Hi, I'm new to this forum and am looking for some advice / recommendation. I've have just purchased a Zeppelin Wireless. For the past twenty odd years I had an old Rotel analogue amp and mission speakers. Over the years I bought different separates to hook up to it. Technology started to overtake me two years ago when my sons bought me a blueray player with only digital outputs. I overcame this by purchasing a digital to analogue converter, problem solved. I'm now in 'old man' down size mode and would like to play all my music and cds through the Zeppelin and dump the amp and speakers as they are knackered. I hooked up phonos from the converter to the 3.5 input on the Zeppelin but the sound was distorted. My zeppelin sounds great via Spotify and Bluetooth. Is the converter too powerful? Could the lead be poor quality? I've also just started thinking about getting a Bluetooth transmitter from the Blueray to the Zeppelin as an alternative , thoughts and advice please.
Zeppelin Wireless
- Thread starter Tony14
- Start date
Just be aware that Bluetooth hammers sound quality. It's convenient, sure, but it was never designed to handle the amount of data needed for a decent audio signal.
There are no posted specifications for the signal level that the 3.5mm jack socket will accept. That makes it difficult to say for sure, but you could be right. Did the Blu-ray with the adapter and cable work okay in to the Rotel?
There are no posted specifications for the signal level that the 3.5mm jack socket will accept. That makes it difficult to say for sure, but you could be right. Did the Blu-ray with the adapter and cable work okay in to the Rotel?
Thanks for your reply Lucid. Yeah, all worked fine with the adapter and the rotel, was a different lead though, phono to phono. I do appreciate that the quality with Bluetooth will not be as good. I stream 95% of my music via highest quality Spotify nowadays, so a low cost solution similar to that would be sufficient.
Jack or phono shouldn't make a difference.
Lead quality can be an issue, but that would manifest as interference on top of a clean signal because the lead has inadequate shielding.
I wouldn't rule out a lead problem, but from the brief description it sounds like you might have a level issue or the BD player has reverted to Bitstream or some higher data rate than 44.1kHz PCM which the little converter box can't handle.
First, I would check the BD player settings. All you need is stereo PCM at the common format of 44.1kHz.
There's a quick test you can do to verify the lead. First, if you have a mobile phone that plays music, or a portable MP3 player or portable CD player then try the lead in reverse; jack to phono, connected to the Rotel amp. You might need to turn up the volume on the portable device a bit, but this should show you if the lead is a problem
Lead quality can be an issue, but that would manifest as interference on top of a clean signal because the lead has inadequate shielding.
I wouldn't rule out a lead problem, but from the brief description it sounds like you might have a level issue or the BD player has reverted to Bitstream or some higher data rate than 44.1kHz PCM which the little converter box can't handle.
First, I would check the BD player settings. All you need is stereo PCM at the common format of 44.1kHz.
There's a quick test you can do to verify the lead. First, if you have a mobile phone that plays music, or a portable MP3 player or portable CD player then try the lead in reverse; jack to phono, connected to the Rotel amp. You might need to turn up the volume on the portable device a bit, but this should show you if the lead is a problem
Lucid, checked settings in the Blueray player, they were correct. Reversed the leads, tried new leads all played perfectly through the amp, and phone directly to amp and Zeppelin. Accept as my previous issue, poor quality from converter to zeppelin.
Okay. Good info, thanks.
The same BD player and convertor work fine in to the ROTEL amp. The key difference then is the Zeppelin.
It's an educated guess, but I would say given the evidence that the Zeppelin Aux input is rigged to be higher sensitivity than a regular Line Input for CD/DVD/BD. That makes sense if it's likely to be used with a Chromecast or devices such as MP3 player or some other device normally used with headphones. If it is designed for 1 volt max but is getting more than that then the sound would distort.
The next step is to find out from B&W exactly what the threshold is for the line input, the compare it to the Line Out voltage of the converter.
The same BD player and convertor work fine in to the ROTEL amp. The key difference then is the Zeppelin.
It's an educated guess, but I would say given the evidence that the Zeppelin Aux input is rigged to be higher sensitivity than a regular Line Input for CD/DVD/BD. That makes sense if it's likely to be used with a Chromecast or devices such as MP3 player or some other device normally used with headphones. If it is designed for 1 volt max but is getting more than that then the sound would distort.
The next step is to find out from B&W exactly what the threshold is for the line input, the compare it to the Line Out voltage of the converter.
Thanks Lucid, I was thinking same. That's why I'm thinking of going down the Bluetooth route from the Blueray to the Zeppelin. I don't know anything about Bluetooth transmitters or their compatibility with a Blueray player as most people seem to use them with headphones.