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Newbie Setup for Turntable and Digital

walter_sobchak

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Mar 2, 2023
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Hello forum, newbie here. I'm looking for a system for playing a turntable and digital music in a smaller 12x14 room. I currently have an Orbit turntable, TC750 preamp, Aiyima A01 Pro, and Polk ES15s. Playing the turntable is easy enough. But for digital, I'm relegated to the Bluetooth on the A01 Pro, and I would like to improve this to at least CD quality.

I use Apple Music and it would be a pain point to switch to something else. I also have a PC, which does not support AM lossless. So the options seemingly are a wired connection to my iPhone or iPad or a streaming option like the WiiM. For the streaming option, I would switch out the A01 Pro for an Aiyima T9 or something similar. It has line in for the TT and I could connect the Wiim with optical and stream AM through Airplay 2. But I'm confused about whether Airplay 2 actually supports lossless, so I'm hoping to get some clarification on that?

The other option would be a wired connection with my iPhone. I'm assuming I could do this with an RCA switch allowing me to have two wired RCA connections to the A01 Pro - one for the TT and one for the phone. If I went with the wired option, I would consider swapping out the A01 Pro for the A07 for the better chip/performance.

Lastly, all of this assumes that these non-Bluetooth options would be noticeably better than the A01 Pro's Bluetooth, and I'm hoping to confirm that assumption. Any thoughts or guidance on this would be much appreciated.
 

rationaltime

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Here is my opinion.

Bluetooth is not just one standard. Over time manufacturers have recognized
the need for higher data rates. The most recent seems to be called Bluetooth 5.
Though I don't use Apple Music, I suspect Apple follows this as well. With those
improvements I would not rule out using Bluetooth. In other words keep doing
what you are doing for now.

Next, what is your dissatisfaction with the current setup? You might play some
favorite tracks on the turntable. Then find those same tracks on Apple Music
and stream them. Keep in mind we have a tendency to favor the louder selection.
You will need to carefully adjust the levels to match. How noticeable is the difference?
Do you notice something that bothers you?

If all goes well you will have plenty of time to think about what improvements
you would like to make and read up on the subject. Possibly just doing the
study will lead to better satisfaction with what you are hearing.


Well, that is my suggestion.


Thanks,
rationaltime
 
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W

walter_sobchak

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That's a great idea. I will test this using the same tracks and see if I can even discern a difference.
 

DVDdoug

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That's a great idea. I will test this using the same tracks and see if I can even discern a difference.
Just make sure you are using the same source... You'll ALWAYS hear a difference between analog & digital so there's not much point in that experiment. ...You'll always hear noise from vinyl. And sometimes the streaming source is a different master or a different mix, or even a different recording, from the CD.

It's OK to do a casual A/B comparison but do your best to make sure the loudness is matched and be aware that you can easily fool yourself in non-blind listening tests. Sometimes you might clearly hear noise or distortion, or something like that. But most digital audio is very good (usually better than human hearing) and if there seems to be something more vague, like "more detail" or "more dynamics" it may not be real. ;) What is a blind ABX test?

All else being equal, I'd choose a wired connection over Bluetooth. But convenience is often important. I listen to ("'high quality") MP3s in my car (and sometimes at home on my computer). ...Every time I've thought I was hearing a compression artifact in the car, it's turned-out that the CD has the same "defect'.

I used to be more of a snob about lossy audio... And we've all heard low-quality low-bit rate MP3s... But some of the best sounding music I have is on concert DVDs with Dolby Digital Surround (lossy).
 
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walter_sobchak

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Just make sure you are using the same source... You'll ALWAYS hear a difference between analog & digital so there's not much point in that experiment. ...You'll always hear noise from vinyl. And sometimes the streaming source is a different master or a different mix, or even a different recording, from the CD.

It's OK to do a casual A/B comparison but do your best to make sure the loudness is matched and be aware that you can easily fool yourself in non-blind listening tests. Sometimes you might clearly hear noise or distortion, or something like that. But most digital audio is very good (usually better than human hearing) and if there seems to be something more vague, like "more detail" or "more dynamics" it may not be real. ;) What is a blind ABX test?

All else being equal, I'd choose a wired connection over Bluetooth. But convenience is often important. I listen to ("'high quality") MP3s in my car (and sometimes at home on my computer). ...Every time I've thought I was hearing a compression artifact in the car, it's turned-out that the CD has the same "defect'.

I used to be more of a snob about lossy audio... And we've all heard low-quality low-bit rate MP3s... But some of the best sounding music I have is on concert DVDs with Dolby Digital Surround (lossy).
That makes sense, and thank you for the feedback. I do wonder if I would hear a difference between the Bluetooth on the A01 Pro and the WiiM mini AP2. That's the test I would like to run, but would obviously need the WiiM to do that.
 
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