HEOS LINK dilema

[atavid]

I’ve been given a HEOS LINK device to replace my Squeezebox touch.After looking at the interesting assortment of rear connections it occurred to me that I may not be able to use it with its built in dac.At the same time it bought up a question about how I have connected my Touch into my system .....but I’ll get to that in a minute.

The HEOS has a coax out ,a toslink out, and a set of rca pre outs.

.Heos advise that if I wish to use an external  dac that it should be connected via the pre outs.

My question is ....what if I want to use the HEOS inbuilt dac? How do I connect it to my pre amp which only has analogue rca type inputs?

Presumably I cant unless my preamp has digital inputs?

 

This then made me think about my Touch which has been connected via its coax out to my Stello DAC coax in...then to my preamp via the Stello’s  line outputs.

Have I been using the  Stello DAC with my Touch OR was it actually the Inbuilt dac in the Touch that was doing the DA work.

Can I connect the HEOS coax / toslink outputs to my Stello coax or toslink inputs.?

 

 

[sakabatou]

The pre-outs will be analogue, so you could connect to the preamps’ analogue in.

 Your previous setup was using the Stello DAC.

and yes, you could use the coax or toslink to use the Stello dac again 

[atavid]

Thanks sakabatou, but what I was wanting to do was somehow try to use the HEOS in built DAC.I am curious to know if it will sound better than my relatively “old” Stello DAC.

[sakabatou]

then just use the RCA pre-outs to compare

[a.dent]

42 minutes ago, atavid said:

 

.Heos advise that if I wish to use an external  dac that it should be connected via the pre outs.

 

 

Obviously this is incorrect advice from Heos.

The pre-out is analog and the Toslink and coaxial are digital and will allow you to use your own DAC.

To use the Heos DAC connect via the pre-outs.

@sakabatouis correct.

[atavid]

Umm that advice came to me directly from the HEOS help line (email)

So let me see if I understand you guys.

To use the HEOS with my Stello DAC I can connect from HEOS coax out to Stello coax in.

To use the HEOS inbuilt DAC I connect HEOS pre outs to my pre amp input

[sakabatou]

9 minutes ago, atavid said:

Umm that advice came to me directly from the HEOS help line (email)

So let me see if I understand you guys.

To use the HEOS with my Stello DAC I can connect from HEOS coax out to Stello coax in.

To use the HEOS inbuilt DAC I connect HEOS pre outs to my pre amp input

Correct

[atavid]

Ok guys, thanks for your advice .

I will hook it all up tomorrow and see how it goes .

[gillmaverick]

Hi Mate ,

I am using  HEOS link HS2 with Chord Qutest via a Toslink cable. It works perfect.

Cheers

[atavid]

Oh no ..I’m having bad déjà vu .....Squeezebox horror story setup all over again.

Ok so I got a chance just now to install the HEOS.

Setup instructions are next to useless and assume a level of experience with the unit before you even start. Eg very unclear instructions regarding using a wired or wireless connection.Im using a wired connection.

However I managed to get the HEOS recognised and the front light is a now a solid blue.

BUT I cannot get the thing to recognise any USB sticks I plug in.

All are formatted FAT32 as stipulated and I tried a 16gb, 128gb stick and a 120gb SSD drive .All the drives have nothing but music on them in a variety of file types .

What am I doing wrong .?

[atavid]

Oh o ,good news I’ve suddenly got recognition of one of my drives....now if I can just figure out how to get the volume slider working .......

[atavid]

So it looks like the HEOS is only recognising the 16gb drive .I was under the impression that the HEOS was not limited by the old 32gb barrier....surely that’s not the case..Could it be that the HEOS is just taking so much time to read 120 gb worth of files .Its been on there for about 20 mins now without recognising it .

 

[atavid]

This seems to be a one sided conversation now ,but just to keep the thread useful i’ll Keep posting my findings.

Turns out the 128 gb USB stick and the 120gb SSD drive were in fact formatted ex-fat not fat32 whereas the 16 gb was fat32.

Of course trying to reformat drives larger than 32 gb to fat32 is not so easy,but after some research I found a nice little program that did it in seconds .

So now I’m copying all my music files to one of those drives and will see how HEOS fares then.

[Guest thathifiguy]

16 hours ago, atavid said:

This seems to be a one sided conversation now ,but just to keep the thread useful i’ll Keep posting my findings.

Turns out the 128 gb USB stick and the 120gb SSD drive were in fact formatted ex-fat not fat32 whereas the 16 gb was fat32.

Of course trying to reformat drives larger than 32 gb to fat32 is not so easy,but after some research I found a nice little program that did it in seconds .

So now I’m copying all my music files to one of those drives and will see how HEOS fares then.

This is exactly what I was about to suggest

[gillmaverick]

This seems to be a one sided conversation now ,but just to keep the thread useful i’ll Keep posting my findings.
Turns out the 128 gb USB stick and the 120gb SSD drive were in fact formatted ex-fat not fat32 whereas the 16 gb was fat32.
Of course trying to reformat drives larger than 32 gb to fat32 is not so easy,but after some research I found a nice little program that did it in seconds .
So now I’m copying all my music files to one of those drives and will see how HEOS fares then.

I tried doing that with 128 gb thumb drive formatted in fat32 but Heos had trouble playing files from usb. I now have it hard wired to my router and a 2tb hard disc attached to it. All working fine now.
Cheers

[atavid]

Well I’ve had some success with the reformat of the 128gb stick.

Heos recognises it and mostly seems to function well enough,I did notice that at some stage it failed to read the stick when I selected list all tracks,giving a message that there was “no media”. It had listed them earlier in the day....so that’s a work in progress.It still shows them all under artist,album,genre though....

    The next issue I have now is some sort of hookup problem I think but it’s a doozy.

In my lust to use as many options on the HEOS as possible I decided to hook up my 

AV system through the HEOS as well.

Ive connected the toslink out from my receiver to the optical in (toslink) on the HEOS and hey voila ......tv sound through my hi fi system.That was easy....

BUT when I clicked on the tv’s Netflix icon to watch a movie .......no sound out through the HEOS to the hi fi system.What the hell.....thought it was all going too well.

Its got me stumped at the moment but hopefully the answer will come to me overnight.

If anyone else has ideas why this is happening please share with me.

What I’ve done so far.....

Flicked between all the inputs on the Marantz receiver even though the digital outs should be common to all inputs.

Rechecked the HEOS app to make sure I’m selecting the optical input.

 

 

 

 

[atavid]

Ummm ,well I thought about it overnight and was convinced it was the PCM output setting on either the tv,the receiver or both.Been fiddling with those settings now for a while but with no luck.Also went into Netflix Settings but nothing there that seems to relate to audio settings.

Anyone ?...

[Guest thathifiguy]

52 minutes ago, atavid said:

Ummm ,well I thought about it overnight and was convinced it was the PCM output setting on either the tv,the receiver or both.Been fiddling with those settings now for a while but with no luck.Also went into Netflix Settings but nothing there that seems to relate to audio settings.

Anyone ?...

I don't know that the receiver will convert audio output to PCM, i suspect it will be more a passthrough.

 

That being the case, you will have to decide what is more important, getting TV sound through the HEOS or better sound from the surround system?

 

[atavid]

Yes you’re right..... but it’s hard not to want your cake ...and eat it too.

I am persisting at this stage .....there are a plethora of combinations to try before I give up yet

 

,

[Blade74]

HEOS probably won’t accept anything but 2 Channel PCM. If you feed it Dolby Digital or DTS etc it won’t give any sound.

[Guest thathifiguy]

What is your AVR?

 

If it is a high enough model, the Zone 2 analog output may apply D2A conversion, so that could be a way of getting your TV sound into the HEOS without having to adjust the output settings on the TV.

 

[atavid]

It’s an old Marantz 6001 .......and I’ve solved it .....well more like accidentally pushed the right button.There is a series of buttons behind a flap on the Marantz .One of those buttons is labelled ‘auto’ .Ive seen it before and found that pushing it never made any difference that I could detect, so have ignored it .I have no idea what it does normally ,but now pressing it seems to have fixed my problem.

My wife asked me how I fixed the problem ....I told her I pushed a button.....she patted me on the head,told me I should work in the ‘genius’ bar and laughed all the way back upstairs. hummmp

   I’ve settled in for some comparative listening between the Squeezebox through my Stello dac,the HEOS through the Stello dac and the HEOS through its own dac.

[anandpkumar]

Hi there.....any updates on the Heos Link? How does it work as a streamer compared to the SB. The Heos is one of the options that I'm considering for a streamer solution (to be connected to external DAC). How do you find the 'app' interface and the indexing of the music files from your HDD?

[rowbo]

 

On 20/03/2019 at 4:10 PM, anandpkumar said:

Hi there.....any updates on the Heos Link? How does it work as a streamer compared to the SB. The Heos is one of the options that I'm considering for a streamer solution (to be connected to external DAC). How do you find the 'app' interface and the indexing of the music files from your HDD?

Anandpkumar - I don't use the Heos as the DAC - i use my amps DAC (if my opinion helps),  as a $500-$600 unit i never expected the Heos DAC to be able to make things shine and after several listens to the start of Hotel California is quite clear (to me).

The Heos is great entry level streamer as i am just bypassing all of its fluff to send the flac files music to my amp, it has that DLNA/UPNP whatever language built in so it will be identified on a network when its plugged in, so your choice of platform (as i said i use Jriver) should find it pretty easy.

 

But - the app interface isn't great. As i posted below - tapping away at my phone or tablet to re-create playlists and limited to 300 songs was driving me batshit. If the USB HDD hasn't cataloged the music properly then you have to go digging for that song you just WANT to hear but just isnt there!!

I do like my unit though, it was my last purchase (after upgrading the amp, connections and then the speakers) and was a bit strapped for cash and didn't want to keep using my laptop as the 'player' so it was perfect for me to use it as a home network to play music. I dont use the Heos app as its too annoying as i said (except the internet radio stations and of course checking settings) i use JRiver (and the JRemote on my phone) to play music from a networked old desktop/server. I can go upstairs fiddle with Jriver and my music library and then just press play.

Happy to discuss further if you need.

 

Anyway - thanks for reading :-

[anandpkumar]

On 24/04/2019 at 4:22 PM, rowbo said:

 

Anandpkumar - I don't use the Heos as the DAC - i use my amps DAC (if my opinion helps),  as a $500-$600 unit i never expected the Heos DAC to be able to make things shine and after several listens to the start of Hotel California is quite clear (to me).

The Heos is great entry level streamer as i am just bypassing all of its fluff to send the flac files music to my amp, it has that DLNA/UPNP whatever language built in so it will be identified on a network when its plugged in, so your choice of platform (as i said i use Jriver) should find it pretty easy.

 

But - the app interface isn't great. As i posted below - tapping away at my phone or tablet to re-create playlists and limited to 300 songs was driving me batshit. If the USB HDD hasn't cataloged the music properly then you have to go digging for that song you just WANT to hear but just isnt there!!

I do like my unit though, it was my last purchase (after upgrading the amp, connections and then the speakers) and was a bit strapped for cash and didn't want to keep using my laptop as the 'player' so it was perfect for me to use it as a home network to play music. I dont use the Heos app as its too annoying as i said (except the internet radio stations and of course checking settings) i use JRiver (and the JRemote on my phone) to play music from a networked old desktop/server. I can go upstairs fiddle with Jriver and my music library and then just press play.

Happy to discuss further if you need.

 

Anyway - thanks for reading :-

Hi there.....thanks for the detailed and frank reply. I've been reading up on the user interface on the Heos, and most of the reviews are not all that positive.