Just used Heos for the first time

[sterling shoote]

Like I said man I wish I had the answer.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that 3.5 mm to rca isn’t on par with pure RCA that is split. I am going to test out my external dacs.

I wasn’t doing that because I thought the Marantz dac got the final or only conversion. Second, I didnt want to add more to the chain.

But I am telling you without a doubt using AirPlay, which puts my unit on Heos. I am not using the heos app. My setup was strictly airplay, it is far better than using hi res Quboz from my pc.

What you said maybe 100% accurate, but my pc isn’t producing that. I’m guessing you are using an external streamer or dac and you are getting similar performance. Which I have not done and I will try. Probably having the same results as you, experiencing no difference between airplay and the external dac. Which is when I will go back to using my PC.

Testing which is best for me will be easy, I can have both sources playing the same song and switch inputs

Just a sidebar here, I'm speculating that you are engaging Airplay to get iTunes on your PC, or other devices, wirelessly to amp input. In this scenario the amp's DAC is doing conversion to analog. To get the best results set iTunes preferences to Windows Audio Session and also to match output at the bit and bite rate for the highest res files in iTunes Library to your amp's DAC processing capability, if you will ever be sending from usb to amp. Now, with Windows Audio Session in play you will be able to run some PC tasks while music is playing without having the music distrupted. I do not have Airplay, I have Airport Express which precedes Airplay enabled devices, and yet I can say with certainty that even though my PC to Airport Express connection only delivers Apple Music in my iTunes Library to my amplification at 16/44.1, I can not discern any divergence in sound quality from this mean to music in comparison to stereo SACD. In other words it sounds great. And, since it sounds great Apple Music is now my preferred means to music.

 

[MacCali]

Just a sidebar here, I'm speculating that you are engaging Airplay to get iTunes on your PC, or other devices, wirelessly to amp input. In this scenario the amp's DAC is doing conversion to analog. To get the best results set iTunes preferences to Windows Audio Session and also to match output at the bit and bite rate for the highest res files in iTunes Library to your amp's DAC processing capability, if you will ever be sending from usb to amp. Now, with Windows Audio Session in play you will be able to run some PC tasks while music is playing without having the music distrupted. I do not have Airplay, I have Airport Express which precedes Airplay enabled devices, and yet I can say with certainty that even though my PC to Airport Express connection only delivers Apple Music in my iTunes Library to my amplification at 16/44.1, I can not discern any divergence in sound quality from this mean to music in comparison to stereo SACD. In other words it sounds great. And, since it sounds great Apple Music is now my preferred means to music.

Not really, the only Apple product I have is the phone. My pc is windows, and on my pc I run Quboz for music direct from PC to the AVR.

I have the heos app downloaded, but I’m not using heos. I go to YouTube or now I’ve also tried Quboz. I’ve added my receiver to my Apple home app and then I can basically select where I want the sound to come out of and I just choose my receiver.

I see what you are saying, I’m not sure if sound quality is getting better or the speakers are playing the way they should be or the sound is enhanced.

It just clearly sounds different, like the resolution isn’t changing and even at higher res without my phone/airplay does not sound as good as regular YouTube via my phone.

What I am going to try is plug my pc into my dac and the dac into the AVR and see if it sounds equal to my phone performance via airplay. Cause something is happening and I was hoping to you guys would help me figure that out.

And since I started this I’m not going to use my pc unless I get the same results as my phone. My pc just makes my speakers sound dull and my phone makes them come alive lol

 

[MacCali]

I see here after looking that many people complain on 3.5 mm to RCA that it has poor channel separation and crosstalk seem to pop up quite a bit. Maybe it is that?

Maybe that’s what I mean I am saying my PC sounds dull and phone via airplay is alive.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Just a sidebar here, I'm speculating that you are engaging Airplay to get iTunes on your PC, or other devices, wirelessly to amp input. In this scenario the amp's DAC is doing conversion to analog. To get the best results set iTunes preferences to Windows Audio Session and also to match output at the bit and bite rate for the highest res files in iTunes Library to your amp's DAC processing capability, if you will ever be sending from usb to amp. Now, with Windows Audio Session in play you will be able to run some PC tasks while music is playing without having the music distrupted. I do not have Airplay, I have Airport Express which precedes Airplay enabled devices, and yet I can say with certainty that even though my PC to Airport Express connection only delivers Apple Music in my iTunes Library to my amplification at 16/44.1, I can not discern any divergence in sound quality from this mean to music in comparison to stereo SACD. In other words it sounds great. And, since it sounds great Apple Music is now my preferred means to music.

Fwiw I used to AirPlay to my airport express before getting an AVR with it built in. I also didn’t notice a change between the two, and streaming from my PC to the AE sounded the same to me. Overall, it’s been very good.

 

[highfigh]

Kind of in shock right now. I’ve had my Marantz for almost 4 months now, it is my very first AVR.

This is the first time I used heos via Air Play 2 to play music and holy crap it’s like I changed my speakers. I never heard this much detail, bass extension, soundstage like this come out of these speakers from my PC connection.

Not really sure the reason why this is but I am completely shocked. Anyone else have this experience? Is AirPlay not Bluetooth? Always thought Bluetooth hurt sound quality and made it lossy.

Literally just listened to like 30 mins of music and everything sounds way better than usual. Thought it was just one song. Literally wanted to jump on here and figure out what’s going on

AIrplay is IP, Bluetooth is a completely different system.

Bluetooth isn't as bad as it used to be- it has better frequency response, better range, better latency, they're able to transmit and receive more channels and it has come very far in the last few years. I thought BT sucked until two years ago, when I did an audio upgrade at a school gym- I had set up a HEOS device but when I started explaining that the user would have to sign in and out, they started whining, so I said I would use something else. The gym teacher said his amplified speaker works over 100' from his phone, I said I would like to see it and once I had, I went home and checked into it. The piece I got is great, but still not as good as any streaming over IP.

If you use Pandora, Tidal or other services (other than Spotify, which still requires that the music come from the handheld device) and if you were using Airplay for the same service, set up the account in the AVR and try it- it's even better,

 

[highfigh]

I see here after looking that many people complain on 3.5 mm to RCA that it has poor channel separation and crosstalk seem to pop up quite a bit. Maybe it is that?

Maybe that’s what I mean I am saying my PC sounds dull and phone via airplay is alive.

If you use the 3.5mm jack, you're using the device's Digital-Analog converter and those are usually pretty weak compared to the ones in a decent AVR. If you haven't seen it, look into streaming from your computer via DLNA. You can also load your music onto a USB drive and connect it to your AVR and play it by selecting USB in the list.

 

[Trebdp83]

Less is more in this case. I use my AVR's built in streaming apps for music and have NAS as well. My PC is old and s#%t so it is out of the loop. Less devices in the chain can only help sound. Remember that although Denon/Marantz use HEOS and Yamaha has gone to MusicCast, the streaming capabilities are within the AVRs and the Smart device acts as the controller. I fear my Onkyo will be the last to allow actual remote control access and the new ones will require app control as well. Your phone allows HEOS control, Airplay 2 via phone apps and iTunes control from a Mac or PC via iTunes remote app. So you have options and can just use the actual music streaming apps from your phone and send music to multiple Airplay 2 compatible devices in your network without using HEOS or HOME apps. I agree that the best sound from Hi Res music will result from AVR built in streaming or directly connected USB storage. Oh, and a DLNA connected PC as well. I did notice AIFF sounded better to me than ALAC but not by much and it is a storage hog. Hey, enjoy and have fun experimenting with it all.

 

[JackstrawfromWichita]

I find the HEOS app on my ipad atrocious. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to create/save a play list in the app? Best I have is a bunch of playlists they provide (Best of XX, Redicover XX, etc.), but I would like to create and save my own playlists......is this possible on this APP? THanks!

 

[MacCali]

Just bought an integrated amp, the NAD 326BEE to drive speakers I have in my living room. Connected it to my Elacs for kicks and it’s even better than the heos on my Marantz and it’s only 50wpc at any impedance.

I tried using a dac and my pc in comparison to the heos which I mentioned I would do earlier and it is better than the 3.5 to rca connector in sound and all that just feel heos maybe still a little better and I’ve just been doing that