Is it worth keeping my separates and speakers?

[PomBstard]

My separates system isn’t really getting used any more, trying to find out whether it’s worth keeping or just off it and be done. I do like the look and the sound but it can’t compete with the way we listen to music in our house which is through various Bluetooth stuff.

I’ve still got the original boxes and space to keep for maybe sometime later in life…

Anyway kit is Marantz…

CD6000ose CD player
PM6010ose amplifier
ST6000ose tuner
DR6000 CD Recorder

Speakers are Mission M73

It all works fine still, and must be about 25yo, and seem to remember this was reasonably good kit for the money back then.

Anyway, what say ye of more experience?

[alangla]

I got a Nokia Bluetooth receiver as a freebie with a phone years ago. Now use it to play things like BBC Sounds or Apple Music off an iPhone through my separates system. Sounds miles better than a bog standard Bluetooth speaker. Worth considering something similar?

Edit- Amazon sell similar devices from about £8 upwards.

Edited by alangla on Thursday 20th July 11:40

[ChrisH79]

I’d consider adding streaming, whether that’s with a dedicated streamer or an amp upgrade is down to your preference but even compressed streams such as Spotify sound better through my floor standers or bookshelf speakers than they do via decent quality Bluetooth speakers

[dudleybloke]

alangla said:

I got a Nokia Bluetooth receiver as a freebie with a phone years ago. Now use it to play things like BBC Sounds or Apple Music off an iPhone through my separates system. Sounds miles better than a bog standard Bluetooth speaker. Worth considering something similar?

Edit- Amazon sell similar devices from about £8 upwards.

Edited by alangla on Thursday 20th July 11:40

I have a Bluetooth receiver added to my system and its great value for money.
I also use my android TV box for Internet or app based music.
No reason to get rid of a decent system, just update its inputs.

[AC43]

PomBstard said:

My separates system isn’t really getting used any more, trying to find out whether it’s worth keeping or just off it and be done. I do like the look and the sound but it can’t compete with the way we listen to music in our house which is through various Bluetooth stuff.

I’ve still got the original boxes and space to keep for maybe sometime later in life…

Anyway kit is Marantz…

CD6000ose CD player
PM6010ose amplifier
ST6000ose tuner
DR6000 CD Recorder

Speakers are Mission M73

It all works fine still, and must be about 25yo, and seem to remember this was reasonably good kit for the money back then.

Anyway, what say ye of more experience?

Just buy a new old stock Chromecast Audio on eBay and stick it the back of your amp. I've two lots of amps and separate hooked up that way - great sound, easy streaming. Much better that BT in terms of sound and connectivity.

It's a crime that they discounted them. I bought three spares for future use.

[PomBstard]

Thanks all - seems like I need to catch up on a few things. Would be good to keep the amp and speakers going - will see what I can find

[Semmelweiss]

I have one of these connected via TosLink (to optical input) on my separates.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WiiM-Pro-Chromecast-Multi...

Amazing to be able to stream just about "anything"....

Edited by Semmelweiss on Thursday 20th July 21:43

[Lucid_AV]

PomBstard said:

My separates system isn’t really getting used any more, trying to find out whether it’s worth keeping or just off it and be done. I do like the look and the sound but it can’t compete with the way we listen to music in our house which is through various Bluetooth stuff.

I’ve still got the original boxes and space to keep for maybe sometime later in life…

Anyway kit is Marantz…

CD6000ose CD player
PM6010ose amplifier
ST6000ose tuner
DR6000 CD Recorder

Speakers are Mission M73

It all works fine still, and must be about 25yo, and seem to remember this was reasonably good kit for the money back then.

Anyway, what say ye of more experience?

A bit late to the party, but

CD6000ose CD player - 80% Yes - CDs sound great. You'd need to buy a premium subscription to a streaming service to better it. The 'free' options just aren't up to scratch.

PM6010ose amplifier - 100% yes - You need an amp, nd the cheapest one is the one you already own.

ST6000ose tuner - 10% yes, so 90% no. As much as a I love radio, FM's days are numbered. DAB is junk. Internet radio is the way forward. Masses more choice. Even satellite/Freeview/cable TV radio gives you more choice. (This coming from a guy with an FM aerial on the roof and two FM tuners). Unless you like classical on Radio 3 then get out of the tuner as soon as you can.

DR6000 CD Recorder - Ditch it. The days of recording CDs has gone. Everything you can do with the DR6000 can be done with a PC if you really want CDs. A USB pen drive or the memory on your smart phone will cover nearly all your bases here.

Speakers are Mission M73 - 100% yes - No further comment required.

Add a streamer and a connection to your satellite/cable TV/Freeview recorder if you have any. Good Hi-Fi never really gets old. Think of it like a classic car. Get behind the wheel and enjoy the ride.

[rodericb]

Semmelweiss said:

I have one of these connected via TosLink (to optical input) on my separates.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WiiM-Pro-Chromecast-Multi...

Amazing to be able to stream just about "anything"....

Edited by Semmelweiss on Thursday 20th July 21:43

Beat me to it. I got one for my garage but haven't used it yet. There's also the Wiim mini which has many of the features of the Pro, but not Chromecast. there's a bit of a caveat on the Wiim stuff and that is that there's a lot of chatter on the internet saying that the DAC is a bit lacklustre and you might need to use an outboard DAC. But then you get the inevitable replies saying that there's nothing wrong with the DAC in it, done back to back testing and so on....

[OutInTheShed]

Another thing to consider is using the HiFi for audio from your PC.
I have some last century kit in my office and it gets used a lot.

A mate of mine has an amp and speakers fed by an old Android tablet, gives him loads of stored music, or the internet, does what he wants.

There are many ways of using amps and speakers from more modern sources.
Different people want different things.
Some people want to spend lots of money on servers and streamers and streaming services, some people use existing tech like their laptop or tablet.
There are middle ways like buying a better DAC.

[Semmelweiss]

rodericb said:

Beat me to it. I got one for my garage but haven't used it yet. There's also the Wiim mini which has many of the features of the Pro, but not Chromecast. there's a bit of a caveat on the Wiim stuff and that is that there's a lot of chatter on the internet saying that the DAC is a bit lacklustre and you might need to use an outboard DAC. But then you get the inevitable replies saying that there's nothing wrong with the DAC in it, done back to back testing and so on....

The DAC is more than adequate. The speakers tend to be the weakest link in the signal chain, in any event. Clearly if the source of your music is highly compressed/lossy internet audio, then no DAC is going to make a difference...

[projectgt]

I use an Apple TV plugged into my amp, that way I can AirPlay2 to my amp/passive speakers and add other WiFi AirPlay2 speakers around my house.

[AC43]

Semmelweiss said:

I have one of these connected via TosLink (to optical input) on my separates.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WiiM-Pro-Chromecast-Multi...

Amazing to be able to stream just about "anything"....

Edited by Semmelweiss on Thursday 20th July 21:43

Interesting to another manufacturer supporting Chromecast.

My beef with Google is that they now only package CC in either the video version or in one of those stupid voice activated things. I don't want voice activation to select my Spotify playlists or genres - it's dog st for that. And while they were adding all the voice crap the removed the optical out. FFS.

Anyway, that WiiM looks interesting although I don't know what the SPDIF ports are - they look optical-shaped but are they for wired connections? And if so for what devices? Can't say I've seen that format before.

[Semmelweiss]

SPDIF=TosLink=Optical. Pro has optical in and optical out. Most wonderful little box.

[OutInTheShed]

Semmelweiss said:

SPDIF=TosLink=Optical. Pro has optical in and optical out. Most wonderful little box.

SPDIf= Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format.

Can be co-ax or optical. Defines the format in terms of bit pattern and levels
TosLink, Toshiba Link, is the optical connector, and I think invokes SPDIF as the data format?

But these days it effectively seems to be much the same thing, does anyone make a DAC which is co-ax only now?
I'd guess it's actually cheaper to do optical than co-ax now.

We have a last-century CD player which only has co-ax digital out, not optical.

[OutInTheShed]

There are tons of fairly cheap Airplay/DLNA boxes available which you can cast to from a phone, tablet or computer.

This one has an optical out and cost £18.50 inc P&P.
I've no idea how easy these are to get working or what they're like, but it might be a way forwards, buy a quality optical DAC maybe?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394729987781


There used to be a lot of cheap wifi DACs available, I had one, not seen it since I moved house. About £20 and I just used it via the 'play to' option in Windoze media player IIRC. Probably not audiophile quality, but great for playing youtube music on the big speakers.

These days it's either bluetooth or complicated?



TBH, there's nothing wrong with a bluetooth receiver, to play some music from your phone over some speakers, it's certainly good enough for the workshop or kitchen. This afternoon, the wind and rain will cover up a few dB of digital imperfection.

[PomBstard]

Thanks for the continued advice. I picked up a cheap ish BT receiver from a local store and put it all together today. That bit seems to work fine, however in moving stuff around I’ve obvs killed something in the amp as the right channel is now much quieter than the left. It still works, but v quiet and not clean.

Have tried various combos of speakers and wires to confirm it is the speaker output from the amp that’s the problem.

So, after all that, I’m guessing it’s not worth fixing a low/mid-range amp from 25 years ago, and best off shopping for something else?

[AC43]

Semmelweiss said:

SPDIF=TosLink=Optical. Pro has optical in and optical out. Most wonderful little box.

Thanks. Interesting to read this article saying that "Sonos should be worried". That's what I said about the Chromecast Audio back in the day. You could attach them to any number of separate amps, group them in the app and have instant multi-room with far batter sound than Sonos. At £50 a pop. Given the vast amount of money that people spent binning their separates and buying into (the perceived convenience of) Sonos, I though they were really on to something. But, as I said, the craze for voice activation (no, me neither) seemed to have killed it.

Good to see someone else in the industry picking up the baton.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/wiim-pr...

[AC43]

PomBstard said:

Thanks for the continued advice. I picked up a cheap ish BT receiver from a local store and put it all together today. That bit seems to work fine, however in moving stuff around I’ve obvs killed something in the amp as the right channel is now much quieter than the left. It still works, but v quiet and not clean.

Have tried various combos of speakers and wires to confirm it is the speaker output from the amp that’s the problem.

So, after all that, I’m guessing it’s not worth fixing a low/mid-range amp from 25 years ago, and best off shopping for something else?

Just pick up something decent for buttons on AV forums. I bought a Class A amp which had originally retailed at £1.5k for £200. It's still working perfectly five years on. It's 15 years old now but you wouldn't know it.

[AC43]

OutInTheShed said:

These days it's either bluetooth or complicated?

TBH, there's nothing wrong with a bluetooth receiver, to play some music from your phone over some speakers, it's certainly good enough for the workshop or kitchen. This afternoon, the wind and rain will cover up a few dB of digital imperfection.

I do use BT occasionally (Bose Mini Soundlink) but for the separates in my main living area it's Chromecast Audio (or something like the Wiim Pro) all day long.

Previously, I used an expensive Logitech BT dongle which sounded far inferior (the signal come via your phone and not direct from the router) and every time you walk out of the room with you phone in your pocket it dies. It worse if it's someone else's phone as half the time BT refuses to connect to a new device if it thinks another one "owns" the connection.

It's cheap but clunky and on a decent system you can clearly hear the difference.