Audio options for movies from TV and music from phones

richieboy

richieboy

richieboy

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29 Dec 2004
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2,252
Hi all,

Currently got two floorstanding Gale 3040 speakers (amp rating 15-100 watts and impedance 4-8ohms they say on the back!) And a Cambridge audio A1 amp that I bought about 17 years ago when I were a wee lad... typically we would just use this to play music from a phone or tablet connected via mini just and that was that. Sounds alright to me but I'm certainly no expert.

But....since we recently got a new TV i have been wondering if we could stream music from devices wirelessly (including the TV if watching a film for example via Bluetooth?) so looking to either replace with a whole new system like this which looks quite nice and compact:

https://www.richersounds.com/wirele...h-wireless-speakers/ruark-mr1-mk2-walnut.html

Or if I should keep the speakers and replace the amp with something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0725PJQQV#Ask

What would you do? I'm terrible with what is good audio wise but I know I may need to spend a bit for it to sound and perform well...
 
Your Gale and Cambridge Audio combo is decent. My gut feeling is that updating it with a Bluetooth receiver will give you the best sound quality simply because the speakers can develop a bit more bass given their size.

Bluetooth is a bit of a mixed bag. It's convenient, but was never really designed for audio streaming. The AptX feature (as found on the Ruark speakers) lifts the quality by using smarter processing algorithms for the compressed link, but the catch is that the source device needs to have AptX as well. If not, then you're back to basic Bluetooth. You'll be able to hear the reduction in sound quality compared to the jack connection you're using at the moment.

I have a lot of time for Ruark as a brand. They know what they're doing and their speaker sound great.

MR1s are impressive for their size. However, like all small speakers, they can only produce so much bass. Decent bigger speakers dig deeper; that's just physics.

The little BT amp from Amazon, don't believe the power specs. As supplied, you'll get about 8W per channel from it with the power supply it comes with. To get anywhere near the claimed power output, you're going to have to buy a far more powerful PSU.
 
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A wireless/bt streaming pre-amp that you could connect to your a1 might fit the bill
eg. this kind of device https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-MusicCast-Streaming-Pre-Amplifier-Bluetooth-White/dp/B01KIGWU6C.

you would be casting the original bitstream/codec from the tablet / android-phone via wifi, as opposed to BT that had been decoded on that device and then lossily encoded via aptX say

.. not sure whether a TV could strem to it though.

more expensive AV processors could do the same, but given that you have a good amplifier, such a pre-amp might provide a better value for money, and even better quality solution, if its DAC is good quality.
 
A Google Chromecast Audio would have been perfect for this, alas, Google discontinued them a week ago and they're in seriously short supply as people seem to be stocking up.
 
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