Streaming music to older receiver

[TankTop5]

Newb here by the way, I’ve had some older Kenwood, Technics, Polk, Sansui equipment in the distant past but life and kids have taken a front seat. Anyway I’m starting to turn my garage into a man cave and decided a stereo would be a good place to start. Walking through a flea market I spotted a NAD 705 receiver, it powered on but I couldn’t hook up speakers, the guy said he wanted $15 for it, that’s a pretty cheap gamble. I then went looking for some bookshelf speakers and ended up with a very nice pair of Focal 706s for cheap. Hooked everything up and this system sounds great except one blown tweeter, $90 and a new one is in the mail. I think I’m doing pretty good, my question is what’s the best way to play music from my iPhone? Can I just go lightning cable to headphone jack to RCA or would I need a DAC? Or would it be easier to Bluetooth, I see some that have DAC’s built in. I’m looking to Finnish this on a budget but I don’t mind spending $100 if it’s the best option.


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[ryanosaur]

simplicity would just be a little bluetooth receiver. or yeah, a lightning to rca conversion. at least if you go bluetooth , you can still charge your phone at the same time... dunno if those lighting to audio connections will allow for that as I've never done it.

 

[Old Onkyo]

I used an Echo with my older Onkyo receiver. Works great.

 

[sterling shoote]

Newb here by the way, I’ve had some older Kenwood, Technics, Polk, Sansui equipment in the distant past but life and kids have taken a front seat. Anyway I’m starting to turn my garage into a man cave and decided a stereo would be a good place to start. Walking through a flea market I spotted a NAD 705 receiver, it powered on but I couldn’t hook up speakers, the guy said he wanted $15 for it, that’s a pretty cheap gamble. I then went looking for some bookshelf speakers and ended up with a very nice pair of Focal 706s for cheap. Hooked everything up and this system sounds great except one blown tweeter, $90 and a new one is in the mail. I think I’m doing pretty good, my question is what’s the best way to play music from my iPhone? Can I just go lightning cable to headphone jack to RCA or would I need a DAC? Or would it be easier to Bluetooth, I see some that have DAC’s built in. I’m looking to Finnish this on a budget but I don’t mind spending $100 if it’s the best option.


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Buy a used Airport Express, plug it into an AC outlet and connect it via RCA to one of your receiver's stereo analog inputs. Turn on your iPhone's iTunes App and set it for Airplay. The iPhone will then send music wirelessly to the Airport express, which will process it from 44.1 to analog and output to receiver. It will sound great. BTW, the reason you will need to buy a used Airport Express is Apple discontinued it, since modern receivers have Airplay built-in.

 

[ryanosaur]

Buy a used Airport Express, plug it into an AC outlet and connect it via RCA to one of your receiver's stereo analog inputs. Turn on your iPhone's iTunes App and set it for Airplay. The iPhone will then send music wirelessly to the Airport express, which will process it from 44.1 to analog and output to receiver. It will sound great. BTW, the reason you will need to buy a used Airport Express is Apple discontinued it, since modern receivers have Airplay built-in.

You can still buy new, they are discontinued but available. And a more expensive option, but valid nonetheless.

 

[highfigh]

Newb here by the way, I’ve had some older Kenwood, Technics, Polk, Sansui equipment in the distant past but life and kids have taken a front seat. Anyway I’m starting to turn my garage into a man cave and decided a stereo would be a good place to start. Walking through a flea market I spotted a NAD 705 receiver, it powered on but I couldn’t hook up speakers, the guy said he wanted $15 for it, that’s a pretty cheap gamble. I then went looking for some bookshelf speakers and ended up with a very nice pair of Focal 706s for cheap. Hooked everything up and this system sounds great except one blown tweeter, $90 and a new one is in the mail. I think I’m doing pretty good, my question is what’s the best way to play music from my iPhone? Can I just go lightning cable to headphone jack to RCA or would I need a DAC? Or would it be easier to Bluetooth, I see some that have DAC’s built in. I’m looking to Finnish this on a budget but I don’t mind spending $100 if it’s the best option.


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How far away do you want to roam from the receiver? Look at the Miccus Bluetooth receivers. I had serious doubts about using BT for much of anything because I'm in the AV business and prior to last August, didn't know they had improved the range and sound quality. I tested it at home and was able to receive continuous signal from my iPhone 6 from 180' away, with my brick house between my phone and the receiver.

 

[Montucky]

I just got my ancient Technics rocking again in my garage with a Google Chromecast Audio. They're dirt cheap ($35 retail but you can sometimes find at half that) and have a pretty good built-in DAC. I've been quite pleased for the money.

 

[TankTop5]

Thanks for everyone’s replies. Think I’ll just do RCA’s for now but I do have an airport extreme I could hook up too, didn’t know that was possible before.

Edit: never mind, only the cheaper express does that, dumb!


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[ryanosaur]

Thanks for everyone’s replies. Think I’ll just do RCA’s for now but I do have an airport extreme I could hook up too, didn’t know that was possible before.


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The Extreme doesn't have the audio output... only the express... but the RCA-lightning is probably the simplest.

 

[TankTop5]

The Extreme doesn't have the audio output... only the express... but the RCA-lightning is probably the simplest.

Yep, that’s what I did. Then I realized it was too cold to spend much time in the garage and figured I’d see how it compares to my Vizio 5.1 soundbar. Maybe the garbage man will get lucky and notice the sound bar(just kidding, mostly...). I’ve had Polk towers hooked up to Onkyo recever, Focals paired with a NAD in stereo is simply amazing in comparison. Hooked up to my Xbox via optical audio to RCA insignia converter.


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[Montucky]

BTW, props for trying to reuse old but still good equipment! I'm a huge fan of relocating my old gear. I don't know why I have such a hard time getting rid of stuff I've upgraded from, but it feels like I'd be taking a beloved pet to the shelter, so I can't help but try and find a use for the stuff SOMEWHERE around the house.

The only thing I received great joy from throwing away was when I was clearing out my old house from a remodel and making a garbage run to the dump and literally drop kicked my old Bose 301s out the back of my van into the mountainous garbage heap. SO satisfying. They deserved that end after I dissected one of them and learned the truth about what they're made out of. Lol.

 

[TankTop5]

So now I can watch movies in stereo and it sounds amazing, FM when tuned we’ll also sounds amazing. Running my iPhone to RCA’s sounds like I’m listening inside a sound proof recording studio, everything is flat and lifeless. I’m guessing this is a good receiver and speakers reflecting just how bad compressed audio really is.


Another question, this receiver also has stereo pre outs, is there a way to use them to hook up dual powered subs? I think my current budget is blown but something to think about for the future...


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