12
USB Media
The 851N can also playback audio content from standard USB hard-drives and
thumb drives. Simply copy your media files onto your USB drive and then connect it
to the front or back USB sockets of the unit.
Press the Home button to get to the top menu. Select the 'Music Library' menu.
The 851N will now scan the thumb drive for media files. Once the scan is completed,
you will then be able to browse the files by selecting 'By Album' or 'By Artist'.
Queue
Viewing the queue
To view the queue at any time press the '
•••
' (more) button. You can jump playback
to any point in the queue by navigating up/down the list and pressing the Enter
button.
Editing the queue
Tracks can be removed from the queue by highlighting them with the navigator and
pressing the Stop button.
To clear an entire queue, navigate to the bottom of the queue to highlight [Clear
Queue] and press the Enter button.
Note: Switching the 851N into standby will delete the queue, unless Standby Mode
is set to 'Network Standby'.
Playlist
The 851N also supports various playlist formats. For permanent storage of favourite
media selections it is recommended to use suitable software to create playlist.
These can then be accessed by the 851N from USB Media or UPnP servers that
support Playlist serving.
Inputs
»
USB Audio
»
D1-D5 (S/PDIF Coax / Toslink Optical)
»
Bluetooth
(Only available when a BT100 is plugged into the rear USB)
»
Spotify
The 851N has 6 digital inputs, USB Audio, S/P DIF co-axial and Toslink optical.
The digital inputs allow you to play audio sent from a separate digital audio source
such as a PC or CD player with digital outputs. This can optimise sound quality, for
example where the 851N USB Audio is used instead of the PC soundcard or the
upsampled and re-clocked low jitter DACs of the 851N are used instead of a CD
player DACs.
The USB Audio input directly connects to a PC or Mac computer. The 851N
can be setup to stream via the simple setup USB1.1 or the high sample rate
24-bit/192kHz via USB2.0. Also note that the SP DIF co-axial and Toslink inputs
are capable of high sample rates up to 24-bit/192kHz, but your source equipment
and interconnect cables must be capable of this sample rate to achieve this.
Advanced USB audio
The 851N is both USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) and USB 1.1 (Full-speed) USB port compatible.
It should also work with the new USB 3.0 ports where the PC will simply treat the
851N as if it were a USB 2.0 or 1.1 device.
The 851N also supports two USB Audio protocols (not the same as the port types
themselves) USB Audio 1.0 (which works over USB 1.1 ports and supports up to
24-bit/96kHz) or USB Audio 2.0 (which requires a USB 2.0 port and can support
up to 24-bit/192kHz).
The default configuration is USB 1.1 and USB Audio 1.0 which works with nearly all
common operating systems and computer types without drivers and supports up
to 24-bit/96kHz audio, simply plug in and play.
In this configuration the 851N is able to work at up to 24-bit/96kHz by declaring to
your computer that it can handle any sample rate from 32kHz to 96kHz.
However in some Windows/Mac operating system variants the operating system
itself may restrict or fix the output sample rate or re-sample the audio.
For more details on USB Audio, see our online guide at
www.cambridgeaudio.com
.
The USB driver is also available from the website. With careful choice of playback
software and settings many pitfalls can be avoided.
In particular our free Windows USB Audio 2.0 driver (available from our website)
supports up to 24-bit/192kHz audio and WASAPI Exclusive or ASIO modes that can
give enhanced performance.
A brief explanation of your choices are below:
Use with PCs
With the 851N switched to USB Audio 1.0 (this is the default setting) the 851N will
work with the native Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or 8 Audio 1.0 driver (no need
to load any new driver) and accept audio up to 24-bit/96kHz.
With the 851N switched to USB Audio 2.0 the 851N needs the Cambridge Audio
USB Audio 2.0 Driver to be loaded and can then accept up to 24-bit/192kHz (and
support ASIO and WASAPI Exclusive if required).
The driver is available from
www.cambridgeaudio.com
.
Use with Macs
No extra drivers are required. With the 851N switched to USB Audio 1.0 the 851N
will work with the native Mac OS-X 10.5 (Leopard) or above Audio 1.0 driver and
accept audio up to 24-bit/96kHz.
With the 851N switched to USB Audio 2.0 the 851N works with the native Mac
OS-X 10.5 (Leopard) or above Audio 2.0 driver and can accept audio up to
24-bit/192kHz.
Use with Linux
In USB Audio 1.0 mode the 851N will work with most Linux distributions, allowing
the playback of audio up to 24-bit/96kHz.
Newer Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu 10.04) support USB Audio 2.0 for which the
851N should be switched to USB Audio 2.0 to accept audio up to 24-bit/192kHz.
For both cases because Linux distributions vary according to their creators' choice
of software components, including drivers, it is not possible to guarantee operation
and Audio drivers may need to be loaded.
‘Class drivers’ for generic support of USB Audio Class 1.0 or USB Audio Class 2.0
devices may be available from the Linux community, we do not supply these.
BT100 and Bluetooth audio streaming
The 851N is compatible with the optional BT100 Bluetooth adaptor from
Cambridge Audio.
When a BT100 is plugged into the rear USB socket an extra menu item called
Bluetooth appears in the Digital Inputs menu.
Selecting this allows the 851N to receive wireless Bluetooth audio from most
phones/tablets and laptops.
Both the standard SBC CODEC and newer high quality aptX CODEC are supported
(if the sending device supports it). Contact your dealer for details.
Optional BT100 Bluetooth adaptor
When connected to your 851N this adaptor allows the 851N to receive Bluetooth
Audio (known as Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile or A2DP). Contact
your dealer for details.
The BT100 supports Bluetooth A2DP using either the original SBC encoded form or
the latest higher quality aptX encoded form.
SBC and aptX refer to the encoding used over the wireless Bluetooth interface only
and not the format your music may be in, which can be any type that your phone/
laptop or other playing device supports.
Your playing device plays your files then re-encodes the playback before streaming
it to the BT100 in one of these two formats.
Many phones and laptops now feature Bluetooth with A2DP. SBC should be
supported by all such devices (it is the mandatory format for A2DP).
aptX is optional, so check if your sending device supports it, if you wish to achieve
the highest quality audio transfer.
Note:
The BT100 declares that it can handle both SBC and aptX to the sending
device which will then use whichever version it supports.
