TV monitor analog input/outputs

[admin]

Youtube is now the sound signal is at 192KHz all the time.

Not sure what the audio streams are exactly but I know that youtube is using a lossy audio codec. Max bitrate on "Youtube Music" service is 320 kbps lossy. I thought I read that youtube (video) is 192 kbps lossy audio, but I could be wrong or it may have been old.

Now even lossy low bitrate audio can sound good. As good as lossless CD (or even higher resolutions),... that is another question all together?

[roberto]

Ok, then try medici.tv Here you will find a good quality concerts.

Happy listening!

[admin]

Ok, then try medici.tv Here you will find a good quality concerts.

Happy listening!

Wow, that is actually really cool for somebody who enjoys live classical music (and other). I'm surprised I was not aware of this service. Thanks for the link.

For those interested, here is their page on the codecs used: https://medicitv.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/a ... -streamed-

[roberto]

Hola Chicos,

Admin, did you have the chance to try Medici.tv? The sound quality is OK, but some videos are really bad, specially with jazz music. But overall, it is not too bad. Youtube had improved a lot the picture quality and also the sound quality. I don't know if this improvement is due when you are subscribed without propaganda adds.

Happy listening!

[AnotherJohnson]

Just to get my feet wet, I picked up one of these.

https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/av- ... pEQAvD_BwE

You can see they’re not expensive, and there is the possibility of further discounts, although these do not have much of a margin, so discounts aren’t going to be very large.

I figure at this price point I can see what I think about the idea of simple center channel, sub, back speakers, etc.

I’ve got a pair of PSB Alphas on stands, a pair of Sonus Faber Liuto Monitors on stands, a Sonus Faber Solo center, and a Martin Logan BF210 all sitting around in disuse. Might as well gather them in one place.

The spare room is relatively small at 11.5’x14’. The 5 x 75 wpc power level should be enough for the experiment.

The TV is a recent 65” Sony Bravia(?).

As I’ve said before, the losses associated with buying stuff like this are the tuition you pay to learn about stuff first hand. This 5 channel + sub receiver won’t owe me anything when it’s done.

[admin]

@AJ
Looks good, I think it will be a good solution to handle the audio and video content. It's actually amazing how much tech they can fit into such a reasonably priced unit. Looks like it can serve a lot of streaming services, handle all video needs, etc. Even comes with self-calibration mic. Let us know what you think when you have it all set up.

@Roberto
I was looking at it but haven't signed up. It's been a little crazy busy recently so I have not had too much TV time. If I am watching TV it's usually with the wife so I have to take that into consideration. Music is really "my time." I'm going to keep this bookmarked.

[AnotherJohnson]

@AJ
Looks good, I think it will be a good solution to handle the audio and video content. It's actually amazing how much tech they can fit into such a reasonably priced unit. Looks like it can serve a lot of streaming services, handle all video needs, etc. Even comes with self-calibration mic. Let us know what you think when you have it all set up.

Thinking about it, the speakers and TV have a total value of about $4500 used. So the receiver is about 10% at new.

This is may be like buying Duplos to learn how to use Legos.

[admin]

Should be a good start. It's amazing how much technology they put into receivers these days at such a low cost. They can sound very good as well. Audiophiles tend to lift their noses at these units but they can sound mighty fine with the right setup.

[AnotherJohnson]

I will have to address the internet service at the Boro house to be sure it is stout enough. The 11.5’x14’ room where I’m doing the HT experiment is at the southwest corner of the old structure. The ARC based high fidelity system is on the east side of the new structure, near the north corner. So I will need to revisit where the hard wired router is located, and probably its coverage too. This is a pretty good sized sprawling layout on one level. I should have probably hard wired the whole new structure for data, but last year was a tough year to get any construction work done, and I’m lucky to have it finished even without a hard LAN.

As a temporary measure just to get some signal to the location of the ARC system, I stuck a booster at the entrance to the addition yesterday.

Tonight I decided to see if there was enough WiFi strength to run the HEOS app on the Marantz ND8006. I’ve been using the ND8006 as a lower gain CD player for late night listening on the ARC system.

The WiFi is strong enough. And surprise of all surprises, I remembered my password, so …

At the moment I am listening to ABC Jazz out of Australia on the ND8006 TuneIn internet radio.

I’ve downloaded the manual for the AVRS660H and have read a bit. It is HEOS capable too, but it also uses a free Denon app that appears to be video based.

An upshot of this evening’s resurrection of the ND8006/HEOS package is that I can now play CDs on the ND8006 and listen in the central area of the old structure on the Denon Home 350 located there (Dining Room, Kitchen, Living Room area).

All in all, this seems like progress.

[admin]

Let us know how it goes. If wifi range is an issue. You can try to put your wifi in "n" mode instead of "ac". Even though it's an earlier spec, the range is better. You can also get wifi extenders for under $30 that you just plug into an outlet. They are not good for gaming as it increases latency a bit, but it's perfectly fine for streaming music/video or web browsing.

[AnotherJohnson]

Let us know how it goes. If wifi range is an issue. You can try to put your wifi in "n" mode instead of "ac". Even though it's an earlier spec, the range is better. You can also get wifi extenders for under $30 that you just plug into an outlet. They are not good for gaming as it increases latency a bit, but it's perfectly fine for streaming music/video or web browsing.

Extender … I guess I called it a booster above. That’s what allowed the ND8006 to stream so far from the router.

I’ve read that you lose bandwidth with every one you install.

There is also a data over power type extender that runs over the house wiring, but it looks to me like it only works over the one circuit … the one the head unit is on.

[admin]

There are some differences in terminology. This article goes into better detail so I won't write about it here: https://www.waveform.com/pages/wifi-boo ... ifferences

As for the data throughput, it does go down a little with all these devices. However, the distance, interference, etc... are going to be bigger factors from a practical standpoint. However, typical audio and video streams are relatively low bandwidth requirements (for example, even HD streaming video will typically need less than 15 mbps). I don't know how fast your internet speed is, but I have 250 mpbs where I live and 80.211n "actual speed" is probably around 100 mpbs (theoretical is around 600 mbps). In other words, you should have a lot of overhead even with using wifi extending methods. This is even more true for audio streaming which is a small fraction of the bandwidth of video.

In conclusion, if you get at least a moderately strong signal from you end device, you should be fine regardless of how you are extending your wifi network.

[AnotherJohnson]

What I’m thinking would be best here would be two centrally located routers, one in the old structure and one in the new.

It’s all on one sprawling level. Not counting the garages, there’s about 3500 ft2, and the proposed HT room and high Fi room are nearly on the diagonal.

The common wall that separates the old from the new is brick, making it more difficult to extend coverage.

It can be done. It should have been done as part of the construction. But I can’t fix that now. I made the conscious decision to ignore it at that point, hedging my bets.

[AnotherJohnson]

They claim we’re getting 300 mbps, but as you point out, the practical delivery speed is likely lower.

I was pleased that the extender worked well enough to bring streaming to life on the ND8006. I bought that to use in the other Boro house, but when we moved to the new one, it was set aside. I’m going to stick my Denon three head cassette deck in the ARC system, and call it “the main system,” at least for everything but vinyl. Best vinyl playback is still in the CJ system.

[admin]

I actually use this in my house: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0195 ... UTF8&psc=1

My home theater room is at the far end of the house on a different level so the signal travels through 4-5 walls plus a floor before it gets to the destination. The extender works great and I can stream not just music but HD video without any problem. I like the above unit as it is simple to set up, cheap, and easy to move around to optimize the signal strength.

[AnotherJohnson]

That looks like what I bought last year and am using. Similar specs and price.

[admin]

My philosophy is if it works, don't fix it. If you are worried about speed, you can just take your phone, stand approximately where your furthest device is located and run a speed test. It's a ballpark estimate but will give you the approximate speed and latency numbers.

[AnotherJohnson]

Is there an app for that?

Also … the extenders I have are BrosTrend badged. That name doesn’t seem common at this point. But they are still available.

Edit: I see there are lots of apps for that.

[AnotherJohnson]

I’m not so worried about speed as quality.

The BrosTrend_EXT does “work” for HEOS acquired internet radio, but that seems to be no real test since internet radio quality is so variable.

I may have to subscribe to a service to find out how well it works.

[admin]

Yes, there is an app. Although I have to admit that this is a very basic model. But it's cheap and works. Haven't had any issues in probably a year of use thus far.

I probably would not worry about it having any affect on quality. Audio via internet is going to be sent in distinct packets and then buffered. So it's not like when we bitstream audio from a transport to a DAC where you worry about timing issues. Many seconds (if not minutes) are already going to be downloaded and stored in memory before it is actually sent to decoding by the CPU. It's like if you download a song and then play it the next day or next minute... doesn't really matter. It's all stored locally as data before decoding.