7 ms·

How hard would it be for them to just take their existing stereo and hook it up to alexa or sonos or some other existing streaming service. If the audio quality

How hard would it be for them to just take their existing stereo and hook it up to alexa or sonos or some other existing streaming service. If the audio quality is good then quality + decent interface seems straightforward?

bamboozled 4y ago
It's pretty hard for a lot of traditional Japanese companies to adapt it seems. Try using a Japanese bank when traveling, wow...
codetrotter 4y ago
There were Onkyo receivers with support for Spotify Connect for example.
- criddell 4y ago
  I have one. It’s a mini system (CS-N575) and it has both Spotify and Chromecast support but no AirPlay support. I bought it because I wanted a small system for my office that I could stream to or play CDs. It works, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. It doesn’t sound great. I thought about buying better speakers but then then I looked up the amp specs and saw 10% THD. I think it’s just a mediocre system.
boulos 4y ago
Many modern receivers support both Chromecast and Airplay, as well as some level of HomeKit / Google Home / Alexa integration. I think for Onkyo, they just fell in an awkward middle. Not as high end as Denon/Marantz/etc. and not as cheap as < cheapest thing you can find >. Combined with the drastic decrease in people "needing" receivers and speakers (many people now just get a sound bar, or Bluetooth speakers) and the market squeezed them.
- doyouevensunbro 4y ago
  Shame, middle was right where I liked to be audio equipment wise. Ive had my Onkyo receiver for a long time, guess when I do finally replace it I’ll go high end.
  - ahartmetz 4y ago
    Consider trying a current generation class D amp first. I switched to the SMSL SA-50 from a pretty decent Marantz. The SA-50 sounds MUCH better for a fraction of the price, and it's tiny and uses very little power.
- mpol 4y ago
  That awkward middle also included the reputation that they would easily break down after a few years, which made many people choose for a different brand.
- garyfirestorm 4y ago
  Unfortunately AirPlay doesn't support Atmos music. Despite spending thousand dollar plus on a Denon and Klipsch setup, I quickly found out that my Apple Music Atmos songs play only as stereo using AirPlay. It's probably Apple's fault...but it reduced the value of my receiver for me. Buy a 7.1 channel setup and effectively listen to only 2 channels :/
  - boulos 4y ago
    Yeah, AirPlay is such a disappointment. I'm thinking about investing more heavily into Chromecast related things since they're more amenable to custom code. Unfortunately, there's no way I'll sign up for any Google-based music service (and I work for Alphabet!). Edit to add: Dolby <anything> is also a bit of a fiasco. LG TVs went through multiple firmware updates to attempt to correctly negotiate Dolby Vision. I appreciate that they want to push audio / video quality, but it seems weird that the industry testing process for integration is so poor.
    - notatoad 4y ago
      Spotify on Chromecast works great!
    - seabrookmx 4y ago
      Spotify works great with Chromecasts. I'm still really bummed they killed the Chromecast audio.. there's workarounds but it was the perfect device IMO. If you're a tinkerer there's also DIY solutions like running snapcast on a Pi.
      - liketochill 4y ago
        I’m running strong with three chrome cast audios and a 1970’s sansui in my living room, a little speaker with line in for the outdoor system, and a jbl boom box with line in in the garage
      - notatoad 4y ago
        I'm also bummed they stopped selling the Chromecast audio. But if you can get your hands on on they still work perfectly.
- codefreeordie 4y ago
  The middle of the market is actually all messy generally these days. The very high end wants systems that feel like current systems, but if you want something in the middle, you don't actually really want the awkwardness associated with having an audio system today. A system of passive speakers, an amplifier or two, and the complexities of the user interface (I can't hear the TV, which of these three remotes do I need to push the "source" button on?) isn't actually a good experience -- and in the middle of the market, there's no particular reason it needs to stay this way. At the highest end, people want analog sound processing. At the bottom end, we have cheap powered smart speakers using Bluetooth for connectivity. In the middle, we could easily have good quality powered speakers and some reasonable mixture of wireless and wired interconnect that didn't require all the legacy nonsense of a separate amplifier/audio receiver.
  - pbronez 4y ago
    There are products there… plenty of good powered monitors available. Some of them have integrated DAC with an optical, line and USB inputs. Those are pretty easy to connect to a TV or whatever. I’m actually hacking on a project to make it easier to sift through all this stuff. The work that Audio Science Review and a (very) few others are pumping out some great objective data on audio equipment performance. My goal is to pull that together in a data-first way that will allow for robust cost/quality/criteria queries.
    - convolvatron 4y ago
      yeah. i mean i understand the value of being able to replace components, but for the not-super-concerning the integrated amp silicon is just fine. digital in means a lot less opportunity for noise injection, and the manufacturer gets to tune it all as a unit. i got some prosumer roland monitors a few years ago and they've had excellent clarity, flat frequency response, plenty of power at 60w on each of the drivers. why aren't there more products here between the crappy little usb speakers and the $5k/channel real gear?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
Bud 4y ago
"Decent interface" is actually very, very hard. That's why a lot people are willing to pay $179 for Apple TV 4K.
pcurve 4y ago
Most a/v units have long offered good connectivity and even mult-room setups using one. So, interoperability and connectivity are easy. Aside from reasons mentioned in the article, you now have 1-2 generations of people who grew up without having much exposure to a/v receivers and large speaker setups, whether at home or big box store electronic stores. Even the ones who have, the marginal benefit of having pricier and higher end units cannot detected easily. Market for receivers will always be around, but it is shrinking for sure.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Detecting differences between decent gear blind has never been terribly relevant to the audiophile market :-) That aside though, a stereo setup is something that a lot of people just had. I have a decent one and it’s wired to multiple rooms. If I were starting from scratch I almost certainly wouldn’t do that today—to say nothing of all the components to play four or five different types of media.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
My circa-2015 Marantz receiver (NR1606) shipped with support for Airplay, Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM, so they’ve had decent connectivity with modern services for some time now. The UI isn’t amazing but that’s barely relevant since those services are typically streamed or controlled by a phone app.
gunapologist99 4y ago
Easy, with built-in Bluetooth. I run my phone with Spotify into my Costco-special Onkyo with Bluetooth. Works great, and I can even play audio with Bluetooth while viewing video through another HDMI port.

bamboozled 4y ago

It's pretty hard for a lot of traditional Japanese companies to adapt it seems. Try using a Japanese bank when traveling, wow...

codetrotter 4y ago

There were Onkyo receivers with support for Spotify Connect for example.

criddell 4y ago
I have one. It’s a mini system (CS-N575) and it has both Spotify and Chromecast support but no AirPlay support. I bought it because I wanted a small system for my office that I could stream to or play CDs. It works, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. It doesn’t sound great. I thought about buying better speakers but then then I looked up the amp specs and saw 10% THD. I think it’s just a mediocre system.

boulos 4y ago

Many modern receivers support both Chromecast and Airplay, as well as some level of HomeKit / Google Home / Alexa integration. I think for Onkyo, they just fell in an awkward middle. Not as high end as Denon/Marantz/etc. and not as cheap as < cheapest thing you can find >. Combined with the drastic decrease in people "needing" receivers and speakers (many people now just get a sound bar, or Bluetooth speakers) and the market squeezed them.

doyouevensunbro 4y ago
Shame, middle was right where I liked to be audio equipment wise. Ive had my Onkyo receiver for a long time, guess when I do finally replace it I’ll go high end.
- ahartmetz 4y ago
  Consider trying a current generation class D amp first. I switched to the SMSL SA-50 from a pretty decent Marantz. The SA-50 sounds MUCH better for a fraction of the price, and it's tiny and uses very little power.
mpol 4y ago
That awkward middle also included the reputation that they would easily break down after a few years, which made many people choose for a different brand.
garyfirestorm 4y ago
Unfortunately AirPlay doesn't support Atmos music. Despite spending thousand dollar plus on a Denon and Klipsch setup, I quickly found out that my Apple Music Atmos songs play only as stereo using AirPlay. It's probably Apple's fault...but it reduced the value of my receiver for me. Buy a 7.1 channel setup and effectively listen to only 2 channels :/
- boulos 4y ago
  Yeah, AirPlay is such a disappointment. I'm thinking about investing more heavily into Chromecast related things since they're more amenable to custom code. Unfortunately, there's no way I'll sign up for any Google-based music service (and I work for Alphabet!). Edit to add: Dolby <anything> is also a bit of a fiasco. LG TVs went through multiple firmware updates to attempt to correctly negotiate Dolby Vision. I appreciate that they want to push audio / video quality, but it seems weird that the industry testing process for integration is so poor.
  - notatoad 4y ago
    Spotify on Chromecast works great!
  - seabrookmx 4y ago
    Spotify works great with Chromecasts. I'm still really bummed they killed the Chromecast audio.. there's workarounds but it was the perfect device IMO. If you're a tinkerer there's also DIY solutions like running snapcast on a Pi.
    - liketochill 4y ago
      I’m running strong with three chrome cast audios and a 1970’s sansui in my living room, a little speaker with line in for the outdoor system, and a jbl boom box with line in in the garage
    - notatoad 4y ago
      I'm also bummed they stopped selling the Chromecast audio. But if you can get your hands on on they still work perfectly.
codefreeordie 4y ago
The middle of the market is actually all messy generally these days. The very high end wants systems that feel like current systems, but if you want something in the middle, you don't actually really want the awkwardness associated with having an audio system today. A system of passive speakers, an amplifier or two, and the complexities of the user interface (I can't hear the TV, which of these three remotes do I need to push the "source" button on?) isn't actually a good experience -- and in the middle of the market, there's no particular reason it needs to stay this way. At the highest end, people want analog sound processing. At the bottom end, we have cheap powered smart speakers using Bluetooth for connectivity. In the middle, we could easily have good quality powered speakers and some reasonable mixture of wireless and wired interconnect that didn't require all the legacy nonsense of a separate amplifier/audio receiver.
- pbronez 4y ago
  There are products there… plenty of good powered monitors available. Some of them have integrated DAC with an optical, line and USB inputs. Those are pretty easy to connect to a TV or whatever. I’m actually hacking on a project to make it easier to sift through all this stuff. The work that Audio Science Review and a (very) few others are pumping out some great objective data on audio equipment performance. My goal is to pull that together in a data-first way that will allow for robust cost/quality/criteria queries.
  - convolvatron 4y ago
    yeah. i mean i understand the value of being able to replace components, but for the not-super-concerning the integrated amp silicon is just fine. digital in means a lot less opportunity for noise injection, and the manufacturer gets to tune it all as a unit. i got some prosumer roland monitors a few years ago and they've had excellent clarity, flat frequency response, plenty of power at 60w on each of the drivers. why aren't there more products here between the crappy little usb speakers and the $5k/channel real gear?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]

Bud 4y ago

"Decent interface" is actually very, very hard. That's why a lot people are willing to pay $179 for Apple TV 4K.

pcurve 4y ago

Most a/v units have long offered good connectivity and even mult-room setups using one. So, interoperability and connectivity are easy. Aside from reasons mentioned in the article, you now have 1-2 generations of people who grew up without having much exposure to a/v receivers and large speaker setups, whether at home or big box store electronic stores. Even the ones who have, the marginal benefit of having pricier and higher end units cannot detected easily. Market for receivers will always be around, but it is shrinking for sure.

ghaff 4y ago
Detecting differences between decent gear blind has never been terribly relevant to the audiophile market :-) That aside though, a stereo setup is something that a lot of people just had. I have a decent one and it’s wired to multiple rooms. If I were starting from scratch I almost certainly wouldn’t do that today—to say nothing of all the components to play four or five different types of media.

kitsunesoba 4y ago

My circa-2015 Marantz receiver (NR1606) shipped with support for Airplay, Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM, so they’ve had decent connectivity with modern services for some time now. The UI isn’t amazing but that’s barely relevant since those services are typically streamed or controlled by a phone app.

gunapologist99 4y ago

Easy, with built-in Bluetooth. I run my phone with Spotify into my Costco-special Onkyo with Bluetooth. Works great, and I can even play audio with Bluetooth while viewing video through another HDMI port.