[trivium911]

Hi Guys,

those of you with DAP's that offers streaming do you feel you use it alot? Im trying to convince myself not to pickup a DX160 since i already have a DX120 and im loving it. I would hate to purchase something just for the sake of having something new and shiny. How do you use it when you dont have wifi... tether to your phone? I have gotten into streaming a bit but i still prefer to have the actual physical music on hand. For some of the following reasons:
-When im camping many times i dont have service or wifi
-In Canada bandwidth can get expensive when going over.
-Majority of my listening is at my desktop in which case the USB DAC on the DX120 serves me well if i want streaming.

 

[Raketen]

Tried to use the dx120 as USB DAC with your phone? or just getting a small USB dongle if you don't like the phone's audio quality?

Ohterwise, yeah, wi-fi hotspot via phone. Alternately, use streaming apps with download/offline function.

If you don't mind compromising audio quality, another possibility is a bluetooth receiver. Some DAPs have this functionality, but there are also small combination bluetooth receivers/USB DACs like the Radsone ES100.

Personally if I'm on the go, tend to just listen to phone for streaming, sometimes bluetooth receiver.

 

[TubeStack]

I stream with an M11 Pro + Tidal and love it. I only use it at home, don’t travel much. 98% of my listening with it is streaming. I have a few albums I bought from HDTracks for any time where wifi is down or I am away (which hasn't happened yet). I’m in Canada, as well, but have unlimited internet plan.

If I’m listening to music in my car, I just use my phone + Apple Music streaming.

 

[trivium911]

Tried to use the dx120 as USB DAC with your phone? or just getting a small USB dongle if you don't like the phone's audio quality?

Otherwise, yeah, wi-fi hotspot via phone. Alternately, use streaming apps with download/offline function.

If you don't mind compromising audio quality, another possibility is a bluetooth receiver. Some DAPs have this functionality, but there are also small combination bluetooth receivers/USB DACs like the Radsone ES100.

Personally if I'm on the go, tend to just listen to phone for streaming, sometimes bluetooth receiver.

Actually yes I just tried the dx120 with my cell phone with an otg cable I had kicking around and it works pretty good. I guess I always have that option since I carry both my phone and my dx120. I think the biggest annoyance of the DX120 is it's inability to charge while on DAC mode, and the battery life is about 16 hours in that case. Obviously having it charge off a cell phone would be useless but to charge off a desktop would be nice. So really the DX120 plugged into a cell phone is not very portable, but than again you can't stream if you don't have wifi on your DAP anyways unless you have your phone with you for a wifi hotspot. Yes tidal has offline modes but if I was going to do that I might aswell just own the personal usage rights to the music and than I can play it back anywhere. Just curious though, how does spotify and tidal work in offline mode? When your SD card fills up can you swap in a new one...Than swap back?

 

[davidcotton]

With spotify premium I download to play off line as work doesn't have wifi and we can't use phones. Works well, but does my head in that I can't sort artist albums the way I want and spend a few minutes scrolling down the list gets old fast.

 

[trivium911]

With spotify premium I download to play off line as work doesn't have wifi and we can't use phones. Works well, but does my head in that I can't sort artist albums the way I want and spend a few minutes scrolling down the list gets old fast.

Yeah i find that frustrating on spotify, however there is alot of music on spotify that i wouldn't normally have access too. Im really amazed how much content is actually on spotify. This forum is really funny though, sometimes its really easy to lose track of what is most important...which is the MUSIC and not the equipment. Without the music the equipment would be useless, so really there is nothing wrong with using your phone if the rare time you want to do some streaming on the go you will have to compromise on the sound quality a little. I guess in hindsight it does not make sense for me to buy a new player for the 2% of the time i actually NEED a portable streaming device that does it all in one. I would also be losing a second SD card slot which is a great feature.