Using headphones in a different room

My Sony portable (ZX2) has a 'DLNA' app which allows it to find servers over WiFi and play music from my Unitiserve and Synology NAS/Minimserver. No setup required, it just works.

Get the microrendu + chord mojo. <1,000$.

If you only do 16 bit maybe Sonos connect into the Mojo.

Why not use a Muso Qb? I think it's got a headphone socket. Possibly not at the quality you're looking for.

Any sort of network player attached to a headphone amp would work. I have an old Denon 109 that can find my upnp or iRadio wirelessly.

Thanks for all the responses. The Sonos Connect would be a nice solution if it did 24 bit, which I would like to have. I find it interesting that there is no straight forward dedicated solution. Maybe a hardwired solution would be better and might in fact be possible. In a way I would really like to use the Uniti-2 and the Naim app for all this. Am I right assuming that I could use a digital output and a long cable to then go to a headphone DAC/amp ? 

Hi MP,

I just looked and it appears the Uniti2 has a Headphone socket, if so you could just connect a set of wireless headphones that take the audio from there and send via Bluetooth to the Headphones, My Wife has a Sennheiser setup like this connected to a TV and she can use them around the house and most of the garden.

Might be worth a look.

Regards,

Simon.

MP, this is much the same issue that I have. I too am looking for a good quality "one box" solution to tapping in to my UPNP drive as well as providing access to Spotify and Tidal.

The options suggested so far include; Raspberry Pi + DAC or S/PDIF output card + DAC (Chord Mojo), all the way up to Naim NDX.  

I am thinking about getting an StOM SMS - 200 and linking it to my Chord Mojo Dac, but I am put off by the extra box, PSUs and cables!

Many thanks for the suggestion of the StOM SMS - 200, which looks like the best solution in absence of a one box solution. 

Sorry I should have got the name right "SOtM sMS 200 Streamer" 

I had the opportunity to dabble with the roon interface operating through one in a colleague's system, it seemed pretty slick and sounded good to me. 

Just seen that Chord are about to release a unit to called Poly, which is a wireless streaming unit.

ChrisSU posted:

My Sony portable (ZX2) has a 'DLNA' app which allows it to find servers over WiFi and play music from my Unitiserve and Synology NAS/Minimserver. No setup required, it just works.

I have been told that Astell & Kern AK70 also can stream and play music from a server wirelessly via the AK Connect App ...

/Peter

MP posted:

Just seen that Chord are about to release a unit to called Poly, which is a wireless streaming unit.

It mates with the Mojo, which is an extremely good value (as in quality for cost) combined DAC and headphone amp.

i don't have experience of them myself, only big brother Hugo, but reports from others on here suggest Mojo  is very nearly as good, and there are high expectations for the Poly. I have my eye on these for a portable solution one day.

How about a used UnitiQute. Even the first generation can play up to 24/96 and has a headphone port. You can set it up via Wifi to stream from your downstairs Mac mini and use the naim app to control it. I bet you could find one for the same price as a Chord Mojo+Poly, or even less.

A second hand UnitiQute is a really good idea and certainly cheaper than the Mojo+Poly option. I had not thought about it and 24/96 is probably sufficient and maybe the maximum I could do across Wifi anyway. I would really like to just use the Naim app and this is certainly a way to do it. As this is really just for at home I also don't need the portable option the Mojo gives you.

Mojo polly is the answer to your dreams, dont look elsewhere

mojo is good for almost any headphone

polly is expensive but still makes a very good dap and streamer out of mojo

or get a new fiio x3 dap with 2 sd card slots and tidal capability and you dont need a server or anythçng

Sony zx2 is a good choice as well but is a old unit, if you find it for a very good price maybe but be carefull the EU units wont deive anything other than iems 

all naim integrated headphone amps are ok but not so good, ( being very but very polite here - a 150$ chinese dap is better ) nothing near a mojo and also if you want yo listen on a trip or some other room some day,  mojo/polly is mobile, tidal read with a phone and exclennet dac/amp to drive almost everything

MP posted:

A second hand UnitiQute is a really good idea and certainly cheaper than the Mojo+Poly option. I had not thought about it and 24/96 is probably sufficient and maybe the maximum I could do across Wifi anyway. I would really like to just use the Naim app and this is certainly a way to do it. As this is really just for at home I also don't need the portable option the Mojo gives you.

Personally, I think getting another Uniti is a waste of resources if you only want it for headphone use. Also, if Naim streamers have an Achilles Heel, it is their WiFi performance, which can be unusable even with 16/44 streams or less, never mind hi-res. If you do go down this route, you should instal a Cat5 cable. Also, don't underestimate the sound quality you can get from a dedicated portable player. My Sony player sounds very good indeed with IEMs, and I imagine the Mojo/Poly would be better still. I'm sure they would both leave the Qute in the dust for sound quality through headphones.  

Ok, so I have now heard quite a few different opinions, which has been very useful. As always with these things, people have very strong opinions one way or the other. I like the Naim interface but if Wifi performance is the Achilles heel than it makes no sense and I also accept that sound wise the Mojo is probably the better option, and of course I could even travel with it. I have also just realised that the first generation UnitiQute, the one I might get for relatively little money, will not let me stream Tidal, which would probably bother me. I have also remembered now that I can use the JRiver app on my iPhone to stream music that is stored on my Mac Mini (JRiver server software installed). I assume that the Mojo is connected to the iPhone through the lightening connector, which means, if I am not mistaken, that I can stream 24 bit music. So I don't even need the Poly. Is this correct? 

Re last question, yes that is my understanding (assuming the phone can play 24bit), though needs the appropriate lightning to miniUSB cable - IIRC from when I had Hugo, Chord said it had to be the Apple photo cable as there are others that don't do the necessary.

My understanding of Poly is that it brings wireless connectivity, bluetooth for phone for Whatever you can play on that, and wifi to connect to a UPnP server somewhere on your wireless network. It also has a micro SD card socket so thinking of mobile use you could potentially take a huge collection of music (also at home of course).

Polly supposed to be released in April now they talk about June July or something....

I am not sure if you can stream 24bit from I phone, don't think so

But there are many good very cheap daps to use as transport, check head pHonia hidiz got one around 150usd I guess

Going with the poly largely ties you into using the mojo as your dac, but if you like the sound from the mojo, the poly has a very flexible specification for such a tiny package and could form the front end to a home system or act as a complete portable solution. 

I had a play with one at the Bristol show back in Feb and I found it very responsive when playing music from the built in micro sd card, I wasn't able to try network based functions. One area of disappointment for me was Chords use of a third party app for control from either a smart phone or tablet. Presentation of the music collection by this app wasn't great in my opinion. 

Despite my reservations I will be considering one when they become available.

After some quick search for player apps for playing High Res files from the Iphone I stumbled across the NePlaywer app. It enables you to wireless stream music from a server and you can also put high res music of any format onto the iPhone. As long as you play music through the lightening connection and you have the right DAC you can indeed play any format even DSD. Streaming is restricted to maximum of 192/24. I have tried it and it works very well. The only pity is that I can't directly download music stored on my server though the app onto the iPhone as you can do in Spotify or Tidal but I have to user Airdrop from the computer. But otherwise it is really stunning.

Depending on your network gear, you may well be able to make your home collection available to yourself across the internet, which might possibly be accessible by that app. Rather for home use more convoluted than playing across wifi!