BrownMagic 142 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 I moved to Qobuz from Tidal recently and I want to move out of Roon as well eventually. Roon has served me very well but I have now decided to only use Qobuz as far as my streaming solution. I do not have any local files that I have to stream. So the solution that I was looking something like Spotify Connect. Qobuz seemed to have a Qobuz Connect plans in the past but they told me that they no longer have any plans. I then chanced up Primare NP5 ( on this website) and it seemed like a very neat device. I was in touch with their team and they told me that they support 24/192 pass through via Chromecast protocol. So my question is 1) Assuming I get a Primare NP5, a Denafrips Pontus and Qobuz, will I be able to use the Qobuz app as a control to stream to NP5 to get 24/192 on the Pontus? 2) Does Chromecast deteriorate the sound in anyway? Is Chromecast Protocol inferior to RAAT that Roon uses? Should there be a difference at all because Pontus gets the complete 24/192 even if its RAAT or Chromecast protocol. 3) Primare does not have an USB out. Is USB the best input for Pontus? Or the input does not matter? I am only interested in PCM and NOS. Between Coxial and Optical - Which is better? I will not use DSD and dont care about meta data and stuff. Thank you very much kind folks. Link to post Share on other sites
krebetman 306 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Hi. I couldn’t comment on (1), but specs seem to indicate the Chromecast will resample to 48k, which may affect sound quality. on (3), my experience is that the USB input on the Pontus is better than the coaxial. The Pontus is smart about Disconnecting USB bus power once the handshake is established, but cable quality still affects the sound. I haven’t used the Toslink with anything but TV audio, so couldn’t really say. Link to post Share on other sites
sakabatou 307 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 9 minutes ago, krebetman said: Hi. I couldn’t comment on (1), but specs seem to indicate the Chromecast will resample to 48k, which may affect sound quality I think the OP is intending use Chromecast protocol via the NP5, rather than a actual Chromecast Audio. But I could be wrong Link to post Share on other sites
krebetman 306 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 In that case I definitely couldn’t comment on the sample rate question... Link to post Share on other sites
sir sanders zingmore 12,369 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 7 hours ago, BrownMagic said: 2) Does Chromecast deteriorate the sound in anyway? Is Chromecast Protocol inferior to RAAT that Roon uses? Should there be a difference at all because Pontus gets the complete 24/192 even if its RAAT or Chromecast protocol. If you look at the review on ASR it seems that using chromecast’s own protocol is significantly worse than letting roon handle things https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-chromecast-audio-digital-output.4544/ Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 4 hours ago, sir sanders zingmore said: If you look at the review on ASR it seems that using chromecast’s own protocol is significantly worse than letting roon handle things This seems to be the review of the Chromecast Device. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 5 hours ago, sakabatou said: I think the OP is intending use Chromecast protocol via the NP5, rather than a actual Chromecast Audio. Yes. That is correct. I checked with Primare, and this is what they had to say “if you don't need the other features Roon provides then you won't need it and can save yourself time and money getting it all setup. Sound quality will be very much the same, and possibly better, using Qobuz with Chromecast, as you avoid a lot of computer processing required by Roon that if not installed and set up well can cause some degradation in sound quality. To avoid the up-sampling and have all the files played back at their native sample rates, select Native and 192 in the Audio Settings/Digital output section of the Settings menu in the Prisma application and you will be all set to pass through the signal as is!” Link to post Share on other sites
sir sanders zingmore 12,369 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 21 minutes ago, BrownMagic said: This seems to be the review of the Chromecast Device. Oh sorry I think I get it now. Can’t really help except to say that the ASR review states: “Guessing that Google's CAST protocol or software is limited to 16 bits, ” and ”...the blogger Archimago found jitter to be higher in Chromecast Audio than other sources he used. His test DAC was the Teac UD-501” and ”1. The CAST audio functionality of Google Chrome is horrid. There is no excuse for it to be butchering even simple 16-bit signals as it did. While audibly it is not as dire as it looks, I still would avoid it if you can.” sounds to me as if these are issues with the protocol rather than the physical device (but I don’t know for sure). Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 3 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said: Guessing that Google's CAST protocol or software is limited to 16 bits This is now updated to 24/192. However it is not gapless. For some people gapless is very important. 6 hours ago, krebetman said: 3), my experience is that the USB input on the Pontus is better than the coaxial. What is your transport? Does your transport have both Coax and USB? Link to post Share on other sites
sir sanders zingmore 12,369 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Just now, BrownMagic said: This is now updated to 24/192. However it is not gapless. For some people gapless is very important. Personally I have no issue at all with 16bits, it’s CD quality, it’s good enough. The issue seemed to be the implementation of that 16bits. So it’s all very nice if they’ve updated to 24/192 but if they’ve butchered it like they did for 16 bits then you may still have issues. Link to post Share on other sites
krebetman 306 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 (edited) 4 hours ago, BrownMagic said: What is your transport? Does your transport have both Coax and USB? I initially tried with an audiophilleo USB to spdif converter, and compared with direct USB connection from a decidedly non-audiophile fanless computer running various software including Daphile and Roon. My experience goes more to suggest that the Denafrips recent USB implementation is good, rather than to indicate that its spdif is bad. Edited January 30 by krebetman Link to post Share on other sites
Hydrology 2,551 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 How about the Waversa WStreamer? https://waversasystems.com/wstreamer Ive been playing with one of these (as a Roon certified end point however) and its bloody good. Does DLNA. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 3 hours ago, Hydrology said: How about the Waversa WStreamer? Thanks @Hydrology Are you able to use the Qobuz app to stream 24/192 to this device? Any idea how much it is? The Primare NP5 is about 800 aud. Have you tried to stream Qobuz at 24/192 to any device using the Qobuz app? I do not want to use Roon or any other streamer software. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 3 hours ago, krebetman said: My experience goes more to suggest that the Denafrips recent USB implementation is good, rather than to indicate that its spdif is bad. Thanks this makes sense. From a PC, I would think the USB is the better input. However the NP5 only has a Coax out. It’s a bluesound node like device without the DAC. Link to post Share on other sites
Hydrology 2,551 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 4 minutes ago, BrownMagic said: Thanks @Hydrology Are you able to use the Qobuz app to stream 24/192 to this device? Any idea how much it is? The Primare NP5 is about 800 aud. Have you tried to stream Qobuz at 24/192 to any device using the Qobuz app? I do not want to use Roon or any other streamer software. Thanks RRP on both the Primare and Waversa in AUD are the same. You would use a third party app with the Waversa for Qobuz if not using Roon. Link to post Share on other sites
BrownMagic 142 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 3 hours ago, Hydrology said: You would use a third party app with the Waversa for Qobuz if not using Roon. This is a deal breaker for me. I want to get out of Roon and my experience after trying BluOS, Naim and Roon, none of them are as slick as using the Qobuz app and hence my search for something that can do Chromecast at 24/192 and can’t seem to find anything other than the Primare. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
Hydrology 2,551 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 24 minutes ago, BrownMagic said: This is a deal breaker for me. I want to get out of Roon and my experience after trying BluOS, Naim and Roon, none of them are as slick as using the Qobuz app and hence my search for something that can do Chromecast at 24/192 and can’t seem to find anything other than the Primare. Thanks Mconnect app used with the Waversa will give you what you want, except you won’t get the same GUI as the Qobuz app natively. Link to post Share on other sites
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