I have a customer with a small residential distributed music system (CP3N, programmed in SIMPL) with several AM-FM radios as selectable inputs. I am looking at alternatives to off-air AM, as the quality of the AM radio reception is less than desirable even after taking extensive steps to use an outdoor antenna on an elevated mast.

I just noticed a spec sheet for the Crestron DM-NAX-4ZSP, which seems to offer four "streaming players"; as an option I could set the players to the appropriate web-addresses of the AM radio stations then use 4 analog outputs on this unit to feed to the room amps to replace existing tuners without too much trouble. Has anyone had any experience with this unit? Please feel free to chime in here with any advice, options, inquiries, etc. 

Many thanks.

Robert Herrick

robert.herrick654@...

210-213-8232

 

What audio matrix are you currently using to distribute the existing Radio tuners?  or are they just 'hard-coded' in a one-to-one relationship with the zones.

 

If you already have some type of distribution, and you're just looking to have streaming versions of the radio stations, the NAX system is definitely not a simple solution for this.

You would be better off looking at Autonomic for either a Multi-player/single chassis solution (MMS-3e, MMS-5e) or (4) of their MMS-1e Single player units.  You could use the TuneIn radio service for their local radio lists.

 

If you need access to their products and/or assistance with integration, reach out to me directly.

Ckangis,

Thanks for the reply.

The system in question uses a Crestron C2N-AMP-6x100 to distribute 4 FM-AM Tuners along with four other sources and doorbell tones to 5 areas. All in/outs are analog. 

While the DM-NAX-4ZSP appears to have may capabilities in this case I would use the 4 analog outputs (each for one of the streaming players), if that is a suitable combination.

I do not have personal experience with Autonomic that you recommended; I will explore that option. 

 

Other options or suggestions?

Many Thanks

Robert Herrick

The 6x100 is a fine amp and MUCH Simpler to deal with vs the NAX.

I would definitely use MMS units for streaming radio if it were my project.

LMK if I can help...

I recently tried this setup myself for my home.

Over the years I have not been very happy about Autonomics reliability at my client's home so I wanted to see how this would work as an alternative.

 

I use it the same way you described. I only use it as a 4 zone media player.

 

I have not used it for very long, but so far its been reliable.

I have only tried Tidal , Podcasts and TuneIn.

 

I have not used it for weeks and before writing this and tested it out and its still going.

 

I think the price point / features vs Autonomics is worth looking into.

Yeah, historically the music streamer product category has had an issue with hardware reliability (Except KScape and Sonos).

I have had pretty good luck with the MMS-1e. Also having 4 chassis' give you a level of redundancy as well.

Also with (4) MMS-1e's you can set them up as one shared system or as four independent players with separate favorites, etc.

 

In general the streaming digital music industry is a disaster, at least regarding integration...  it's truly a 'Lord giveth, Lord taketh' situation at best...

I miss the old CD librarian systems like Audio Request (Though they had major HW issues as well!!!)

I think that pretty much everything these days is unreliable to one extent or another...

There is also the option from Bluesound. They also have a 'Vault' which caters for storage of music CDs and their products integrate well with Crestron.