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Any experience with cocktail audio products?

Jimbob54

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Looking for a streamer and come across this:
https://www.cocktailaudio.com/home/sub01_02.php
It’s in similar price range as matrix element series but with much more functionalities. I couldn’t seem to find any useful review on the product though.

For the money id want to see measurements and functional reviews, as well as longer term user experience. I'm assuming it's an Asian brand that hasn't expanded much westwards?
 

Alexanderc

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Soundstage has reviewed a couple of their products, but that is the limit of my experience with the company.
 

3125b

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Where did they find Coretex A9 dualcore SoCs in 2020? The Tegra 2 with that configuration came out ten years ago ...
 

sonusfaberx

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I used to own a Cocktail Audio X12 more than 5 years ago. I use it mostly as a Music Server. I am not sure how the app does now since I already sold it a couple of years back, but I remember the GUI is both laggy and has a poor design. It was so bad I had no choice but to make do with the dinky LCD display on unit. It was supposed to be an all in one streamer, cd ripper and player, but it does not play my dsds and the "60w" rating is weak as hell. Realistically, the power is comparable to 10w T-Amps. Sound quality as a standalone unit too isn't that great where I even had to resort to an external DAC. But again the X12 is their entry level model and I have no experience with their later and more expensive offerings.
 
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somy

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Thank you all, doesn’t look like a promising path
 
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somy

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Where did they find Coretex A9 dualcore SoCs in 2020? The Tegra 2 with that configuration came out ten years ago ...
Is it the same as matrix audio element I which is also a dual core arm processor?
 

3125b

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Is it the same as matrix audio element I which is also a dual core arm processor?
Similar at least, Matrix actually specifies it: https://www.nxp.com/products/proces...hd-video-multimedia-arm-cortex-a9-core:i.MX6D
I guess it makes sense to opt for a low cost SoC, it doesn't need to handle much. But coming from the PC/smartphone world, it just seems so outdated.
The one worrying thing I see with the Element I is the old Wi-Fi standard, only 2,4GHz/n.
A streamer option as implemented by Okto with an optional Raspberry Pi seems much more future proof to me, however it might not be plug&play.
 
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somy

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Similar at least, Matrix actually specifies it: https://www.nxp.com/products/proces...hd-video-multimedia-arm-cortex-a9-core:i.MX6D
I guess it makes sense to opt for a low cost SoC, it doesn't need to handle much. But coming from the PC/smartphone world, it just seems so outdated.
The one worrying thing I see with the Element I is the old Wi-Fi standard, only 2,4GHz/n.
A streamer option as implemented by Okto with an optional Raspberry Pi seems much more future proof to me, however it might not be plug&play.
Yes agreed. Just read the spec again looks like even for high-end product element X matrix only puts in a 100/10M network card!!!
True for music maybe it's not needed, but I doubt how much cost it saves as even a 100 USD android TV box comes with quad-core and 1G network.
 
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