Questions about USB interface for mp3 playback (1 Viewer)

[Gorlash]

Okay, we had previously purchased the Denon AVR-X1600H, and it has generally been working well for us. Listening through bluetooth headphones is disappointing, since the Denon does not actually provide any volume control, and max volume output via bluetooth is pretty pathetic, but milady was living with it and was reasonably satisfied... but that's not what this post is about!!

She had decided to listen to mp3 music on a USB stick, plugged into the USB slot on the receiver; she listens via bluetooth headphones... she liked the options that the music app on the receiver gave her, for creating playlists and such...
Well, this ended up being an adventure!! It turns out that after about 3-4 hours of listening to music, the receiver would just shut off, and wouldn't turn on again for about 10 minutes. My first thought was overheating, so we got a laptop cooler and put it on top of the receiver, to push air through; this made no difference in this issue. We called Denon support, discussed the situation with him; he decided that the unit is probably defective, so had us return it under warranty... they handled this issue very nicely, and the unit is on its way to a service center in Huntington Beach, CA at no expense to us.

However, when I was asking about issues with the USB interface, he said he had never previously discussed that interface with anyone; he believed that not many people actually use that plug...

So that brings me to my questions here:
1. Does anyone here ever do this?? Play music (or anything else) via the USB interface?? If so, have you had problems after listening for a few hours?
2. We are thinking of trying a different receiver; the Onkyo TX-NR6100 has built-in Bluetooth transmitter capability, and has good user reviews elsewhere; does anyone know if the USB interface on this device has issues after a few hours of use??
3. Is there any other way to access a database of mp3 music on a HT receiver?? We got the receiver to connect to our home network, but never found any way to access shared drives on our home PCs, mainly because Windows 10 makes this process almost impossible... are there any other ways to do this??

This is so strange; it should be *trivial* to be able to play music from a storage device in this modern world; all these technologies are decades old now!!!

 

[JohnRice]

One suggestion is if you have any iOS devices, AirPlay is astoundingly easy to use for audio playback.

 

[John Dirk]

This is so strange; it should be *trivial* to be able to play music from a storage device in this modern world; all these technologies are decades old now!!!

I agree. Outside of device charging and data syncing, USB is a disappointing mess and Windows networking might be Microsoft's longest running embarrassment as it has simply failed to improve with successive versions of the OS.

Do you have a "smart" Blu Ray player? If so that might be a better choice for DLNA streaming.

 

[Gorlash]

One suggestion is if you have any iOS devices, AirPlay is astoundingly easy to use for audio playback.

hmmm... well, sorta... we have iPad devices, which we use for monitoring our Ring devices and managing our Shark robot vacuum, but they don't have enough storage for milady's mp3 library... all of our main computers are Windows...

 

[John Dirk]

hmmm... well, sorta... we have iPad devices, which we use for monitoring our Ring devices and managing our Shark robot vacuum, but they don't have enough storage for milady's mp3 library... all of our main computers are Windows...

My iPhone 12 has 128GB, way more than enough for my library. Are you using an older iPad with significantly less? If so perhaps it's worth it to pay for more via iCloud?

 

[Gorlash]

Okay, all, please stay on topic... my question is about reliability of USB interface on various HT receivers; does anyone actually have experience with this option???

 

[JohnRice]

3. Is there any other way to access a database of mp3 music on a HT receiver??

You asked. We're trying to answer.

 

[Gorlash]

You asked. We're trying to answer.

Ahhh... okay, agreed... My original post drifted off topic itself...

I wish I had split this into two separate messages; I *am* interested in other options for getting mp3 into the receiver (i.e., question 3), but I also specifically wanted feedback on any experience with the USB interface on this and other receivers...

 

[JohnRice]

Ahhh... okay, agreed... My original post drifted off topic itself...

I wish I had split this into two separate messages; I *am* interested in other options for getting mp3 into the receiver (i.e., question 3), but I also specifically wanted feedback on any experience with the USB interface on this and other receivers...

I do that, but use the method John Dirk suggested, using the USB on a Blu-Ray player. In that case, I have an SSD connected directly to it. In the end, that's just a better solution than trying to network to a remote drive.

 

[Gorlash]

I do that, but use the method John Dirk suggested, using the USB on a Blu-Ray player. In that case, I have an SSD connected directly to it. In the end, that's just a better solution than trying to network to a remote drive.

hmmm... okay, I'll try that once we get the receiver back... thank you *and* @John Dirk for your suggestions... I'll check and see if either of our BluRay units have a USB input; they're both a few years old, so might need to look into a new unit.

 

[JohnRice]

Ultimately, this is a feature that's more theoretical than anything. It also varies greatly by manufacturer and model. I already mentioned what is by far the best and most reliable method for sharing media, and that's AirPlay. It's built into basically every receiver these days.

 

[Gorlash]

Ultimately, this is a feature that's more theoretical than anything. It also varies greatly by manufacturer and model. I already mentioned what is by far the best and most reliable method for sharing media, and that's AirPlay. It's built into basically every receiver these days.

Oh!! Yes, I didn't respond to you, sorry... I'm actually going to look into that as well, once we get the receiver back...

I just realized that I can run AirPlay on my Windows machine, by installing iTunes 10 or later; I might try that, rather than buying a more-expensive Apple device... if that doesn't work, though, we'll look into getting a higher-end iPad...

 

[Gorlash]

Ultimately, this is a feature that's more theoretical than anything. It also varies greatly by manufacturer and model. I already mentioned what is by far the best and most reliable method for sharing media, and that's AirPlay. It's built into basically every receiver these days.

Hi @JohnRice ; do you mind if I ask an iPad question here?? I'm looking at iPad Air devices with 128GB, and I see 4th, 5th, 6th Generation devices available... do I care about generation, if my main concern is reliable AirPlay performance??

 

[JohnRice]

Hi @JohnRice ; do you mind if I ask an iPad question here?? I'm looking at iPad Air devices with 128GB, and I see 4th, 5th, 6th Generation devices available... do I care about generation, if my main concern is reliable AirPlay performance??

I wouldn't go back more than one generation. The issue is how long the device will be usable, and the older it is, the shorter it's operational life will be. The current iPad Air is kind of expensive, though. A basic model might be fine, as long as it's available with enough memory.

Currently Apple has refurb 8th Gen iPad with 128GB of memory for $350.

 

[Gorlash]

I wouldn't go back more than one generation. The issue is how long the device will be usable, and the older it is, the shorter it's operational life will be. The current iPad Air is kind of expensive, though. A basic model might be fine, as long as it's available with enough memory.

Currently Apple has refurb 8th Gen iPad with 128GB of memory for $350.

Oh, that's interesting; I'll take another look; all the 128GB devices that I found, were all older gens, which is why I posted this question... I'll look again. Thanks!!

 

[JohnRice]

Oh, that's interesting; I'll take another look; all the 128GB devices that I found, were all older gens, which is why I posted this question... I'll look again. Thanks!!

The current models seem to be in 64GB or 256GB, so that's probably why that's all you found with 128GB.

 

[Gorlash]

The current models seem to be in 64GB or 256GB, so that's probably why that's all you found with 128GB.

Hah!! and I just noticed that your link points to Apple store! I was looking on Amazon... I'm just a creature of habit!!

 

[JohnRice]

Hah!! and I just noticed that your link points to Apple store! I was looking on Amazon... I'm just a creature of habit!!

Apple is a good resource for refurbs. They are basically no different from new product, with full warranty. Just be sure to buy directly from Apple.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Going back to your original/main question/issue, if your router has a USB port for external HDD or flash drive and supports something like UPnP media server w/ that, have you tried using that w/ the flash drive plus whatever HEOS app and/or streaming capabilities of the Denon AVR?

I haven't really gone that route myself (even though I have my ripped music stored on a RAID drive on my network) -- IIRC, only briefly tested it using my Oppo player, which seemed extremely clunky and/or unreliable for that over network.

I did occasionally stream using DTS Play-Fi via my PC to my Anthem prepro, but found that a bit too spotty/flakey for me...

_Man_

 

[Gorlash]

Going back to your original/main question/issue, if your router has a USB port for external HDD or flash drive and supports something like UPnP media server w/ that, have you tried using that w/ the flash drive plus whatever HEOS app and/or streaming capabilities of the Denon AVR?

I haven't really gone that route myself (even though I have my ripped music stored on a RAID drive on my network) -- IIRC, only briefly tested it using my Oppo player, which seemed extremely clunky and/or unreliable for that over network.

I did occasionally stream using DTS Play-Fi via my PC to my Anthem prepro, but found that a bit too spotty/flakey for me...

_Man_

Yeah, I've been pondering that as well... My TP-Link router *does* have a USB slot on it, though I don't have any idea how to interface between the router and the receiver; is that what HEOS is for ?? The latter is something else that I've heard of, but don't know anything about...
With my previous router, I had tried plugging in an external USB drive to enable file sharing between our two PCs, but it caused the drive to run dangerously hot, so I unplugged it. Haven't tried that with the new router, but that's another option that is worth looking at, once we get the receiver back.