Lossless, wireless streaming: Acemax M5 Experiences?

[robgobson]

Anyone have any experience with the Acemax M5?

My goal is to get lossless audio (doesn’t need to be hi-res, just 16/44.1 minimum) from a streaming service, through an iPhone or MacBook connected wirelessly, into the RCA inputs of a preamp. I understand my choices for the streaming services are Tidal and Amazon HD, and that my wireless connection needs to be WiFi, not Bluetooth.

The M5 doesn’t support Amazon HD but it does purport to support Tidal. The difference in cost between the M5 and a PW-Link would cover almost two years of the subscription premium for Tidal.

Thoughts? Are there any other affordable solutions I’m overlooking?

 

[imral3]

I don't think iOS works with the ChromeCast Audio, which is a shame because it's still available cheaper than this unit. I think the cost difference between this "unknown" device and the Paradigm PW-Link is probably worth spending. Maybe @GChief can offer some first hand experience?

 

[robgobson]

Actually it does look like you can stream Tidal HiFi from their app to a Chromecast, so maybe that with an HDMI-RCA converter would be a wiser choice. Still more than $100 less than the PW-Link.

 

[imral3]

NOT a Chromecast! A "ChromeCast Audio"!

 

[imral3]

I'm using one at my headphone rig. Optical out into DAC:

(rubber band optional)

 

[robgobson]

They've discontinued the Audio version apparently, so I guess it's off to Ebay?

 

[imral3]

Yeah, I bought two just a couple months ago. Found in a Google search.

 

[robgobson]

It’s been a while but I was reminded of this thread today and thought I’d post my results for posterity’s sake.

I ended up getting a new Chromecast Audio off eBay and subscribing to Tidal. The combo works like a charm. Once the CCA was configured with the Google Home app on my phone it showed up in the device list in Tidal and connected right up. Tidal only supports streaming their “hifi” (CD) quality to the CCA (no hi-res) but that suits me just fine. The hi-res through the DAC in the lightning to 3.5mm converter sounds very marginally better, maybe, but nowhere near dramatically enough for me not to keep using the hifi quality through the CCA’s DAC, which measures quite well—at least not “broken”. On a side note I did notice that boosting the bass in the Google Home app’s tone controls produces terrible distortion, Eventually I’ll probably try a decent external DAC and bypass the CCA’s own chip by using the TOSLINK/optical out but for now the sound quality is very good enough.

 

[imral3]

Glad to hear it! AMHD casts up to 24/96 via the CCA. I wonder why Tidal is limited (cracks me up to say "limited to CD quality" - LOL) - maybe a MQA thing?

 

[robgobson]

From what I’ve read it’s simply that they didn’t build the ability to stream hi-res into the Tidal app. There were complaints, but now that the CCA is discontinued there’s no reason for them to pursue it.

That’s great to know about AMHD. I’d looked into it and it seemed like a toss up between them and Tidal, so I went with Tidal. But with the higher res available on AMHD I’ll definitely switch. Thanks for the tip!

 

[imral3]

AMHD is probably cheaper, too!

 

[robgobson]

I just signed up for AMHD, and it was cheaper, but it turns out you cannot cast audio from the iOS app to the CCA at all. The CCA doesn’t show up in the devices list. What platform are you streaming from @imral3? I’ve contacted support about it but I’m not holding my breath considering the CCA has been discontinued. Guess it’s back to Tidal.

 

[imral3]

I just signed up for AMHD, and it was cheaper, but it turns out you cannot cast audio from the iOS app to the CCA at all. The CCA doesn’t show up in the devices list. What platform are you streaming from @imral3? I’ve contacted support about it but I’m not holding my breath considering the CCA has been discontinued. Guess it’s back to Tidal.

I'm using my Android phone to cast to the CCA. @GChief may be able to explain the Apple problem...

 

[GChief]

I didn’t have any problems casting to my CCA from my iPhone via the AM app. Only problem I had was if you sign to thru the AM iOS app it limits the bite rate the server sends you. I haven’t tried it again since canceling it like tech support told me, yet.

 

[robgobson]

From the horse’s mouth:

“I've checked and found that at this time, casting feature is only available on the Amazon Music app for Android. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.”

Strange that that would have changed @GChief. Maybe a CCA firmware upgrade broke the AM iOS app’s casting ability and Amazon hasn’t yet or has declined to implement a fix.

 

[GChief]

From the horse’s mouth:

“I've checked and found that at this time, casting feature is only available on the Amazon Music app for Android. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.”

Strange that that would have changed @GChief. Maybe a CCA firmware upgrade broke the AM iOS app’s casting ability and Amazon hasn’t yet or has declined to implement a fix.

Just Speculation, AMHD has been having so many bugs maybe its release jacked something up. When I did it after AMHD was released it was not the HD tracks I was streaming. You wouldn’t think that would matter. I am still going to wait until it’s not as buggy before trying again.

Edit: I was also streaming AM via my CCA before AMHD’s release.