When will REAL Music be available via ALEXA?

[alexamusic]

I would hate to see alexa lose to google, but I hear that google is teaming with DEEZER...what is alexa going to do for the audiophiles?  People that want to play their local HIREZ music?

Right now, i haven't found anyway to play local hirez (dsd or redbook) or even lossless (wav, flac).

Actually I found one 3rd party product that doesn't have much publicity and works ok (skill Houseband with Jriver) will allow alexa to play real music.

I would love to see the alexa show with a digital output, and ability to play locally stored music.....will i need to switch to google? 

Who will be first to market that will take the audiophiles seriously??  We don't want MP3 and would like more control over our local music.

I see the marantz ND8006 has HEOS support and that may work for the interim, but I am not sure that you will be able to play your local files controlled by alexa or not.  It is a brand new product....

Clearly the year 2018 is ripe for some real movement on "REAL MUSIC".


PS- i did buy 3 alexa shows, a fire stick, and a fire10 this year....The ALEXA shows work perfectly for video calls with my daughter....couldn't be happier in that aspect.  I simply say call daughter and she pops up on video....very well done!

[malliekm]

I'm a Google Girl and love listening to GPM on my Google Homes but I don't have a clue what a Deezer is so I guess I don't listen to "real" music   Oh well, I like it anyway, real or not

[mike27oct]

>>>>  what is alexa going to do for the audiophiles?

Alexa and Google AI products are cheap, and since when do the words audiophile and cheap get used together?  These multi-functional devices are made for us masses, the best of them sound no better than a good table FM radio. To be affordable for us all, they need to remain that way. If you want audiophile quality, do what other sensible people do -- listen to you music on an audiophile music system; if I want that quality I listen to my CDs on my audiophile system.

If I want to hear same music in a convenient way. I listen to digitized copies of the CDs on Echo or Google Home.via streaming to them from my NAS server.

[t2jock]

Mike, don't what flavor of NAS you're using but if it's Synology and you've running DSM 6.2, AudioStation has an Alexa Skill available now.

[mike27oct]

My NAS is a higher -end WD My Cloud.  I understand WD is working on adding this feature to their My Cloud app  Even so, I likely would not use it if all it can do is send music to alexa devices.  I use an iOS-only app called Music Streamer that is so feature-rich it takes listening to and managing music to a higher level.  Recommended to all music fans with iOS devices.

[alexamusic]

>>>>  what is alexa going to do for the audiophiles?

Alexa and Google AI products are cheap, and since when do the words audiophile and cheap get used together?  These multi-functional devices are made for us masses, the best of them sound no better than a good table FM radio. To be affordable for us all, they need to remain that way. If you want audiophile quality, do what other sensible people do -- listen to you music on an audiophile music system; if I want that quality I listen to my CDs on my audiophile system.

If I want to hear same music in a convenient way. I listen to digitized copies of the CDs on Echo or Google Home.via streaming to them from my NAS server.

I don't want to use the alexa to be the device to play the music (although a digital out would make sense), i want alexa to control my audiophile system....like: "alexa play miles davis" and it plays on my stereo.
I found a way using alexa skill House Band with jriver, so it's a start....just want to see more development along this path.

[alexamusic]

Mike, don't what flavor of NAS you're using but if it's Synology and you've running DSM 6.2, AudioStation has an Alexa Skill available now.

So would you be able to have your nas hooked up to a dac, and tell alexa "Play miles davis" and it will output miles davis to your dac?  I DON't want it to go to the alexa device...I also want to be able to play flac and dsd files.

[mike27oct]

>>>  So would you be able to have your nas hooked up to a dac, and tell alexa "Play miles davis" and it will output miles davis to your dac?  I DON't want it to go to the alexa device...I also want to be able to play flac and dsd files.

I don't think this is in the near future as you describe it, but this is what you can do with a NAS and an iOS phone or tablet, and a great app like Music Streamer.  I do not use FLAC files for music (they are very large files that take up a lot of disk space) so I use a variety of mp3 file formats  Files I make are at a higher quality than the standard mp3, (e.g. higher bit rate and other tweaks) -- to me the files sound exactly as good as the CDs they came from.  Music I download from eMusic service are mp3 files and their quality is a mix of bit rates depending upon when they were made.  Most all new ones are 320 bps.

OK, so back to the NAS idea, the NAS stores all these files and delivers them to the player as mp3. flac or whatever files.  So in the case of flac files both the NAS and the device it is sent to both need to handle the various audio file formats.  This can be a roadblock for devices.  I standardized on mp3 early on (and not Apple ACC files), for example, because I wanted my digital files to play on anything; then and into the future.

A NAS is a device with a few large hard drives inside with lots of capacity (if needed) and it connects (not like a hard disk does to a computer) but it connects to the router  -- media files can be distributed anywhere the home network is; wired or wireless.  No PC needs to be on.  A NAS can be running 24/7  A NAS can do more than I mentioned here (like be accessible remotely away from home).

To learn more about a NAS and what it can do I suggest you go to WDC.com and look into the top of line WD NAS (aka, Network Attached Storage) devices, the PR2100 and PR4100. (I have a model that preceded the PR series.)  A NAS with the appropriate files compatibility can easily store and send your music files onto the next processing device.

As for asking it to "play Miles Davis", (Which Miles Davis track?) is NOT something Amazon is interested in doing, but eventually some company will do it.  Meanwhile, I can get real close to this using a "retired" earlier iPad, and the Music Streamer app.

[alexamusic]

>>>  So would you be able to have your nas hooked up to a dac, and tell alexa "Play miles davis" and it will output miles davis to your dac?  I DON't want it to go to the alexa device...I also want to be able to play flac and dsd files.

I don't think this is in the near future as you describe it, but this is what you can do with a NAS and an iOS phone or tablet, and a great app like Music Streamer.  I do not use FLAC files for music (they are very large files that take up a lot of disk space) so I use a variety of mp3 file formats  Files I make are at a higher quality than the standard mp3, (e.g. higher bit rate and other tweaks) -- to me the files sound exactly as good as the CDs they came from.  Music I download from eMusic service are mp3 files and their quality is a mix of bit rates depending upon when they were made.  Most all new ones are 320 bps.

OK, so back to the NAS idea, the NAS stores all these files and delivers them to the player as mp3. flac or whatever files.  So in the case of flac files both the NAS and the device it is sent to both need to handle the various audio file formats.  This can be a roadblock for devices.  I standardized on mp3 early on (and not Apple ACC files), for example, because I wanted my digital files to play on anything; then and into the future.

A NAS is a device with a few large hard drives inside with lots of capacity (if needed) and it connects (not like a hard disk does to a computer) but it connects to the router  -- media files can be distributed anywhere the home network is; wired or wireless.  No PC needs to be on.  A NAS can be running 24/7  A NAS can do more than I mentioned here (like be accessible remotely away from home).

To learn more about a NAS and what it can do I suggest you go to WDC.com and look into the top of line WD NAS (aka, Network Attached Storage) devices, the PR2100 and PR4100. (I have a model that preceded the PR series.)  A NAS with the appropriate files compatibility can easily store and send your music files onto the next processing device.

As for asking it to "play Miles Davis", (Which Miles Davis track?) is NOT something Amazon is interested in doing, but eventually some company will do it.  Meanwhile, I can get real close to this using a "retired" earlier iPad, and the Music Streamer app.

Alexa already has the capability i speak of...e.g.
you can say play artist, play album, play track, play genre, pretty much anythng you want...that part is working already.
I know what a nas is, i was just asking about the program that is included if it supports both alexa and hirez files and can output a usb port on the nas to a dac.  my guess is that it does...i will do more research..thanks

[alexamusic]

After 2 min research, it appears you are talking about the application audio station and it only does mp3 and lower...no hirez....

so far the only method i know is houseband skill that will work with high resolution files??

Anyone else???

WAKE UP ALEXA, GOOGLE HOME, NAS MFR's, there is a big world out there waiting for a good solution.

[asianrocker]

you mentioned all relevant AIs except Cortana that can do it. I mean there is nothing a PC can't do don't you know?