I like to listen to music or recordings of tree frogs and crickets when I'm going to sleep so I've had a stereo system set up in the bedroom for years. The system consisted of an old (1983) Luxman RX-103 receiver, a SqueezeBox Touch to stream music from my server, and a pair of 20 YO Canton Ergo 22 DC speakers. The receiver was too big for the nightstands, so it sat on the dresser near the wall opposite the bed. Running speaker wires all over the bedroom wasn't an option, so the speakers were on the dresser, too. Unfortunately, that required turning the volume relatively high which might disturb my neighbors late at night because the walls/floors/ceilings are a little thin in this building.
An ideal system would fit on the nightstands near the bed so the volume could be kept to a reasonable, late-night level, but there was already too much junk on the nightstands, including table lamps. I started by getting rid of the lamps and replaced them with a couple PS 2014 hanging lamps from Ikea. It turns out that besides not taking up any space on the nightstands, they throw very nice patterns on the walls! They don't provide a whole lot of light, even when open, but that's OK for me.
The new system in place. You can just see the new amp in the left corner beside the speaker.
This is what it looks like with the lamps open.
A lot of the other stuff was disposed of or put in drawers and the result is that one nightstand has a speaker and my phone charger, and an alarm clock, and the other has a speaker, the new amplifier, and a CPAP machine. It looks a lot nicer, and is easier to keep dusted.
WAP!
When I was looking for amplifiers, I initially thought I'd continue using the SB Touch streamer. So I looked at the small class D amps by Fosi, Wiim, Marantz, Eversolo, and a few others. It occurred to me that the Wiim Pro Plus streamer in my living room system plays music from my Lyrion Music Server just fine, so maybe I could buy an amp with a built in streamer that would replace both the Luxman receiver and the SB Touch. Some of the amps I looked at had built in streaming with touchscreens on the front panel, but I decided I didn't need that as I'd be using my phone to control it anyway. I almost never used the touchscreen on the SB Touch.
After much digging through reviews and specs, I settled on the Wiim Amp Pro (WAP). It's small, has more than enough power for my purpose, and has a built in streamer that works with my server and Tidal Connect, just like the WPP in the living room. Both players can be synchronized so they play the same music at the same time (nice when I'm cleaning the condo).
The WAP has toslink, USB, HDMI, and line inputs. It also has BlueTooth in and out but doesn't support high quality codecs (yet). There is no phono preamp. It has built-in graphic and parametric EQ with room correction(!) called RoomFit, and real bass management that can apply high pass to the audio in the WAP, and low pass to the subwoofer output. The Wi-Fi antenna is built into the case so there's no ugly antenna sticking up from it.
Front panel- just a few LEDs and the volume knob with play/pause button.
Back side of the WAP. Yes, power supply is built in!
Speaker connections are solid! The speaker binding posts grip banana plugs securely.
The side holes easily allow 12 gauge wire, if you feel you must.
Bottom of the WAP. The holes along the sides and bottom are all they need to ventilate this thing thanks to the efficient class D amplifiers.
When I got the amp, I connected it to my Wi-Fi network via the Wiim Home app on my phone (already there for the WPP in the living room system), and it immediately started updating its firmware. After a few minutes it was ready to go. Lyrion Music Server saw it as a player without any messing around. Everything just worked exactly as it should, unlike so many other things these days. It's been in the system for about two weeks and I haven't had even the slightest trouble with it.
The amp can be controlled via Wi-Fi (phone or tablet) or its own Bluetooth remote control, so I don't need to access the front panel of the amp at all, and it may end up under the bed, out of sight, if it can get a decent Wi-Fi signal down there.
Technical stuff
The WAP uses TI TPA3255 class D amplifiers to drive the speakers. They are very efficient compared to class A or AB amplifiers. That efficiency is achieved by switching the output transistors on (very low resistance) and off (very high resistance) at hundreds of kHz, so they spend very little time between those states generating heat. That efficiency means they don't need large heatsinks which minimizes the size and cost of the amplifier. The PWM output from the transistors is run through a low pass filter to create a smooth analog output waveform that drives the speaker.
Unlike class A and AB amplifiers, class D amps don't normally provide a lot of dynamic headroom. This amp is rated for 60W at 8 Ohms (and 100W into 4), and that's all you'll get from it. That means if you're driving inefficient speakers and/or your room is large, it may not play as loudly as you'd like before it distorts audibly. Neither of these are problems in my situation.
I was curious about the switching frequency used so I connected the amp to an 8 Ohm dummy load and my Siglent digital oscilloscope to see what the output looked like when there was no music playing. Here's what I found:
This is the output of the amp with no music playing- about 600 mVpp at about 595 kHz. It's far beyond audible frequency range, even if you have golden ears, but could pose a problem if you're trying to listen to MW or SW radio anywhere near this amp. This signal could be the output switching clock leaking through, or it could be from the power supply that is also a switching circuit.
I used the scopes FFT to look at the spectrum of the output and found plenty of harmonics of the 595 kHz output.
That output looks ugly, but there's no audible component of it coming from my speakers, even with my ear close to the tweeter.
Here's noise in the audio band from 10 Hz to 20 kHz. It looks very quiet except for a little 60 Hz from the power line.
My scope's FFT is OK, but it's not an audio analyzer. I suggest that if you want to see a real detailed technical review, you check out Audio Science Review.
I have read online that some people complain of a whining sound coming from the amplifier. If I press my ear against the top cover of the amp I can hear a very faint whine, but there's nothing audible (to my 67 YO ears) otherwise.
Using it
It seems to pick up 5 GHz Wi-Fi very well (plays 24 bit, 48 ksps music via Tidal without buffering), so I haven't had to use the ethernet port to connect to my network like I did with the SB Touch. The front panel has only a status LED that changes colors to indicate different things, a few more LEDs to indicate the relative volume level, and a single encoder knob with a built in push button to control volume and play/pause music.
The volume control has an odd feel to it, almost like turning the knob in a soft piece of rubber. There are no detents. I have noticed that changing volume by any of the available means seems to react a little slowly- it takes a fraction of a second for the volume to change when I start turning the knob, so I tend to turn it a little further than needed for the change I want to make.
The unit has a BT remote control with a mic built in for doing the "hey Google" or "Alexa" thing. I don't use either, so I can't comment on the performance. You can put the amp out of sight - under the bed, in my case- or in a cabinet or drawer because it doesn't use IR for the remote control. The remote control's mic can't be used for RoomFit equalization tests.
The RoomFit function is a nice extra that you may or may not want to use depending on how picky you are about the sound. What it does is send a swept tone through the speakers, measuring the response in your listening position with a mic (usually in your phone or tablet running the Wiim Home app), and then it generates an equalization curve that alters the frequency response of the amp to achieve optimal sound quality. An uncalibrated mic's frequency response or directivity patterns are unknown so results of RoomFit using the mic in your phone or tablet will be questionable at best. For better results, you can get a calibrated mic (like my UMIK-1 that I used to check resonance when I was rebuilding the Quads) that plugs into a phone or tablet, and RoomFit can use the mic's calibration file when it does its magic.
The amp sounds great with the Cantons, as expected. I haven't tried driving the Quads with it yet to see if it sounds any different from the A12 amp that's in the living room system, but soon. I expect it will sound the same/fine until it starts to distort (if I can run it that loud without freaking out the neighbors).
The Quads can't play very loudly compared to "normal" speakers, mostly because the narrow spacing between the stators in the drivers limits the diaphragm excursion when playing low frequencies. The WAP's bass management could be used to set up a biamped system in which the low frequencies are sent to a subwoofer (keeping them out of the Quads) which would allow the Quads to play much louder than they could otherwise. More experiments to follow.
I've been living with the SofaBaton remote control for several months now and have run into some issues with it. It works the way it is supposed to, and the battery usually lasts 10 days or so between charges, but there are some fundamental operational problems.
If I have 3 activities set up, say one to watch TV, one to listen to Tidal, and one to listen to Tidal with visuals on the TV, as long as the system is off at the start I can switch any of those on and they will work fine, and I can power the system off and that will work just fine. The problem shows up when I want to switch from one activity to another.
If I switch from watching TV to listening to music, the TV and Nvidia Shield Pro should turn off, but the TV doesn't always turn off for some reason (I need to dig deeper to figure out why). You can get around that by programming new activities to switch from one activity to another, turning off the devices not needed and turning on the ones you need, but there's a math problem. If you have n activities programmed, in order to freely switch between any two activities, you have to create P additional activities where P equals the permutations of n activities taken two at a time. The formula is:
P=n!/(n-2)!
With 3 activities, you need 6 additional activities to switch between any of them. God help you if you have 6 activities- you'll need 30 additional activities to handle every possible switch!
The answer, of course, is to simply shut down the entire system when you want to change activities. For most people/systems, that is easier than programming (and searching through) all those switches.
My system is a special problem. The amplifier has a 30 second delay, every time it is powered up, during which it won't accept any remote control (or front panel) input. When I program activities that turn on the amplifier, I put a 30 second delay in the activity immediately after the command to power up the amplifier. When I switch activities, the SofaBaton software (which is smart enough to know the amp is already on, so it doesn't toggle power) runs the 30 second delay, even though the amp is already on and warmed up. That means every time I switch activities, I have to wait 30 seconds. If I were to switch inputs to the amp to one that is already on and very loud, I wouldn't be able to turn down the volume for 30 seconds! The SofaBaton software sees the amplifier power-on and 30 second delay as two separate things, and I need it to see them as one thing. I have contacted SofaBaton support about it, so maybe a future update will have some sort of power on+delay treated as a single thing instead of two separate things.
If I were using the remote controls for the individual devices to switch activities, I might just change the input on the amp and power off the TV. You can access all those functions with the SofaBaton remote control, but the individual device remote controls are buried a couple menus deep and I find it's a lot quicker to pick up one of the individual remote controls than it is to step through the SofaBaton menus to get at the same control functions, which sort of argues against bothering with the SofaBaton at all.
An alternative approach is to have one activity to power on everything in the system, and use other activities just to switch inputs and outputs. But it seems sort of silly and wasteful to have the TV powered up when I just want to listen to music. OK, so maybe one audio-only activity that powers up everything except the TV and another that powers up everything including the TV.
My brain is starting to hurt.
The conclusion to all this is that while it's pretty good, the SofaBaton isn't necessarily the ideal solution to juggling remote controls. It will depend on your system and the types of activities you want to program (and switch between). Unfortunately, it takes living with it for a while to figure out if it will work for your system and the way you use it.
Update 3/17/25
I want to put this right at the top so everyone thinking about getting a SofaBaton will see it. The SofaBaton Android app requires a GPS radio in order to scan for BlueTooth devices (even though Android 12 and later does not). That means if you're going to use a tablet as a controller or even just to set up the SofaBaton remote control, you need to make sure it has a GPS radio built in. My Google Pixel tablet does not and I can't use it with the SofaBaton app.
If I had to guess, they keep that requirement in the SofaBaton app for compatibility with older versions of Android OS.
Now back to the original post...
A couple months ago I subscribed to Tidal music streaming service. The music selection is great, everything streams at CD quality or better, and the price is right ~$12 per month.
During the two months I've been streaming Tidal to my Squeezebox Touch via Lyrion Music Server (LMS) using a plugin, it has been a little less than ideal. Tidal has a lot of features accessible through the Tidal Android app, that doesn't work with the LMS Tidal plugin. I don't think LMS allows the high res streaming, but I'm not entirely sure, so don't quote me. Anyway, I wanted to use all the features in Tidal, especially lyrics display, so I started looking at streamers that support Tidal natively.
I looked at streamers by Eversolo, Bluesound, Cambridge Audio, Wiim, and a few others, up to about $2k. The SB Touch taught me that I don't need the streamer to have much of a UI on the box -I can't read the display across the room, and it sits low in my equipment rack and I don't want to bend over to touch the buttons. I decided a graphical UI, which tends to drive up the price on units like the Cambridge Audio and the Eversolo players, was unnecessary.
That said, there's a strong case to be made for a local (on the box itself) UI in a streamer. If the box has no local UI, it is entirely dependent on an app that runs on a phone or tablet. In 10 years time, will we still be running apps on phones/tablets? What will happen to the streamer if there's a phone/tablet OS update that breaks the functionality of the streamer? Will streaming music services still exist? Will it matter? Will I care? The only thing I know for sure is that a bricked $200 device is preferable to a bricked $2k device.
After comparing specs and checking reviews I decided on the Wiim Pro Plus (WPP). It supports Tidal natively, so I'll be able to use Tidal Connect with it. It also has SqueezeLite built in so it works with LMS. There are about a million subjective reviews of the WPP (and other streamers) on the web, and one detailed technical review with measurements at Audio Science Review. The measured performance is very good, even compared to many more expensive units. The Wiim Pro Plus costs $220. The user manual is here.
When the WPP arrived I replaced the SqueezeBox Touch with it, using the analog out from the WPP to connect to an aux input on my Advance Paris A12 amplifier. I connected the ethernet port on the WPP directly to the mesh router that it sits next to on the equipment rack.
The SqueezeBox Touch, Wiim Pro Plus, and router. The Wiim box is connected to the router via ethernet to ensure reliable connection, especially for high resolution audio streaming. The Wiim box is replacing the SqueezeBox Touch that will be moved to the bedroom system.
The first thing I did was to check to see if it showed up as a player in LMS. Sure enough, it showed up, but as two players. I tried sending some music to it and both of them worked, but only one at a time. I posted messages at the LMS forums and Wiim forums and quickly found out that I had to turn off the CastBridge and/or UPNP plugins in LMS. I had CastBridge on because I previously used a ChromeCast dongle and a sound bar with ChromeCast built in as players.
This is how the WPP shows up in LMS. I have only one WPP but it shows up twice because I had the CastBridge plugin enabled in LMS.
This is how it looks after disabling the ChromeCast plugin in LMS and restarting the server. All good!
Next I installed the Wiim Home app on my phone and went through the full setup process, starting with firmware update, setting up the remote control, and finally linking it to my Tidal account. Everything was very easy to do and there were absolutely zero problems. The Wiim people seem to know what they are doing software-wise!
Finally, I installed the Tidal app on my phone and tried it out. Again, no problems were encountered. This whole thing has to be the easiest setup of a relatively complex piece of hardware/software I have ever experienced. Super easy, start to finish!
Note: the Wiim box has a few buttons on the front panel. They are mostly there for convenience if you happen to be standing close to the box and want to adjust playback volume (which you could do by turning the volume knob on the amplifier), pause playback, etc. You can select one preset for playback- not sure if that means one song, or one source, like Tidal.
You can select music to play on either the Tidal app, the Wiim app, or the LMS app, but you only get the full Tidal experience by using the Tidal app. If you use the Wiim or LMS apps you can't see song lyrics, for example. When you select music to play on the Tidal app, it will try to play on the phone or tablet you're using the app on. You send it to the Wiim box by clicking the TidalConnect icon on the screen:
The red circle is the TidalConnect button that sends the music to the Wiim Pro Plus. Clicking the green circled button turns on lyrics display on the phone/tablet as the music is playing.
This is how lyrics are presented. With most songs the lyrics scroll to keep up with the music and get highlighted as above. I noticed that if you missed what was sung, you can tap the lyric and the music will jump back to that point and play again from there.
Remote Control Consolidation (or not)
I've been juggling five remote controls to operate my TV and sound system, and the Wiim box adds a sixth. This is getting ridiculous! I ordered a Broadlink RM4 Pro Wi-Fi enabled IR blaster and it arrived on the same day as the Wiim box. The RM4 is a universal (well, almost- no Bluetooth LE) IR and RF (433 MHz) controller that can learn codes from a large online database and from the remote controls directly, in case they aren't already in the database.
My intention was to set up an Android tablet with Tidal and RM4 apps so I can use the tablet to control the system and select music on Tidal and display album art, lyrics, etc. To that end I also ordered a Google Pixel tablet.
I was able to set up the RM4 on my network and install the phone app and get it talking to the RM4 without too much messing around. Then I set up my TV from the RM4's own database. My Advance Paris A12 amp wasn't in the database, so I set that up myself. The RM4 app allows you to add any device not in the database and to select buttons and program them by pointing the remote control at the RM4. The UI is a little tricky, but once you figure it out it's not too hard to use.
Once I had the amp set up, I programmed a macro so one button will turn on the TV and amp and switch the amp to the TV. That's when I realized that my dream of a single, graphic UI remote to control everything was maybe not going to come true.
I use a Shield TV Pro on the TV instead of the TVs built in youtube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime functions because the Shield TV Pro upscales to 4k better than the TV does. Unfortunately, the Shield TV Pro (and the Wiim Pro Plus) uses Bluetooth LE remote control. Even though my phone has Bluetooth built in (as does the Pixel tablet), the RM4 app doesn't have any means of controlling the Bluetooth radio in the phone/tablet (WTF?). That means I still have to juggle multiple remote controls. That is exactly the problem I'm trying to fix.
I returned the RM4 to amazon and ordered a SofaBaton X1S. It will control everything, including BT LE devices, via its remote control, but not via an Android tablet. That means I'll have to juggle just the SofaBaton remote and the Android tablet when I want to listen to music from either Tidal or LMS. It's not ideal, but it seems to be as close as I can get to controlling everything from the tablet.
The SofaBaton has some very powerful features that are accessible through an API. This video, by a very fast talking Scot (?) is interesting:
I am amazed that what I am looking for doesn't already exist. Maybe Broadlink's next gen hub will include BT LE control, or SofaBaton's next app release will include a web interface to control things without using the handheld remote control device. Either would work fine for me.
I'll update this post when the SofaBaton arrives and I've had a chance to play with it.
The Tablet
I looked at a lot of tablets- I wanted about 9-11" display for easy holding and reading, up to date Android OS, and some assurance of future updates. I was hoping for an OLED display, but all those tablets were a bit too pricy. Then I checked the Google Pixel tablet. I had looked at it in the past, but it was a bit too expensive for my uses for a tablet at that time, so passed it by. When I took a look again, it was on sale, and I had a store credit from Google from when I bought my phone two years ago, so it ended up costing $200. I looked at other $200 tablets and none came close, so I bought the Pixel. It should have 3 years of updates coming, so I won't have to think about it much for a while.
I put the tablet on my network, updated it to Android 15, installed the Tidal, Wiim, and Squeezer LMS apps and it was ready to go. One very nice feature is that it has a fingerprint sensor on the power switch, so I don't have to log in to use it. All I have to do is pick it up and turn it on.
I can control volume by using the volume buttons on the tablet, so I think that once the system is turned on and switched to the Wiim input via the remote control, I'll be able to do what I need with just the tablet, until time to shut the system down. Then I'll have to pick up the remote control again. It's still juggling, but what else can I do?
Tidal on the Pixel tablet.
Check back here again for updates on the SofaBaton remote control and anything else I run into using the system. I'm going to keep searching for other remote control options that can be controlled entirely from the tablet. If I find one, it will show up here.
Update 2/25/25
I received the SofaBaton X1S remote control. It can do IR, BT LE, and Wi-Fi (for just a few things including Roku). It can also talk to Google Home and Alexa. I tried to install the SofaBaton app on my tablet and discovered it requires a GPS radio, which my tablet doesn't have. WTF! Why on earth would a remote control need to have a GPS radio?
I installed the SofaBaton app in my phone and started setting up remote controls for all my stuff. The IR stuff was fine, and my Advance Paris A12 amp already had an entry in the database, though I'm not sure I like how the keys were assigned (that can be edited), and it had the BT LE remote for my Nvidia Shield TV Pro ready to go.
The SofaBaton is a complex device and it will take me a while to figure out how to configure everything correctly. If I run into any major issues, I'll post them here. One thing I discovered immediately was that I can't set up the SofaBaton using the tablet- for some reason SofaBaton requires a GPS radio (that the Pixel tablet doesn't have) for location sensing. Why does a TV remote control need to have GPS? I used my phone to set up the SofaBaton.
When it was time to set up the Wiim Pro Plus BT LE remote control, I couldn't get it to work, so I chatted with someone from SofaBaton and they said they did not have the codes for the Wiim remote control, so no can do. But don't worry, all is not lost!
The SofaBaton remote allows you to set up activities/macros so you can do things like push a single button to turn on the TV and amplifier and switch the amplifier to the TV. I should be able to set up macros for listening to music, watching TV, etc. I realized that since I can't control everything from the tablet (ridiculous!), I was going to have to switch between the SofaBaton remote control and the tablet when I want to listen to streaming music (I did set up my CD player's IR remote control in the SofaBaton). The SofaBaton has no way to select music to stream, so it's OK that I have to use the tablet for that.
I played with the tablet a bit and found that the WPP can be turned on via the tablet. When I select music to play via Tidal, it starts to play on the tablet until I hit the cast button to send it to the WPP. If the WPP is off, it turns on and plays as intended. Likewise, the Squeezer app has the ability to turn the WPP on and off and play music from LMS. It seems that the Wiim's remote control is about as useless as the buttons on its front panel. I may not be able to turn the WPP on via the SofaBaton, but I can via the music players on the tablet, so it's all good!
I have some motorized curtains that I was hoping to be able to control using the SofaBaton. It apparently can control either 433 MHz and 315 MHz devices. I tried to set it up to control my curtains but it doesn't seem to see the signal from the curtain remote control. I'm not sure what frequency the curtain transmitter uses- more research is required. Anyway, if that never works, it's not a deal breaker for me.
Update 2/26/25
I've been playing with the SofaBaton and had some setup problems, but I think I've got it figured out now. The first step is to set up all your individual remote controls. I ignored SofaBaton button assignments and just entered functions for each button on the original remote control, and once those were done and working I went in and assigned buttons on the SofaBaton to those functions that made the most sense. My CD player's remote control has >20 buttons, but there aren't that many buttons on the SofaBaton. The most basic functions are assigned to the buttons on the SofaBaton but if I want to use one of the other functions of the original remote, I select "devices" on the SofaBaton menu, then scroll to the device, then select the original function I want to operate using the scroll wheel, then push down on the scroll wheel to activate that function. It's sort of like juggling remote controls but in software instead of hardware.
Here's a pretty good tutorial about setting up the SofaBaton, and there are about 100 others on Youtube:
I ran into two functions on my amplifier's remote control that the SofaBaton just couldn't learn for some reason. One of them is the ability to switch speakers (A, B, or A+B) and the other is switching to the CD input via a single button push (I can still step through inputs to get to CD). I'll be talking to tech support about it.
My LG TV has a gyroscopic remote control that's used to point to and select menu items. I have to figure out how to bring up the input menu and step through them using just button pushes, then set that up in the SofaBaton. It's a little confusing, but doesn't require a degree in rocket science.
Update 2/27/25
I set up the TV and Shield pro controls from the SofaBaton database today.
I also managed to get the SofaBaton to recognize the CD input button on the A12 remote control. That's important because when I set up activities on the SofaBaton, I have to be able to set the specific input that the activity requires on the amplifier. There's no way to do that directly because the amp remote control doesn't have dedicated buttons for each input (there are 20 of them!), except for the single CD input. So it serves as the starting point to access other inputs by stepping through them one by one, using the Input +/- buttons.
For example, I set up an activity to watch TV via the Shield Pro. The command sequence is to turn on the Shield Pro, turn on the TV, switch the TV input to HDMI 1 (that's where the Shield pro is plugged in), turn on the A12 amplifier, wait 30.5 seconds (for tube warm-up), then switch its input to CD, then rotate through the inputs using 9 presses of the "Input -' button to get to the Optical 3 input that I use for the TV sound. The delay is required because the amplifier can't respond to any input during the 30 second warm-up.
From that point, the volume and muting controls for the A12 are handled by the SofaBaton volume and mute buttons, and all the other SofaBaton buttons are assigned to the Shield Pro control. When I want to watch Netflix, YouTube, or prime Video, those selections are all done via the buttons on the SofaBaton. I don't really need to have a dedicated activity for watching Netflix and another for YouTube, etc.
One other point- I disabled the CEC control in the TV so that its power on/off are not controlled via the HDMI cable connected to the Shield Pro. In order to have reliable control via the SofaBaton, each device has to have its own power on/off controlled only by the Sofabaton. The SofaBaton keeps track of which devices are on and which are off at any given moment. If a device gets turned on or off without the SofaBaton, it doesn't know, and might end up turning something off when it should be turning on.
Update 2/28/25
I set up a couple simple activities on the SofaBaton and they are working as intended. It took some messing around to get the amplifier input switching working right (because the amp has no direct input switching). I also noticed that if I switch from listening to music to watching TV the system is smart enough to skip the power switching in the amplifier (because it is already on), but not the 30 second delay that's used in the Music activity to allow the amp's tubes to warm up. So when I switch to TV from Music, there's an unnecessary 30 second delay before the amplifier switches its input to the TV- i.e. no TV sound for 30 seconds. I think I can live with it.
Now I'm thinking about the possibilities of adding other controls. I have some table lamps in the living room that switch on at sunset. They are reflected on the TV screen, so when I watch TV, I frequently turn them off. I also have a very large window behind the couch that reflects on the TV screen, with a motorized curtain. It would be nice to set it up so that when I switch to TV, the curtain would close (if it's open) and the table lamps would switch off (if they are on).
More study is required!
Update 3/17/25
A few more details about setting up and using the SofaBaton remote control...
When you set up an "activity" (a macro) you first select the devices that will be involved in the activity, and then assign the SofaBaton remote control buttons for that activity. For example, my "Watch ShieldTV" activity includes the ShieldTV Pro, the LG TV, and the A12 amplifier. The SofaBaton remote control buttons are assigned so the volume and mute functions operate the A12 amplifier and all the others work on the ShieldTV Pro.
While an activity is running, the SofaBaton buttons are disabled and there is an animated green line under the name of the activity on the SofaBaton remote control's screen. Once the activity finishes, the buttons are activated, and the name of the activity is highlighted in green.
The green text indicates that this activity is in use, and buttons on the remote control are assigned for that activity. In this case, the volume and mute buttons on the remote are assigned to the A12 amp and the rest of the buttons operate the ShieldTV Pro.
The "Watch Shield" activity was in use (that's why it is green) and I switched to "Play Tidal Music". The green line under "Play Tidal Music" indicates that that activity is running (and the buttons on the remote won't do anything).
My A12 amplifier doesn't have 1:1 dedicated input selection buttons. Fortunately, there are input +/- buttons that will step through all the inputs, and there is a CD input button that will always switch the amp to the CD input. When I want to watch TV, I need the amp input to switch to the Opt 3 input. In the Watch Shield activity, the remote is programmed to first switch to the CD input then to step through the inputs by hitting the Input - button 9x.
This is the start-up sequence for the Watch Shield activity, continued in the image below. The A12 Amplifier (Source:CD) statement doesn't actually do anything because the amplifier can't receive remote commands until its 30 second warm-up delay has elapsed.
This image overlaps the one above- after the A12 Amplifier (CD) statement, there are 9 A12 Amplifier (input-) statements to switch to the Opt 3 input that I use for the TV.
You can operate everything from a tablet (if it has GPS) or phone instead of using the SofaBaton remote control, but the UI is designed for editing the controls, so it's sort of clunky and requires switching pages between devices and activities (as does the remote control, so I guess it's about the same...).
I contacted SofaBaton support about the need for a GPS radio to set up the app and they said Android OS requires GPS to search for blue tooth devices. But according to this, GPS is not required for BT scanning as of Android 12 release. I have Android 15 on my Pixel tablet. Hmmmm.
Update 4/5/25
Once I had the Sofabaton working, I had to find a place to put the IR transmitter box so the TV and stereo system could see it. I don't really have any place on a wall to hang it, so I designed and 3D printed a stand for it. I printed in black PETG, and it used about 450 g of filament. I added some soft rubber feet to the bottom so it wouldn't slide around.
The front of the stand. There are two screws that the IR transmitter hangs from, so it can easily be removed from the stand if needed.
The back side of the stand.
CAD render of the stand. The holes are for a couple small screws to hang the IR TX/RX box. The hole that goes up the center accommodates the power cord.
You can download the CAD model here, and the STL file here. I printed in 0.5mm layers with a 1mm nozzle, and used 25% triangular infill so it would print relatively heavy and wouldn't get knocked over easily.
Maybe I shouldn't say "testing". It more like a simple listening comparison...
A while back I posted about a video jukebox project that plays music from my media server through a PC connected to my TV and soundbar, and displays trippy visuals synced to the music in 4k resolution at 60 fps. I recently put together a better audio system in the living room and wanted to connect the jukebox to it (and to eventually get rid of the soundbar). The jukebox PC has line outputs that I could connect to the stereo system, but the quality of the audio from the PC is not great, so I bought a USB DAC to connect between the PC and the stereo.
The test set-up. The little black box on top center is the SU-1 DAC. The white thing is a wireless router.
The new DAC is an SMSL SU-1, very popular among Youtube reviewers and on audio forums, and cheap, too- $80 via amazon.com. There's a good technical review here. It has USB, TOSLINK optical, and coaxial digital inputs. There is a single button on the front panel to select the input. I plugged the USB cable into the jukebox and analog outputs to the Krell and it started working without any messing around (it's powered by the USB port). It definitely sounded a LOT better than using the computer audio out to connect to the Krell, so I count that as a successful project completion.
This is the SMSL SU-1 DAC guts.
Then I wondered if the new DAC (and its analog output) would sound any different/better than the DACs (and analog outputs) in the CD player and the Squeezebox.
The TEAC VDRS-20 CD player cost about $2500 new in the early 90s (that's equivalent to $5600 of today's dollars). It might seem ridiculous to compare its DAC/analog output to that of a new, $80 DAC. However, with improvements in technology, I think it's entirely possible that a $80 DAC might get the best of a 30 year old $2500 CD player.
The Squeezebox Touch cost $300 when it was new, in 2010 (that's $433 in today's dollars). It seems more reasonable to compare the new DAC to it, simply based on the similarity of the prices. However, technology has changed a lot- the iPhone was released in 2007 and look how far things have come. Maybe the new DAC will blow the Squeezebox out of the water. Let's see.
Note: I'm not an audio reviewer, and my vocabulary does not include the purple superlatives that audio reviewers often use. I'll tell you if I hear a difference and what I think of it. But that's about it.
Another note: The CD player, DAC, and amplifier are stacked so cables between them are short and identical. I expect no audible differences based on the cables.
First test: CD player balanced analog output vs unbalanced analog output
Balanced I/Os were originally used in stage and recording studio equipment to allow long cable runs without signal degradation. AFAIK they started showing up in hi-fi system components in the 90s, and seem to be becoming more common, even in less expensive gear, at least when the equipment's form factor allows the larger XLR connectors, and the budget allows for their cost.
I played several CDs and switched between the the balanced and unbalanced outputs. The only difference I noticed was that the balanced output seemed to be at a slightly higher level than the unbalanced outputs. Otherwise I could not hear any difference between them. For the remaining tests, I used the unbalanced analog output from the CD player because the SU-1 DAC only has unbalanced analog outputs.
Second Test: CD player unbalanced analog out vs DAC coax in and unbalanced analog out
The VRDS-20 allows both analog output and digital outputs to be active at the same time, so I connected the unbalanced analog output to the Krell amp and the unbalanced analog output from the SU-1 DAC to another input on the Krell amp. The CD player coax output connected to the SU-1 coax input.
During playback I could instantly switch the inputs on the Krell to compare the sound from the CD player's internal DAC (a Philips TDA1547 bitstream type) and analog stage to the SU-1 (an AKM4493S DAC chip) DAC and analog stage. I could not hear a level difference - they were very closely matched.
After swapping multiple CDs, switching back and forth between the CD player and the DAC, and careful listening, I could not hear any difference between the two.
Third Test: CD player unbalanced analog out vs DAC optical input and unbalanced analog out
I connected a toslink cable between the CD player and SU-1 DAC, switched the DAC input to optical and tried again. Same result. I was unable to hear any difference between the CD player's unbalanced output and the SU-1 DAC.
Conclusion?
The fact that I couldn't hear any difference between the CD player's analog output and the SU-1 DAC doesn't mean there aren't any differences, only that any differences were too small for me to hear them. My speakers are not especially great, and maybe the room is not set up in an ideal manner for them. The CD player is 30 years old and hasn't been serviced (recapped), so it could be operating at less than ideal performance. Finally, I'm 66 years old and my ears aren't what they used to be (too many ZZ Top concerts and too many hours around high volume dental suction), especially at high frequencies.
OK, this time with headphones
My speakers aren't so great, so I repeated the both the coaxial and optical input tests using my Koss ESP/950 electrostatic headphones with their companion E90 amplifier plugged into the tape loop on the Krell amp. These headphones are considerably better at sound reproduction that my (or just about any other) speakers, but they won't reveal anything about the soundstage you might hear with properly set-up speakers.
Result
Unchanged. I was not able to hear any differences between the the CD player's DAC and the SU-1 DAC. Maybe the SU-1 is that good. Maybe my ears are that bad. All I know for sure is that there's no point for me to spend any more on a DAC, except to get more or specific I/Os that might be useful in my system.
Squeezebox Touch vs SMSL SU-1
I repeated the coax and optical tests with the SB's unbalanced analog output connected to one input of the amp and the SU-1 DAC. I tried with speakers and with headphones. The squeezebox doesn't allow analog and digital output at the same time, so I couldn't switch back and forth as readily as I could with the CD player. I did the best I could. Result: same. I was unable to hear any differences between the analog output of the SB and the analog output of the SU-1 DAC.
Comparing the measurements in the three reviews it is clear that the technology has indeed improved and the SU-1 DAC is much better than the DACs in both the VRDS-20 and the Squeezebox, and the Squeezebox is a bit better than the CD player.
Some people commented that the SU-1 produces popping noises audible during silent passages and between tracks when used as a USB DAC on a Windows 11 PC. I have not had any problems like that in several hours of listening through my Windows 10 PC. In my long experience, problems of any sort on Windows PCs are frequently OS or configuration problems. Maybe my windows configuration is somehow different from others. Maybe SMSL changed the firmware in the DACs coming out of the factory. We'll probably never know. If I start to have any problems with the SU-1 I'll update this post.
For me, the only reason to spend more on a DAC would be to get functions and I/O that the SU-1 doesn't have.
