As a techy, but non audiofile I will be using Sprout in a fairly simple multimedia setup, connecting a Samsung TV to it and streaming my collection of music from a NAS (Networked Attached Storage) using either Synology’s AudioStatin software or PLEX through an AppleTV via airplay.
Any recommendations on the best inputs from the Samsung and/or the AppleTV? Digital to Coax converter or analog through the Mini Jack?
Also wondering about specific cabling recommendations.
Thanks.
As far as the TV is concerned, if you use the digital output you’ll need to configure it to down-mix the audio to 2-channel LPCM as the Sprout isn’t an AV Receiver and can’t decode Dolby Digital or dts variants directly. For TV I’d propose you just use the analog outputs and feed them into the Sprout rather than feed digital. If you do want to feed digital you’ll need to verify that your TV supports a COAX connection (most TVs these days support only an optical SPDIF connection).
To my knowledge Sprout supports neither Apple Airplay nor DLNA/uPNP but rather accepts the Bluetooth A2DP profile with either the default (SBC) codec or the enhanced AptX for wireless. If you don’t want to go the wireless route with your audio streamer you can always connect up the USB digital audio to the Sprout for (what should be) pretty high quality audio.
I know Sprout doesn’t connect via wifi, I was wondering about wired connections between TV, AppleTV, and the Sprout. And I was wondering about digital to COAX converters and if they work well with Sprout.
Fritz
There are many inexpensive digital optical (TosLink) to digital coax converters ($15). Given the price I would give converting optical from the television a try. You will probably get better sound this way.
(BTW, it is the same digital S/PDIF signal, just a different physical format.)
Thanks, Elk. I was wondering if the signal was changed or not through a convertor.
Should be ok. Much depends on how the receiving unit (Sprout) handles incoming data. In this case, Sprout’s really quite good at it because of the way we manage to remove jitter and other artifacts from the streams.
Paul, reading that the Sprout will remove jitter from a signal entering it through the coaxial SPDIF is a bonus. At its price point I doubt that you are using a digital lens so how are you removing the jitter?
Can you also shed light on when the first 100 Sprouts will ship? Thanks.
The receiver we’re using in Sprout is good at removing jitter. It doesn’t do it completely but does well. What’s remarkable to me on Sprout is Bluetooth - which we take the digital signal out of the receiver and run it through Sprout’s receiver and DAC as well. I just set up two Sprout systems, one in each production room at the office for the assembly crews. I used the great sounding Golden Ear monitors and few Sprout with my iPhone. I used only Apple’s download music service through Bluetooth and it sounded remarkably good. I was delighted.
I think we’re still on target to get the first batch at the end of September. They will be ready right near the end of this month and so far I think we’re still planning on air freighting some over to ship. Most will go by ocean and take longer.