. That said, where its competitors work with multiple cloud music services as well as local music files, Spotify Connect only works with Spotify.

Also, you will need a Spotify Premium subscription: Spotify Connect will not work with the company’s free tier of service.

And then you will be hit by the acronyms for Standards and Protocols for networking. This is the world of AV. ‘Simple’ is not part of the dictionary….

A good 10 years ago, ‘DLNA’ (or ‘Digital Living Network Alliance’-a group of organizations, including many electronics manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic) published networking guidelines (protocols) including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP).

UPnP allows networked devices, such as a personal computer, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly communicate and share data. Yamaha, Sony, Denon, Onkyo, Panasonic, Pioneer all join in on the UPnP AV fun.  In the ideal world it would mean that you can mix and match components from different brands and they would be able to communicate between them. That’s great, right!?

Not so fast… You read it well: ‘in the ideal world’. Reality is that neither one of these two protocols is getting a big user following because they are just not very user-friendly. The result is that AV users still find themselves locked into the brand’s own individual protocols (like Yamaha MusicCast and Sonos for instance).

The only promising multi-vendor network environment would be DTS Play-fi, as it seems to have been adopted by the likes of Anthem, Onkyo/Integra, Definitive Technology, Klipsch and future SVS products.  It also is one of the very few (if not the only) app that supports both Spotify as well as Tidal. DTS Play-Fi interface excels at taking a rudimentary native user interface of the network player to a really user friendly level.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds in the current jungle that is wireless connectivity.

Different models offer different options.

The Rapallo website offers a great range of network audio players; some have CD drives, some come with Wi-Fi, others don’t. Different products integrate with different streaming services and support different audio formats. Some offer multi-room audio.

So we thought we would give you a clear outline of our most popular network audio devices for different budgets, how they work, what they can do for you.

Possibly the most sold network audio player at Rapallo is the Pioneer N-50A. And this should come as no surprise considering the performance you get for the price. When it comes to the interface, the Pioneer is really basic.

The Onkyo C-N7050 combines a CD player and hi-res streamer in one box. No need to say that this is hugely appealing, especially for its budget price and lively, enjoyable performance. It also means you don’t have to rip your CD collection if you don’t want to.

The downside? There’s no Bluetooth or AirPlay to stream through, so third-party apps such as Spotify, Soundcloud and BBC iPlayer Radio – can be played only through wired means. There’s also no Wi-Fi, so you’ll have to plug the Onkyo to your home network using the ethernet port.

The good news is that it connects instantly, and recognizes all devices on the network without a hitch. DLNA support means the Onkyo streamer can play music stored on laptops, smart devices and NAS boxes, as long as they’re all connected to the same network.

A great no-nonsense option with proper Hifi-credentials but without the offering of whistles and bells is the Denon DNP-720AE Network Audio Player. All the necessary goods are there and what’s more: it’s a real smooth operator. No buts, no ifs, just that.

In the sweet-spot price bracket of $1,000 to $1,500 sit several good options with a wide variety of features ranging from products like the quality Marantz NA8005 to the multiroom (MusicCast) Yamaha R-N602.

The Elac Discovery is a great middle of the road option with a slightly different look than the other Network Audio Players (it’s actually surprisingly small). It is the network audio player in the Rapallo private home.  The entire family uses it for background music around the house (multi-room) without compromising on quality.

What makes this the dedicated music system of choice is the affordability, the easy set-up and the fact that it combines your TIDAL subscription with Roon, a tool for organising large, complex music libraries.

Handy as it may be, one of the things that has been lost with the arrival of music streaming is the artful experience of album covers, lyrics, artist photos that used to come with the purchase of an album. Roon makes an attempt to find an answer by taking their data from TIDAL and adding visually pleasing metadata, just like in the old days (lifetime Roon subscription included in the purchase! Hurray!).  Hence why they market their service as “the music player for music lovers.”: your music is transformed into a visually and audiophile pleasing format, with tons or more information and recommendations that enable you to engage with your music again. The reason why we like the Elac Discovery is because compared to the cheaper network audio players, the Elac Discovery absolute nails it when it comes to user-experience.

We are very aware that to many serious lover of music, streaming or downloading music is a worse crime than murder (Well… almost). For the music lover who wants to dabble into crossing boundaries without getting in neck-deep, T+A developed the T+A Music player, allowing for both conventional CDs and downloads—no matter the source. It’s a really well thought-out product with serious audiophile pretensions.

Here’s what T+A pulled from the menu and piled on the Music Player’s plate: CD player, iPod Dock (optional), FM tuner, built-in Web-radio streaming, computer and/or NAS drive networking, and a DAC. The device is completely balanced but no DSD support …

It’s fair to say that we can only share a few popular options when it comes to network audio players. There are many valid and justifiable choices and a lot depends on your expectations, requirements and budget.

Between the extremes of vinyl and a music streamer lies a world of possibility and despite of what your preference or opinion might be, it’s great as a consumer to have options.

If it’s all rather confusing; just give us a ring and we’ll help you sort out what’s right for you.

Sources: What Hifi, Crutchfield, Elac, Hifi-review, Stereophile, Cambridge Audio, T+A, Sony, Yamaha, Pioneer, Cnet.