willland Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 13 hours ago, The History Kid said: This thread's journey is over. Thanks to everyone who replied with input! So, a little feedback is in order. Likes, dislikes, what say you? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted January 27, 2018 Author Share Posted January 27, 2018 1 hour ago, willland said: So, a little feedback is in order. Likes, dislikes, what say you? Bill Absolutely. I spent all night last night listening to the network feature of this player, and some of the earlier part with the CD player. First, this player came to me like new. It even smells new still, original box, original packaging...the guy who owned this unit before must have really babied this unit. He said he wasn't really wanting to part with it...I can understand why. First off the CD playback. I used three CD's since I only have three of my CD's at the new house right now. Those were Escape by The Thrillseekers, and 2 Tales Orchestra CD's - the 20th Anniversary one and the 2016 one. The loader is one of the fastest loaders I've dealt with. I don't believe I've ever seen a player load a disc quite as fast as this one did, as quietly as this one did, and keep playback running as silently as this one did. The playback sounded much better than any of the CD transports, players, or changers I've owned have sounded - that includes the ERC-1 (when it worked) and a Sony CD-P85ES. The highs seemed cleaner, the bass seemed smoother, but more robust. One thing I did notice with all sources was the player actually has some gain built into it. If I'm using my MC-700 as a reference, it's about 25 dB worth of gain built into the line. That's nice for me during the day when I like just having something on - but if you're one of those people that likes to leave stuff on at night at a quiet level, this player just isn't going to cooperate with you on that. When playing Escape, I was fully aware of what is normally in these tracks. It's trance in it's finest form, so you'd expect some boomy bass and maybe some shrill highs, but I got neither with this player. The lows were tamed, but authoritative, the highs were crisp but luke warm. I didn't have to worry about adjusting my RSW-15 like I normally do when I use Spotify to listen to the album on my computer - quite nice. With both Tales of Orchestra albums, I gave the mid and highs a run for their money. The player executed the playback of both discs flawlessly. Same crisp highs, and on the occasions that any response dug deep, it made sure the RSW-15 let me know without making me feel like my ears were going to explode. Net Radio is being accomplished by piggybacking the connection off my PC - which a lot of these units really don't like to do, but the Yamaha doesn't seem to mind. I've been playing Smooth Jazz radio since about 10 last night, and am still doing so right now. I think this is where I really notice some of the abilities of the Burr Brown DAC. I've used vTuner features on my R-N500, and my Integra DTM-40.4 (as well as now my DTR-40.3), and all of them inject some form of noise into the line. The player, however, does not. In fact the SQ at times is discernable between CD and Net. It handles the frequency spectrum and response the same way the CD playback gets handled, something I was not expecting, as most net features are generally found to stream at lower quality and permanently bound to the rates of the station stream. While that may still be the case for the stations in vTuner on this unit, it removes any noise flawlessly, no jitter, no stuttering, no distortion. Cons are all about the remotes. I am not a fan of this remote. For starters, if I have a black unit, why would you give me a silver remote? The buttons are tiny, even for someone with good eyes - I use my thumbs for control. These buttons are just terrible. The app doesn't work either. It just simply will not find the player on my network. There isn't even any support for the app on how to configure it or troubleshoot it. I spent an hour on trying to figure it out and gave up. I'll just have to cope with the tiny buttons on the remote, and use my index finger. However, my overall impression is that this unit retailed at $800 for a good reason, and at $325, I believe this was stealing. I'd definitely buy another CD-N going forward. Yamaha has skimped in quality on it's AVR's, but clearly not in hi-fi components. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 14 minutes ago, The History Kid said: Cons are all about the remotes. I am not a fan of this remote. For starters, if I have a black unit, why would you give me a silver remote? The buttons are tiny, even for someone with good eyes - I use my thumbs for control. These buttons are just terrible. I get the remote thing but my Yamaha integrated and player have pretty minimal functions so no problems there for me. Yes, silver for silver, black for black. Sorry the app doesn't work properly. I will do some searching to see if anyone has posted some remedies. I am sure you have seen this. https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/apps/network_player_controller/index.html Dump question to ask a tech savvy fellow like you but do you have a LAN connected to your network? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted January 27, 2018 Author Share Posted January 27, 2018 2 minutes ago, willland said: Sorry the app doesn't work properly. I will do some searching to see if anyone has posted some remedies. I am sure you have seen this. https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/apps/network_player_controller/index.html Dump question to ask a tech savvy fellow like you but do you have a LAN connected to your network? Bill I saw the link last night...it didn't really help much unfortunately. As for the LAN - yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Did you uninstall and reinstall? Is there a driver that must be installed on your computer? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/230947-yamaha-av-controller-app-problem/ http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2042048 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted January 27, 2018 Author Share Posted January 27, 2018 23 minutes ago, willland said: Did you uninstall and reinstall? Is there a driver that must be installed on your computer? Bill Nope. The computer just passes a connection to the device it's connected to, like USB tethering with a smartphone. No drivers or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Does the app work with your R-N500? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted January 27, 2018 Author Share Posted January 27, 2018 3 minutes ago, willland said: Does the app work with your R-N500? Bill The R-N500 is no longer connected to a network, now that it lives in a back bedroom. This is literally the only device that would use the app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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