1st time poster needs help choosing speakers for a future record listening and digital streaming via iTunes.

FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
Hello Everyone. Being a longtime record collector I've reached the point in my life that I'd like to get an actual turntable setup going. Something compact for the time being but down the road i'd like to have something multi-room. Nothing multifloor or anything extravagant like that but just maybe some speakers in my office,kitchen and living room. Basically the entire downstairs as it's all an open layout anyways. In addition to a vinyl setup i'd like to also incorporate digital streaming into this system as well being that's my main source of music listening these days. I'd want everything to stream from itunes(not apple music) as I have a vast library of music I ripped from CD's as well as a lot of music I've downloaded along the ways. Spotify pro or anything of that nature doesn't interest me as there music selection is very limited in my humble opinion. That, and I'm happy with the iTunes interface and have everything over the years organized the way I want it. Any suggestions on gear to look into would be greatly appreciated. As far as Turntables go I think i'm going to go with either a Rega6 or the new technics 1500c. I want to kind of start small basic office setup and overtime branch out into the living room and kitchen(downstairs is only 3 rooms) Basically first pieces of equipment I want to get is the turntable,amplifier,and speakers that I can use for the turntable and stream iTunes from my computer/iphone. I'm guessing I'm going to need some sort of streaming device to get the full benefit of decent streaming quality over my wifi network. The speakers i've been looking at are a pair of midsize audioengines,kef, or klipsch. I've also been toying with the idea of getting the kef LSX speakers as they'd have all the streaming capabilities i'd need built in and from what i've read they are good at improving the audio of bad quality source material which I have a lot of! Any advice or input is extremly welcome. Please help me!
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
You've been collecting vinyl without a player? Weird. I'd give up on the vinyl for the multi room thing in any case. What's the point?
 
FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
Yea I guess it's weird. Once I stopped collecting cd's I wanted to continue having physical copies of music I really liked. The original intention was to buy a record player sooner than later but that never happened. The multi room thing is def more towards the streaming aspect of the setup. Ideally I'd have the main hub in the office with the receiver/streaming device/record player and just have speakers sprinkled in the other 2 rooms.
 
tmurnin

tmurnin

Full Audioholic
I’m a little confused about the multi room setup. It sounds like you are looking for a wireless multi-room system? That puts you in the Sonos/Blusound/HEOS world of proprietary active speakers (unless you are ok with an amp in each room as well?). Since you want to utilize iTunes, but not Apple Music, I think you’d have to essentially tell whatever system you choose to use your iTunes library as a NAS. The only problem with that is that you would have to always make sure your computer is on whenever you wanted to listen to music. Not sure what you have that isn’t available on Apple Music or a similar streaming service, but those tend to be easier to integrate to Sonos or like systems.

The Rega P6 is a very nice table but kind of pricey if it’s your first TT and you aren’t 100% sure about the format. Might think about starting with a P3 and a nice cartridge like an Ortofon Bronze, which would be a good setup. You’ll need a phono stage as well, depending on the amp you buy.
 
FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
tmurnin, yea I'm kind of still in the stage of figuring out exactly what I want to do and what my limitations will be along the way. I do know that I don't want to go the proprietary speakers route via Sonos. I don't know much about bluesound or HEOS, I should probably research those two systems as well. Despite not even liking Sonos I know they are not even airplay compatible which I believe would be my best bet at streaming music from my computer or phone via iTunes. To the best of my knowledge steaming via airplay from iTunes wouldn't be a problem if the wifi streamer I am using is airplay compatible. If I'm wrong about that though please correct me lol. I guess in a nutshell my intentions are to have my office be my main hub which will have TT,amp,speakers and to have something like the KEF LSX speakers in the den which would be able to either stream or wirelessly connect to my receiver for wireless vinyl streaming. Would that be possible? Yea I've been considering the Rega 3 as well but lately I seem to be gravitating more towards the technics. Any thoughts on that turntable>?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
LOL noticed I didn't actually get my link in on my comment above. I was trying to link this https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/musiccast_vinyl_500/index.html. Another wireless system to an extent in that MusicCast is Yamaha's proprietary system, but don't think you're limited by it particularly in this case but I didn't dig into the tt manual either. No real suggestions on how to do the multi room streaming in your case, as there are several ways you can go. I just can't imagine wasting time with vinyl doing so.
 
FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
LovintheHD- Lmao I was wondering about that. Figured you forgot to post something. These are interesting but I'm starting to reconsider having wireless streaming for my TT setup. Kinda of really defeats the purpose and just turns the whole thing into more of a novelty. I do want to do multi room streaming for digital audio via iTunes and possibly roon(still researching that) but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and simply just concentrate on getting one listening area covered for now.

Tmurnin- Weird, read somewhere that they didn't have airplay. Perhaps the article was outdated? Even still though I'm trying to avoid Sonos at all cost. However, now that I'm reading that Roon would be able to integrate my current mp3 iTunes library, streaming through Roon would also potentially be an option. Also It seems like a multiroom integrated setup for digital streaming would be easy with Roon too. Just add some speakers in the living area with some sort of Roon Endpoint. Yea I'm done with the whole Multiroom vinyl streaming idea, that is much better served for digital music. I'll just have my one segregated area in my office for listening to records.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
The way I do multi room streaming now is via Audio Chromecast units, but I have dedicated systems in each room, just a nice way to get them all to play same thing simultaneously. Also a lot easier than stringing up new wire in the walls/ceilings :)
 
FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
Yes I'm def not about to start stringing wires all over the place lol, wireless for me too. Are there any issues getting the different brands of speakers to work together for Multiroom listening without having an integrated system like a Sonos,etc or does the Chromecast or other wireless streaming device do the same thing a Sonos system would do? Also another question about streaming devices what are generally the big differences between something like say a 45 chromecast or one of the high end streaming devices like the 500 dollar Bluesound node2i? Is the fact the higher end devices have the option to stream music in higher quality the only substantial difference?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yes I'm def not about to start stringing wires all over the place lol, wireless for me too. Are there any issues getting the different brands of speakers to work together for Multiroom listening without having an integrated system like a Sonos,etc or does the Chromecast or other wireless streaming device do the same thing a Sonos system would do? Also another question about streaming devices what are generally the big differences between something like say a 45 chromecast or one of the high end streaming devices like the 500 dollar Bluesound node2i? Is the fact the higher end devices have the option to stream music in higher quality the only substantial difference?
I have actual full on independent systems in each room, a bit different from what you're imagining I think. I just use the Audio Chromecasts for the times I want the whole house playing the same thing. They're fine fidelity wise, altho the Bluesound may have different capabilities for the bit depth/sampling rate, the Audio Chromecasts can handle up to 24/192 which is more than sufficient, and have a built in dac if using equipment without such (and an optical connection if you have such gear where you'd rather use the dac in that gear).

ps I regularly use the Audio Chromecasts individually, too. Really handy when directing traffic from my phone.
 
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FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
I'm following! Or at least I believe I am lol. So You basically have an receiver/preamp/dac/speaker setup to each zone of the house. Does that mean each zone has there own streaming module as well because you mentioned only needing the Chromecast for having all the zones playing the same music? That's actually pretty impressive about the Chromecasts considering its meager price tag. So assuming all the speakers one had in there house were active and had wireless capability, would that mean one would need only a single streaming device to unify them all to play the same thing? I'm assuming so because they would all be on the same airplay/wireless network.

edit: just read your ps. Sounds like the Chromecast is the wireless streamer you use for each music zone.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'm following! Or at least I believe I am lol. So You basically have an receiver/preamp/dac/speaker setup to each zone of the house. Does that mean each zone has there own streaming module as well because you mentioned only needing the Chromecast for having all the zones playing the same music? That's actually pretty impressive about the Chromecasts considering its meager price tag. So assuming all the speakers one had in there house were active and had wireless capability, would that mean one would need only a single streaming device to unify them all to play the same thing? I'm assuming so because they would all be on the same airplay/wireless network.

edit: just read your ps. Sounds like the Chromecast is the wireless streamer you use for each music zone.
Closer but wouldn't use the term zones (I do have some speakers on my deck that are zone 2 for my workshop setup tho). Yes, each room has its own system (gotta use up the old gear so four a/v systems and one 2.0 setup....hate bothering to sell stuff too) and if I want to play the same thing in the house on all the systems, the Audio Chromecasts work very well for this (using the google Home app to setup a "group" of the various separately placed chromecast units, but once setup the group and each individual device is selectable from my streaming devices). That simultaneous playback feature of multiple Audio Chromecast units was what sold me on getting them, as well as their ability to work with a variety of gear from analog to whatever, and you can't beat the cost....too bad they discontinued them in favor of the hdmi-only flavor of Chromecast.

I haven't really kept up on the various proprietary systems....experienced Sonos at a friends' house and thought the speaker woefully inadequate (but nicely portable, which they liked). Somewhat depends what level of speaker and cost you're aiming at, and what sort of eco system, if any, to make things most appealing to you. None of my avrs has one of the proprietary wireless features like Heos or MusicCast either. The only active speakers I have don't have wireless capabilities. A guy I know had the LS50 wireless speakers and said they were pretty wifi friendly, tho never really delved into them to see just how much.
 
FatherStench

FatherStench

Audiophyte
So do you have any other devices with streaming capabiltiies in any of your systems besides for the Chromecasts? I'm assuming besides streaming you have a CD player/cassette/vinyl or some other listening mediums connected to some of your assorted systems as well. I don't blame you for really not wanting to sell anything either, it's not like good audio becomes obsolete as technology changes. Whatever your lacking you can just add something onto it to fill the void. I've heard a few Sonos setups as well and I wasn't impressed either. Theres just plenty of better options out there at that price point. I'm still toying with the idea of my first purchase being the Kef LSX or LS50w and I can just add on from there. With either of the Kef options I'd basically be set for my office area once I added the turntable. Both the ls and lsx are supposed to be great for wifi except the app is horrible. Not sure how important running the app is for anything related to streaming though.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
So do you have any other devices with streaming capabiltiies in any of your systems besides for the Chromecasts? I'm assuming besides streaming you have a CD player/cassette/vinyl or some other listening mediums connected to some of your assorted systems as well. I don't blame you for really not wanting to sell anything either, it's not like good audio becomes obsolete as technology changes. Whatever your lacking you can just add something onto it to fill the void. I've heard a few Sonos setups as well and I wasn't impressed either. Theres just plenty of better options out there at that price point. I'm still toying with the idea of my first purchase being the Kef LSX or LS50w and I can just add on from there. With either of the Kef options I'd basically be set for my office area once I added the turntable. Both the ls and lsx are supposed to be great for wifi except the app is horrible. Not sure how important running the app is for anything related to streaming though.
One setup is analog only, but the others all have various avrs and bluray players with wifi capabilities, but not that simultaneous playback thing for that whole house experience :). At least there's more choice than just Sonos in a coupla different directions now....
 
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