Re: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer

[Dane Trethowan]

Okay here's a follow-up regarding the IOS Play-Fi App that's used to 
control the network functionality of the T14 Tuner and I'm afraid its 
not at all good news.


I managed to get the App out of the Welcome and tutorial screens - I 
eventually found the "Done" button which got me out - so I expected 
plain sailing from then on, this certainly wasn't to be.


The first section of the App I tackled was the connection to the Rotel 
T14 tuner and that worked fine.


I started having problems when I wanted to select my Music Service, I 
double-tapped "Music" and was presented with a login screen but for 
what? The App gave no indication to Voiceover of the Music service and 
it could have been any one of a good dozen, Tidal, iHeart etc.


So I've given up on the IOS App and that's a great shame as Play-Fi is 
very fast becoming the streaming standard used for Network Players and 
Network connected speaker systems given its streaming quality and 
flexibility.


Oddly the Androiad Play-Fi App is incredbly accessible and the only odd 
thing with the Android version is the small amount of unlabeled buttons, 
that issue can be dealt with easily.




On 16/03/2017 1:04 AM, john Gurd wrote:

I really like the sound of this but I only have IOS devices so controlling it 
would be an issue for me. It gets good reviews and retails for £699 in the UK.

John


-Original Message-
From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane 
Trethowan
Sent: 13 March 2017 18:35
To: PC Audio Discussion List
Subject: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer

Hi!
I have a Rotel T14 Tuner/Network Streamer here and I do plan to write a 
detailed review of this fantastic device when I have more time.
Meanwhile I wrote some notes on the Rotel T14 to a friend which I think are 
worth sharing with the list I’ve mentioned the new Rotel T14 tuner I bought? 
Well actually its a Network player with the feel of a tuner.
I wired the thing up to my Rotel RA10 Amp this morning so the T14 is now a 
permanent fixture of my audio system in the Den.
So for some details.
The T14 is heavy by tuner standards weighing in at 6 kilograms and is very well 
built but we are talking Rotel so I guess that’s no surprise.
What is a pleasant surprise however is the very few menu systems on the device, 
two in fact and they don’t control much at all.
For example the DAB+ menu has a few options in it which are easy to remember, 
options like Scan and so on.
The FM Menu has options to allow the setting of the scan threshold, I don’t 
normally use the Scan functions of tuners anyway preferring to manually tune.
The T14 has a keypad on the front though this is used only for entering preset 
numbers which is a pity, would have been very nice to have a facility to enter 
a FM frequency manually but still I like the idea of each memory preset being 
instantly accessed via its own unique number, the T14 has 60 presets from 01-30 
on DAB+ and FM bands. No presets on the network player side but that’s by no 
means a problem as I’ll explain a little later.
The tuner comes with a rather large remote control which I haven’t fully worked 
out yet but I know enough about the layout to get around the tuner, browse up 
and down the DAB+ band, move between tracks when using the T14 in Network 
Player mode etc.
The audio out of the T14 is as good as my Cambridge tuner and sounds just as 
good when I switch to the Tuner on my Rotel DAC.
Switching between stations is amongst the fastest I’ve heard from any Hi-Fi 
tuner I’ve tried and the Rotel is very sensitive for all bands.
So now to the Network player side of things and here the Rotel stands out from 
the pack.
When you switch to the Network Player mode a message appears on the screen 
telling the user to connect to “Play-Fi”. Play-Fi is an App available for 
Windows, IOS and Android and all the network functionality of the T14 is 
controlled from this App.
With Play-Fi you have the most extensive range of musical sources I’ve ever 
seen bundled into one App, everything from being able to browse your own 
network for Music, to iHeart and Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora and Tital are 
all featured not to mention the ability to stream from HD sources and play HD 
audio files - DAC of the T14 supports sampling rates up to 384K 32 Bit -.
I haven’t been able to fully access the IOS version of Play-Fi but I can use 
the Android version easily enough.
Along with the Play-Fi App one can stream to the T14 using the conventional 
AirPlay system or use the T14 as a DLNA render device, I’ve tried both these 
options.
There are other advantages to be had with the idea of using a separate App for 
the control of Network Music which I discovered.
As one has to use a computer or a Smart Phone to have the T14 play Internet 
radio stations it therefore follows that you can easily put your controlling 
device onto a VPN so you may listen to blocked radio stations or audio sites, 
I’ve done this myself.
With a conventional Internet 

Re: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer

[Dane Trethowan]

I’m sure the IOS App is accessible, the problem I’m having is getting out of 
the Tutorial section of the App.
Unfortunately I’ve not had any sighted help drop by to show me where the button 
might be or what I have to actually do to get out of the introductory tutorial, 
I can move between sections of the tutorial easily enough.
On the Android version of the App the same Introduction was shown and I found a 
“Skip” button on the screen in the bottom right hand corner. I’m guessing 
something similar exists somewhere with the IOS App but just can’t find it.

> On 16 Mar 2017, at 1:04 am, john Gurd  wrote:
> 
> I really like the sound of this but I only have IOS devices so controlling it 
> would be an issue for me. It gets good reviews and retails for £699 in the UK.
> 
> John
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane 
> Trethowan
> Sent: 13 March 2017 18:35
> To: PC Audio Discussion List
> Subject: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer
> 
> Hi!
> I have a Rotel T14 Tuner/Network Streamer here and I do plan to write a 
> detailed review of this fantastic device when I have more time.
> Meanwhile I wrote some notes on the Rotel T14 to a friend which I think are 
> worth sharing with the list I’ve mentioned the new Rotel T14 tuner I bought? 
> Well actually its a Network player with the feel of a tuner.
> I wired the thing up to my Rotel RA10 Amp this morning so the T14 is now a 
> permanent fixture of my audio system in the Den.
> So for some details.
> The T14 is heavy by tuner standards weighing in at 6 kilograms and is very 
> well built but we are talking Rotel so I guess that’s no surprise.
> What is a pleasant surprise however is the very few menu systems on the 
> device, two in fact and they don’t control much at all.
> For example the DAB+ menu has a few options in it which are easy to remember, 
> options like Scan and so on.
> The FM Menu has options to allow the setting of the scan threshold, I don’t 
> normally use the Scan functions of tuners anyway preferring to manually tune.
> The T14 has a keypad on the front though this is used only for entering 
> preset numbers which is a pity, would have been very nice to have a facility 
> to enter a FM frequency manually but still I like the idea of each memory 
> preset being instantly accessed via its own unique number, the T14 has 60 
> presets from 01-30 on DAB+ and FM bands. No presets on the network player 
> side but that’s by no means a problem as I’ll explain a little later.
> The tuner comes with a rather large remote control which I haven’t fully 
> worked out yet but I know enough about the layout to get around the tuner, 
> browse up and down the DAB+ band, move between tracks when using the T14 in 
> Network Player mode etc.
> The audio out of the T14 is as good as my Cambridge tuner and sounds just as 
> good when I switch to the Tuner on my Rotel DAC.
> Switching between stations is amongst the fastest I’ve heard from any Hi-Fi 
> tuner I’ve tried and the Rotel is very sensitive for all bands.
> So now to the Network player side of things and here the Rotel stands out 
> from the pack.
> When you switch to the Network Player mode a message appears on the screen 
> telling the user to connect to “Play-Fi”. Play-Fi is an App available for 
> Windows, IOS and Android and all the network functionality of the T14 is 
> controlled from this App.
> With Play-Fi you have the most extensive range of musical sources I’ve ever 
> seen bundled into one App, everything from being able to browse your own 
> network for Music, to iHeart and Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora and Tital 
> are all featured not to mention the ability to stream from HD sources and 
> play HD audio files - DAC of the T14 supports sampling rates up to 384K 32 
> Bit -.
> I haven’t been able to fully access the IOS version of Play-Fi but I can use 
> the Android version easily enough.
> Along with the Play-Fi App one can stream to the T14 using the conventional 
> AirPlay system or use the T14 as a DLNA render device, I’ve tried both these 
> options.
> There are other advantages to be had with the idea of using a separate App 
> for the control of Network Music which I discovered.
> As one has to use a computer or a Smart Phone to have the T14 play Internet 
> radio stations it therefore follows that you can easily put your controlling 
> device onto a VPN so you may listen to blocked radio stations or audio sites, 
> I’ve done this myself.
> With a conventional Internet radio setup where the Internet radio is part of 
> the Firmware one has to do some pretty fancy setup work to allow connection 
> of the Radio to a VPN.
> Anyway the Rotel T14 ain’t cheap at around $1300 but its not the most 
> expensive Network player.
> I was looking at what Marantz had to offer and - whilst struck by the quality 
> - the Marantz players weren’t as flexible as what Rotel had to offer in the 
> T14.
> 
> 

RE: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer

[john Gurd]

I really like the sound of this but I only have IOS devices so controlling it 
would be an issue for me. It gets good reviews and retails for £699 in the UK.

John


-Original Message-
From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane 
Trethowan
Sent: 13 March 2017 18:35
To: PC Audio Discussion List
Subject: Rotel T14 Tuner Network Streamer

Hi!
I have a Rotel T14 Tuner/Network Streamer here and I do plan to write a 
detailed review of this fantastic device when I have more time.
Meanwhile I wrote some notes on the Rotel T14 to a friend which I think are 
worth sharing with the list I’ve mentioned the new Rotel T14 tuner I bought? 
Well actually its a Network player with the feel of a tuner.
I wired the thing up to my Rotel RA10 Amp this morning so the T14 is now a 
permanent fixture of my audio system in the Den.
So for some details.
The T14 is heavy by tuner standards weighing in at 6 kilograms and is very well 
built but we are talking Rotel so I guess that’s no surprise.
What is a pleasant surprise however is the very few menu systems on the device, 
two in fact and they don’t control much at all.
For example the DAB+ menu has a few options in it which are easy to remember, 
options like Scan and so on.
The FM Menu has options to allow the setting of the scan threshold, I don’t 
normally use the Scan functions of tuners anyway preferring to manually tune.
The T14 has a keypad on the front though this is used only for entering preset 
numbers which is a pity, would have been very nice to have a facility to enter 
a FM frequency manually but still I like the idea of each memory preset being 
instantly accessed via its own unique number, the T14 has 60 presets from 01-30 
on DAB+ and FM bands. No presets on the network player side but that’s by no 
means a problem as I’ll explain a little later.
The tuner comes with a rather large remote control which I haven’t fully worked 
out yet but I know enough about the layout to get around the tuner, browse up 
and down the DAB+ band, move between tracks when using the T14 in Network 
Player mode etc.
The audio out of the T14 is as good as my Cambridge tuner and sounds just as 
good when I switch to the Tuner on my Rotel DAC.
Switching between stations is amongst the fastest I’ve heard from any Hi-Fi 
tuner I’ve tried and the Rotel is very sensitive for all bands.
So now to the Network player side of things and here the Rotel stands out from 
the pack.
When you switch to the Network Player mode a message appears on the screen 
telling the user to connect to “Play-Fi”. Play-Fi is an App available for 
Windows, IOS and Android and all the network functionality of the T14 is 
controlled from this App.
With Play-Fi you have the most extensive range of musical sources I’ve ever 
seen bundled into one App, everything from being able to browse your own 
network for Music, to iHeart and Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora and Tital are 
all featured not to mention the ability to stream from HD sources and play HD 
audio files - DAC of the T14 supports sampling rates up to 384K 32 Bit -.
I haven’t been able to fully access the IOS version of Play-Fi but I can use 
the Android version easily enough.
Along with the Play-Fi App one can stream to the T14 using the conventional 
AirPlay system or use the T14 as a DLNA render device, I’ve tried both these 
options.
There are other advantages to be had with the idea of using a separate App for 
the control of Network Music which I discovered.
As one has to use a computer or a Smart Phone to have the T14 play Internet 
radio stations it therefore follows that you can easily put your controlling 
device onto a VPN so you may listen to blocked radio stations or audio sites, 
I’ve done this myself.
With a conventional Internet radio setup where the Internet radio is part of 
the Firmware one has to do some pretty fancy setup work to allow connection of 
the Radio to a VPN.
Anyway the Rotel T14 ain’t cheap at around $1300 but its not the most expensive 
Network player.
I was looking at what Marantz had to offer and - whilst struck by the quality - 
the Marantz players weren’t as flexible as what Rotel had to offer in the T14.

**
Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the 
halfwits in this world behind.