[project86]

Quote:

Yes, I'm using the Touch with headphones. And I did the same thing, using an old router as a bridge with the dd-wrt firmware in order to have a good signal in the place of the living room where I like to sit and listen to music. I'm really pleased with the results, you have access to your entire collection without any lag and in lossless quality. The only issue is the battery

 
I don't really see any way around that. You could get one of those external battery booster devices that plug in the the bottom of your Touch and top off the charge. But those add bulk and are not really ideal for daily use. Too bad Apple doesn't do user-replaceable batteries. A high capacity extended life battery would probably do the trick for you.
 
Are you stationary when you listen? Maybe just having a dock, to set the Touch on and charge it while you listen, could be the answer.

 

[johnnyjazz]

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I'll try with an external battery for occasional use, only when is really necessary, for example in the mittle of a great album! How about your router setup with DD-WRT? Is working fine??

 

[project86]

Quote:

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I'll try with an external battery for occasional use, only when is really necessary, for example in the mittle of a great album! How about your router setup with DD-WRT? Is working fine??

No problem.
 
I never finished my project. Too busy. And I think I may have forgotten my login password to the routers... so it requires a reset, making it a slightly bigger project. Oh well, I'll get there. 

 

[zzffnn]

^ I am taking a similar route as johnnyjazz and project86.
 
A NAS streaming flac to one or more music player will be very nice (and potentially cheaper). My approach is to use a iPhone alone when I want to go portable; when I am stationary, I will dock the iPhone to output digital to external DAC/amp.
 
I opened a specific thread at the Portable Source Gear forum to gather user experiences, please kindly comment there:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/620238/synology-ds212j-nas-streaming-flac-to-iphone-ipad-or-android-portables

 

[zzffnn]

I saw this tiny CloudFTP device. It is only $99, truely portable (powered by battery), can work as USB host and power an external hard drive and stream music/movie via FTP to IOS or Android portables.
 
The only cons is that a 3rd party app is needed to play flac (GoodPlayer should work). I will look into this further.
 



 
^
Edit: This device may not work for streaming lossless music as it has a streaming speed cap of 400 kbps. I just talked to tech support of CloudFTP. I do not think it can convert flac to mp3 on-the-go either.

 

[project86]

Quote:

I saw this tiny CloudFTP device. It is only $99, truely portable (powered by battery), can work as USB host and power an external hard drive and stream music/movie via FTP to IOS or Android portables.
 
The only cons is that a 3rd party app is needed to play flac (GoodPlayer should work). I will look into this further.
 



 
^
Edit: This device may not work for streaming lossless music as it has a streaming speed cap of 400 kbps. I just talked to tech support of CloudFTP.

 
Thanks for that. I was wondering what the speeds were like, and then you updated with that info. The concept is still good and if they could get around that limit it would be a killer tool. 

 

[zzffnn]

^ Yeah, that ClouFTP would be a dream without that 400 Kbps speed cap. I would not mind twice of its current size, just remove the speed cap please.

There are also that VortexBox NAS/automatic CD ripper and those Koss Striva wifi headphones, although they are designed for different purposes.

 

[project86]

Quote:

^ Yeah, that ClouFTP would be a dream without that 400 Kbps speed cap. I would not mind twice of its current size, just remove the speed cap please.
There are also that VortexBox NAS/automatic CD ripper and those Koss Striva wifi headphones, although they are designed for different purposes.

 
The Koss Striva is a trip. I can't decide if it is a terrible idea or a brilliant one. Or maybe both? I assume it will be like most other Koss designs, as in it will come and go with little attention. 

 

[zzffnn]

I guess the Koss Striva is a good idea at its infancy. Personally, I would not pay $500 for its limited existing features. At $500, I would like to see a portable remote (or app) to navigat among albums, sound quality that rivals V MODA M80s, MOG and Spotify integration, better looks and maybe 4G connection/reception.

 

[project86]

Quote:

I guess the Koss Striva is a good idea at its infancy. Personally, I would not pay $500 for its limited existing features. At $500, I would like to see a portable remote (or app) to navigat among albums, sound quality that rivals V MODA M80s, MOG and Spotify integration, better looks and maybe 4G connection/reception.

 
Exactly. For a little bit more $, I could just get the Sennheiser RS220 and have much better sound quality, while still being free to roam. That's in theory anyway, I don't know how well the RS220 works either. 

 

[zzffnn]

I have a successful story to share on the topic:
 
I have used:
flac files on Patriot Gauntlet Node (portable battery-powered NAS) -> SAMBA streaming -> AcePlayer Pro app -> iPhone 3GS w/ IOS 5.
 
This is the portable NAS Patriot Gauntlet Node (PGN), whose size is a little bigger than Objective2 amp or HM801:

 
 
The above setting can (pros):
1) store and play up to 2TB of flac
2) output digital (via Pure i20 coax/optical) to an external DAC
3) stream 24 bit / 96 kHz flac songs (the largest flac I tried was 172mb in size and 3058 kbps). But I am not sure if down-sampling occurs during playback.
4) perform reasonably like an iTouch minus album art (can do auto next, next/previous song, fast forward/rewind, background play with screen off).
5) display all album structures correctly (including sub folders).
 
The cons/bad:
1) no album art
2) no gapleess playback. Gap is 1.5 - 3 seconds long depending on the size/bitrate of flac. Gap is longer than Rockboxed Clip during playback.
3) start-up time is 2-3 minutes in total. The NAS takes about 30 sec to boot to NAS mode, then you may need to set up bridge mode using the Gauntlet Connect app (if you want streaming music and internet at the same time on your iPhone). Without setting up bridge mode, PGN still works as a music/file server.
4) when screen is off, iPhone 3GS (IOS 5) will stop playing, so screen has to stay on. Although the app can run in the background w/o problem.
5) There is slight/discrete noise produced during screen activities (e.g., scrolling down a long page). High resolution playback seems to be affected more.
 
For details, please read:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/620238/1000gb-flac-on-the-go-successfully-streaming-to-iphone-ipad-android-portables

 

[hmouse]

Seems QLS is about to release the new QA660: http://www.qlshifi.com/wzcp/qa660.htm (cannot find an English version of this page). Support reading from SD card, can play WAV (up to 24/192)/FLAC/APE/MP3. An interesting contender.

 

[project86]

Quote:

Seems QLS is about to release the new QA660: http://www.qlshifi.com/wzcp/qa660.htm (cannot find an English version of this page). Support reading from SD card, can play WAV (up to 24/192)/FLAC/APE/MP3. An interesting contender.

 
I spoke with Clark at QLS about that and last I heard it was due to release in October. Sounds like they are on schedule. There's also a similar QA860 model, which has a built in headphone amp as well as analog outputs with volume control. That model will come out a few months later. 
 
In case anyone is still following this thread, I've kind of stopped trying new streaming devices for the time being. Too busy with other reviews, both here and at InnerFidelity. Also I'm loving my new Auraliti PK90 (powered by a NuForce LPS-1 power supply) so much that I think I'm done searching. But when I do have time I'd like to check out more options (such as the QLS models) just for review purposes. 

 

[glcohen]

Thanks for your excellent review of the NAD C446 tuner.  However, if you did have a Last.FM subscription you would have found that you loose the login (username and password) information as soon as you turn it off at the mains. 

 

[project86]

Thanks for your excellent review of the NAD C446 tuner.  However, if you did have a Last.FM subscription you would have found that you loose the login (username and password) information as soon as you turn it off at the mains. 

Interesting, thanks for posting. So you can turn the unit off without issue, but if you unplug it or flip the switch on a power strip, it loses all your settings - is that correct?