Does anyone have any experience with the Ubiquiti PoE Audio Port? Looks like a really neat streamer that can be used for home audio like a SONOS speaker, and I am not married into the Google ecosystem. I just wanna know if anyone had experienced it and whether its sound quality is good. Any comments on it are appreciated!
Background
When I think I found a solution, things tend to go sideways - my Sony Android TV is great except that there’s no way to extract Analog audio off it! I get to use either TOSLINK or buy into the Sony ecosystem. Given the forever woes of Mr. Tech Tips with the different Sony Sound Systems (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPh_SSTK4QA), the proprietary nature of these systems, and the fact that I already have a NAD amplifier (C326BEE), I would like to use something that can give me the ease and comfort to send an audio signal down to the amp.
I had previously attempted to use an iFi Go Max (iFi Go Link Max review: tiny, affordable USB DAC with powerful performance | What Hi-Fi?) as a DAC for this TV to the surprise that you can actually pull USB audio off Android TVs (Decent and cheap DAC for… TV? - #6 by teltersat), but every so often (seems to be triggered by how long the TV stays on) the audio starts to pause, and there’s a perceptible lag that extends over time. This seems to be a problem with most Android TVs as whatever chipset they use seem to create a lot of noise in their signal, to which USB DACs tend to be affected (USB audio support (USB DAC) for Sony Bravia Andro... - Sony to list some of the issues customers are facing). I believe this is an Android overarching issue as I’ve seen similar messages for Samsung TVs as well. And while it may be a jitter issue, I doubt this is going to be resolved with a Jitterbug dongle, it’s a hardware/software issue that no company seems to care about (and let’s be honest, who in their minds would typically connect a USB DAC to their TV) .
Which brings me to this PoE Audio Port! I have readily available PoE where it would sit, it has to do Line output as… it’s only 10W. I can tell that this product is really intended for retail stores as it touts integration with “Soundtrack Your Life” (Soundtrack) which is a Spotify-like service for businesses. But if you have used it before, and if you can comment on its sound capabilities, please let me know! I am looking to get rid of that USB dongle as I have to restart my TV every now and again to get rid of the audio lag.
The PoE Audio Port doesn’t include an amplifier, so the 10W in question is the power it consumes. Connect it to the amp or active speakers of your choice.
I don’t have one but I’m eyeing it. The main Q that I have is what feature the USB-C port offers. Some of these streamers only use the USB ports for connecting storage devices to play media off of, what I need is the USB-C port to support PC mode and function as an external DAC when connected to a PC.
Probably will get it, but I need for it to release in the market I’m in first. The overall 10W consumption really interests me. Most likely all my streaming will be from AirPlay to this thing (from Navidrome or any other audio source) so it’s all well with me. I’ll test the USB port once I’m able to get my hands on it!
UniFi audio streaming doesnt fully support Android which is really unfortunate, its a problem Sonos has as well (among their other app issues). I love Unifi for most of their products, but the audio streaming line misses the mark by a lot.
WiiM is a better company to go with, as their older gear fully supports both Android and Apple ecosystems as well as all the other really good 3rd party stuff like Roon. Unfortunately, the newest models from WiiM (Amp Pro) have dropped Airplay 2 support for some reason, so avoid those. The hardware on the WiiM side is actually higher end than UniFi and Sonos while also being less money, and it is a US company as well like Apple and Ubiquiti:
standard streamer (this is like the Audio port you asked about in OP):
protocol support on all 3 of those products:
AirPlay 2, Google Cast Audio, DLNA, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Amazon Music Casting, Qplay 2.0, Roon Ready
That is true - probably the WiiM Pro / Pro Plus are the closest one to the PoE Audio Port in terms of capabilities, but I don’t run Android, so not really a problem for me. However, the biggest plus of the Unifi device is in its name: the PoE capabilities for me make it so much worthwhile.
In a turn of events, I ended up getting the WiiM Pro Plus, as I could buy it with tax free. This thing plus a PoE splitter to Eth/USB-C adapter was cheaper than the PoE Audio Port. Have not enabled Google Cast, as we don’t have a Google device to stream from, but the fact that it’s there if I need to, plus integration to all the other streaming services does make it more useful - especially if you’re getting it for less than MSRP
