astormsau Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 (edited) Hi everyone I recently acquired a NAD M51 dac from a fellow forum member. My preamp is totally analog so the NAD is doing all digital to analog conversion duties. My Setup is a Denon PRA-1500 pre, POA800 amp and Vaf I91 speakers. I have the following connected to the NAD; NAD Optical Input - Apple TV3 via HDMI to LG TV which outputs optical to the NAD M51 for watching TV. NAD Coaxial Input - Cyrus cdt coaxial to NAD M51 for CD listening. The NAD has a single input for coax and optical which are both used by the above setup. Over the weekend I connected the Apple TV to the NAD via HDMI and then to the TV via HDMI out. I found the sound is not passed through the NAD to the TV and picture pass through only works when the NAD is on - often my partner just watches tv using the TV speakers and this prevents that being an option in the interest of household peace. When I did use HDMI I could not notice much difference between either connection method streaming 24/96 Apple lossless files from my desktop via iTunes sharing or high res Spotify. The NAD display always showed 48k and I believe the Apple TV being limited to 16/48k out. My files are a mixture of FLAC (which I cant play via ITunes) ALAC (I converted these from FLAC for albums I like to listen to) and mp3. They live on a QNAP NAS box. My house is hard wired. Right now my Apple desktop shares its iTunes library to the Apple TV and the files are stored on the NAS. In previous times I had my old and now sold Apple MacBook connected to my Cyrus 8DAC via USB and running Amarra Hifi. I have two objectives today, I want to get my higher quality FLAC and ALAC files to play on the NAD M51 and I would also like a direct connection between the playback device and Spotify rather than having audio route via my phone. I am happy to control things via my phone using an app. Before purchasing the NAD I had my eye on a Cambridge Audio CXN to fulfil DAC and streaming duties but a good deal on the NAD and preconception of the NAD having better sound got my money [emoji4] I’ve been contemplating a Chromecast Ultra connected to the NAD M51 via the HDMI port on the NAD. I presume I could then stream music including my FLAC and ALAC files from my QNAP NAS and control this via the phone. Spotify would also then see the Chromecast as a playback device and stream content directly to it whilst avoiding having to run the audio via my phone. Has anyone experience with this setup or can offer advice or suggest another cost effective method? If I was to consider to a full streamer I feel I may as well sell the M51 and just get a device like the CXN. Any advice and experience welcome! Thanks Drew Edited March 19, 2018 by astormsau More info 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Gale Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi everyone I recently acquired a NAD M51 dac from a fellow forum member. My preamp is totally analog so the NAD is doing all digital to analog conversion duties. My Setup is a Denon PRA-1500 pre, POA800 amp and Vaf I91 speakers. I have the following connected to the NAD; NAD Optical Input - Apple TV3 via HDMI to LG TV which outputs optical to the NAD M51 for watching TV. NAD Coaxial Input - Cyrus cdt coaxial to NAD M51 for CD listening. The NAD has a single input for coax and optical which are both used by the above setup. Over the weekend I connected the Apple TV to the NAD via HDMI and then to the TV via HDMI out. I found the sound is not passed through the NAD to the TV and picture pass through only works when the NAD is on - often my partner just watches tv using the TV speakers and this prevents that being an option in the interest of household peace. When I did use HDMI I could not notice much difference between either connection method streaming 24/96 Apple lossless files from my desktop via iTunes sharing or high res Spotify. The NAD display always showed 48k and I believe the Apple TV being limited to 16/48k out. My files are a mixture of FLAC (which I cant play via ITunes) ALAC (I converted these from FLAC for albums I like to listen to) and mp3. They live on a QNAP NAS box. My house is hard wired. Right now my Apple desktop shares its iTunes library to the Apple TV and the files are stored on the NAS. In previous times I had my old and now sold Apple MacBook connected to my Cyrus 8DAC via USB and running Amarra Hifi. I have two objectives today, I want to get my higher quality FLAC and ALAC files to play on the NAD M51 and I would also like a direct connection between the playback device and Spotify rather than having audio route via my phone. I am happy to control things via my phone using an app. Before purchasing the NAD I had my eye on a Cambridge Audio CXN to fulfil DAC and streaming duties but a good deal on the NAD and preconception of the NAD having better sound got my money [emoji4] I’ve been contemplating a Chromecast Ultra connected to the NAD M51 via the HDMI port on the NAD. I presume I could then stream music including my FLAC and ALAC files from my QNAP NAS and control this via the phone. Spotify would also then see the Chromecast as a playback device and stream content directly to it whilst avoiding having to run the audio via my phone. Has anyone experience with this setup or can offer advice or suggest another cost effective method? If I was to consider to a full streamer I feel I may as well sell the M51 and just get a device like the CXN. Any advice and experience welcome! Thanks Drew The NAD has 2 hdmi inputs and an a output ( thru put) which will do Pcm 2 channel . So you could do away with looping it if you can set the sources to do Pcm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astormsau Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi Dean So right now my TV doesn't have ARC out. So I am intending to connect the Google Chromecast to the HDMI input on the NAD to act as a streaming solution for the data off my NAS and direct streaming for Spotify. I wouldn't connect the NAD to the TV for the Chromecast - not necessary as I can do the setup remotely via the app on my phone. The NAD would get sound from the TV and its connected Apple TV via the optical cable from the TV. I would continue to use the Apple TV for normal tv viewing but not streaming audio as it output is limited I believe to 48k. So my question pertains to the quality and feasibility of the Chromecast Ultra as a streaming device for high quality FLAC files and other media when audio is output via its HDMI connection - which will be going into the NAD - not the TV. Drew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini07 Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 On 19/03/2018 at 4:11 PM, astormsau said: So my question pertains to the quality and feasibility of the Chromecast Ultra as a streaming device for high quality FLAC files and other media when audio is output via its HDMI connection - which will be going into the NAD - not the TV. I am actually in a similar position (having bought the other M51 selling here recently). I'm looking for a way to stream music from my ripped cd collection on my computer into the NAD and onto the rest of my audio set up. Has anyone had experience with any sort of streaming device into the NAD via HDMI? Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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