Start with something affordable like
the Marantz NA6006, which can be
found at around £350. It will stream
from services including Spotify, Tidal,
Deezer, Amazon Music, and will also
play locally stored music in hi-res
WAV, FLAC and ALAC, along with
DSD64/128. It can be controlled
using its own handset or an app, and
intriguingly also allows Alexa voice
control, as well as integrating with
its parent company’s HEOS wireless
speaker system to make it the heart
of a multiroom audio system.
As well as the ND
players in the Naim
range, which start
with the £2300 ND5 XS 2 [HFN
Jan ’19], all the Uniti models offer
extended streaming capability,
including Spotify and Tidal and
that Chromecast access to further
streaming services. The £4199
Uniti Nova [HFN Nov ’17], for
example, offers ‘just add speakers’
convenience thanks to its built-in
80W of amplification, and can even
be used with a USB CD drive and
external storage to rip and share
CDs on the home network.
Even further upmarket is the
£5750 AVM Evolution MP5.2.
This has a modular design and as
standard includes
a CD drive, tube
output stage and
streaming of services
including Qobuz and
Tidal. But it’s not
just network players
able to the access
streaming services.
As services have expanded, so the
range of hardware to handle them
has exploded, too. I’m sure future
issues will see us covering a lot more
streaming equipment, and ways to
make the most of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment