Phone music to amp - new solution needed

rodders · 26 Mar 2019 at 19:59

Hi all,

I used to be able to wifi connect my phone to my amp (sony str1040) but my new phone wont do that. I also used to use the usb min to MHL connector, but the new phone is usb C and it doesnt look like you can do that.

I can screen mirror, but that flattens the phone battery pretty quickly.

I tried a cheapy RCA to 3.5mm cable and its quite crackly, probably because its cheap?

Do I buy a more expensive one, or what other solutions are there, blue tooth receivers etc....?

Martynt74 · 27 Mar 2019 at 10:10

Chromecast Audio? Probably your best bet and cheap now at around £20

I use a raspberry Pi with Volumio. That allows it to play as an "Airplay" source. Obviously doesn't help unless it's an iphone though and by the usb C connector i'm assuming not. Might be other solutions though with a raspberry pi.

Otherwise, new amp with BT built in?

rodders · 27 Mar 2019 at 16:48

Your latter suggestion is my favourite, but won't be the missus,

skyripper · 27 Mar 2019 at 17:08

Some kind of BT to Optical into the back of the amp.

FurryLemon · 27 Mar 2019 at 18:48

chromecast audio or BT receiver

Scam · 27 Mar 2019 at 22:48

Bluetooth is going to sound pants. Chromecast is the ready made solution here. Works great.

jpaul · 27 Mar 2019 at 23:01

quick google says str1040 supports airplay , so can't you wirelessly bit stream(original aac encode) from either an android or apple device.

... if it it is a phone with a good internal dac eg lgv40. then rca might be an option.

rodders · 28 Mar 2019 at 17:43

My z5 used to connect via WiFi to the amp, my xperia 10 won't do it the same way.

As I missing a trick on how I should be doing it

TALON1973 · 28 Mar 2019 at 19:14

Depends how much money you want to chuck at it. Feed it to a DAC and then to the amp ?

jpaul · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:21

jpaul said:
quick google says str1040 supports airplay

scratch that idea, although you can get android apps that will send data to the , the sending device will re-encode the audio (using host cpu) if it is not apple ALAC format.
Airplay is rubbish in that respect ! (anyone like to refute that ?)

Instead install BubbleUPnP for DLNA

Scam · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:53

TALON1973 said:
Depends how much money you want to chuck at it. Feed it to a DAC and then to the amp ?

I'm not sure why people are making this more complicated than it needs to be. The Chromecast Audio supports mini-optical/toslink out, his amp has an optical in. Therefore by far the easiest and best-sounding solution is going to be a CCA, as it will leave his amp to do the DAC'ing. £20, jobs a good'un.

jpaul · 29 Mar 2019 at 13:40

Scam said:
I'm not sure why people are making this more cheaper-better ~~complicated~~ than it needs to be

he's already got an AV with a better quality dac and built in streaming apps ?

Scam · 29 Mar 2019 at 13:48

jpaul said:
he's already got an AV with a better quality dac and built in streaming apps ?

No, it supports Airplay which his Android phone doesn't.

From his post it sounds like there's some Sony-only solution but he can't get it to work. I'd spend £20 on a CCA and be done with it. It'll be far more reliable than whatever the Sony solution is anyway.

inogen · 29 Mar 2019 at 14:00

I just use a BT receiver and send it to AUX with an RCA cable.

jpaul · 29 Mar 2019 at 17:21

Scam said:
No, it supports Airplay which his Android phone doesn't.

you can get airplay apps for android,

but, agree, we don't not know which protocol may still work quality&battery ranked - dnla>airplay>bluetooth.

"you put the tools in for the job" (R. de.Niro) so running a chromecast, if you have a better internal solution, is not ideal (may get jitter on its optical too)

rodders · 29 Mar 2019 at 21:50

I think sony have dumped the WiFi connectivity on the latest phones, probably as the newer amps have BT.

CCA with optical looks like the solution for me.

Ill try the app suggested above to

Cheers