Network receivers

palsapal

Active Member
I'm considering replacing my existing Creek amp & tuner with something more current & particularly like the idea of being able to listen to internet radio & play flac files resident of my NAS drive, together with more conventional sources - minidisc, cassette & CD decks.

The problem is that there's little said about these receivers in the forums. Is that ominous?

I'm looking at the Yamaha R-N602 & the Pioneer SX-N30. The former has a slight edge on paper with twice as many coax & optical inputs & a "Direct" option to bypass superfluous circuitry.

I'd appreciate some feedback from users on their sound & their usability. Speakers will be Castle Acoustics Severns 2.
 
I'm considering replacing my existing Creek amp & tuner with something more current & particularly like the idea of being able to listen to internet radio & play flac files resident of my NAS drive, together with more conventional sources - minidisc, cassette & CD decks.

The problem is that there's little said about these receivers in the forums. Is that ominous?

I'm looking at the Yamaha R-N602 & the Pioneer SX-N30. The former has a slight edge on paper with twice as many coax & optical inputs & a "Direct" option to bypass superfluous circuitry.

I'd appreciate some feedback from users on their sound & their usability. Speakers will be Castle Acoustics Severns 2.
In my personal experience I like the Yamaha. Solid build quality with a great track record of reliability and performance. I have used several pieces and still have the R-S300 as a backup. I don't know much about the Pioneer. They just started getting back into making some 2 channel gear. You however might want to look at the new Onkyo TX-8270. It's a 2 channel networking receiver but has HDMI inputs and full bass management.
 
Auditioned the two receivers this morning using CDs with which I am very familiar. Speakers: Monitor Audio & Tannoy floorstanders.

All I can say is that I can't imagine listening to either receiver for more than 10mins at a time. That's with the "Direct" button engaged (the Pioneer offers this as well). What a let down. Maybe I'm spoilt by the Creek & Pioneer Reference amps that I'm used to.

Managed to demo the Yamaha connected to internet radio & a local NAS box. Happy that these were quite fast in operation i.e. no latency moving from folder to folder, album to album, station to station, preest to preset. But it wasn't enough.

Now re-thinking whether I should consider a steamer feeding the Creek amp. Not many about sub £400.
 
Palsipal, can you describe what it is that you don't enjoy about the sound of the Yamaha R-N602? That unit is a possible choice for me. I have seen other reviews that give it high marks for the quality of sound.

Thanks
 
Palsipal, can you describe what it is that you don't enjoy about the sound of the Yamaha R-N602? That unit is a possible choice for me. I have seen other reviews that give it high marks for the quality of sound.

Thanks

Which reviews did you find?

The sound, I thought, was comparable to a blurred photo. As though everything just needed to be pulled into focus. As I said, I played music that I was very familiar with & it just didn't have what I knew should be there. I sat there listening & thought "Do I want to pay all this money for this". I can only assume that it was the amplifier that was responsible.

Strangely, as I was packing my CDs away, the salesman said that I was lucky to have such good amps & speakers. He added that most people he was selling to were used to listening to compressed music on iThings. They would be amazed at the Yamaha through the £800 speakers.

I'm now considering the Marantz NA6005 & the Pioneer N-30/50.
 
Interesting, something like the picture of your XK-E?:D

I haven't had that experience with any of the Yamaha gear I have used, so I have to think there was a problem with either your sample or the source material, but who knows. I'll just keep an eye open to see if any other folks make a similar complaint. Thanks for the review and enjoy the hell out of whatever you get!:beerchug:
 
Which reviews did you find?

The sound, I thought, was comparable to a blurred photo. As though everything just needed to be pulled into focus. As I said, I played music that I was very familiar with & it just didn't have what I knew should be there. I sat there listening & thought "Do I want to pay all this money for this". I can only assume that it was the amplifier that was responsible.

Strangely, as I was packing my CDs away, the salesman said that I was lucky to have such good amps & speakers. He added that most people he was selling to were used to listening to compressed music on iThings. They would be amazed at the Yamaha through the £800 speakers.

I'm now considering the Marantz NA6005 & the Pioneer N-30/50.
Considering you do have really good gear to begin with the NA6005 would probably be a better choice.
 
You made a wise choice in the Marantz NA6005. I've been using a NA7004 for over three years now, and the only problem I've had is sometimes there is a glitch where the music will stop playing and goes back to the menu. I still highly recommend a network audio player for those of us who like internet radio. I have mine hard wired with an ethernet cable plugged in. If you're not fortunate to hard wire, you can still connect via wireless. One good reason to hard wire if you can is you will automatically receive any firmware updates they may come along. Using wireless, you will have to download the update to a thumb drive. I take the easy way any chance I can that will make my life easier.

Congrats on your purchase. Please update your thread after you had enough time with the unit.
 
Have bought the Marantz & have been checking out its functions whilst wire connected to my desktop PC (mp3 & m4a files) & my notebook (flac files). The former play fine via the MusicServer option though I've not had any success playing them from within iTunes using where I have lots of playlists. The AirPlay icon does not appear as described in the manual (pg57: Playing iTunes music with this unit).

The flac files are problematic. I found out Microsoft Media Player - the server that Marantz reference (pg 40: Applying media sharing settings) - does not like flac files. I installed a codec that allows MP to play flac files, which worked, but MP's library does not populate with my flac files which I've pointed it to after having reset MP so that it re-scans music source(s) as it would do when first run. Why it doesn't have a "rescan sources & find new" I don't know.

The shop where I bought the player have recommended dBpoweramp's "Asset UPnP" which I've still to check.

Have installed the dreaded Marantz remote app, & Arcam's version which is recommended for controlling network music but doesn't handle internet radio :( Sounds like the Marantz app's abilities are hit & miss. I wonder why Marantz didn't call it "Always flakey" as they've had plenty of time to sort it :rant:. It's not as if the brand is peripheral.

I appreciate that these teething problems could well be mine rather than the NA6005's. Will post with progress if it's of value to others.
 
Sorted Airplay. Contrary to the manual, the icon that appears is like a silhouette of a mountain emitting "radio" signals from its peak. Left clicking shows "Choose which speakers to use" & left clicking gives list of devices, bold if connected, with their volume control. Ticking the "Marantz NA6005" gets the music.

Have managed to see & play flac files from my backup on a NAS drive running Twonky media server.
 
Before it got fried by lightning, I had a nice Marantz AV preamp in my bedroom, hooked to a five channel power amp. I forget the model number, but it wasn't cheap. Anyway, I had it hard wired via Ethernet and could control it by way of an iPad app. In addition to it's home theater functions, it would play internet radio. Maybe even network attached storage? It also had airplay.

It sounded fine. I'm sure some of the Marantz receivers would have all the same functions.
 
What the hell is it with that lightning? I had a unit get zapped recently even though everything was protected. Now when we hear thunder we run around unplugging the gear! Climate Change?
 
By the way, I now have the Yamaha R-N402, still finishing up the setup, but it's a keeper!
 
John

Glad you're happy with your acquisition. I'm still playing about with mine though having to listen on headphones. The player is part of the setup in the lounge (Creek amp & Castle speakers) where the family TV is. Unfortunately for me it's Wimbledon at the moment so Mrs palsapal is glued to TV from mid morning to evening, hence headphones. Looking forward next week to pushing music through the speakers.

Had a look at what I said about the Yamaha & a thought crossed my mind. These hifi salesman are swapping speakers about all day & they must realise the importance of connecting them in phase - yeah?

Post your assessment of the player after you've had a good listen. I've still to do the same.
 
Hi palsipal,

I just wrote a review of the R-N402 in the comments and opinions section. I am very happy with how it is performing and the backup documentation that Yamaha supplied.the MusicCast app is really great!
 
The problem is that there's little said about these receivers in the forums. Is that ominous?
I think you're just looking in the wrong place. Check out Digital Sources: PC and Music Servers.

I use a Sonore microRendu player in the main system and a Raspberry Pi in the garage both fed by my computer via LMS and enjoy my digital library across many resolutions, internet radio and Tidal.
 
Yeah all the network receivers do is make it ultra convenient and in one place. As above could add a sonos which I blew has a unified app so you can have multiple streaming services not certain about internet radio. That being said I've gone to the AVR ala onkyo and not looking back to the vintage mac setup. Have many reasons but I stil find my music a joy to listen too, and love the simplicity and ease of use . But I have a 6 and 4 year old. So simplicity is a must. Onkyo is the rz610
 
Yes I have. From hdmi boards to no sound at all. Also there customer service is BAD. Never ever again Onkyo,
 
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