Pioneer N-70A Network Music Player Review
 

Every now and then a component comes along, the performance of which belie its price tag.

I noted the comments regarding Sony’s HAP-Z1ES, in terms of its incredible value, and my experience with the Pioneer N-70A confirm those sentiments.

I sold my beloved EAR Acute CD player with a view to get the Pioneer as a bridge player to get me into Computer audio. The plan was to upgrade to a higher end Network player later on, and perhaps the Accuphase DP600 CD player.

Great was my surprise when the Pioneer in my system sounded notably better than the Acute in almost all aspects, better detail retrieval, a more natural top end, bigger soundstage, tighter and deeper bass, and a more energetic presentation. I was even more surprised, using my Michell Gyro SE, Oracle 345 tone arm, Benz Micro Gullwing SHR as a reference and could hardly hear a difference in tonal balance. The turntable is slightly more sparkly on top, with a tiny bit more bass punch. The Pioneer sounds utterly natural. I cannot stop listening to my system.

The Pioneer N-70A retails for 1000 GBP in the UK. It has not been released in the US yet. I would venture to guess that the US price will be in the region of $1800, if not less
I have it connected to my router by means of a 15meter CAT6 solid core cable, but currently all my listening is via local storage in the form of a 2TB WD My Book HD connected with a standard in the box 1M USB3 cable. I cannot imagine a NAS would sound better, given potential losses over a 15m Ethernet cable.

What a pleasure to have easy access to my entire music collection, with sound quality better than a CD player costing almost 4 times the price. All my music is ripped to uncompressed FLAC using dBPoweramp. I don’t have any High-Resolution files yet and frankly I am very happy with my current 16/44 material.

I do not intend investing in a high-end cd player anymore, The Pioneer is simply good enough! I would be interested however at a later date to add a high-end DAC to the Pioneer to gauge whether such an upgrade would be worthwhile

The build quality of the N-70A is astounding for the price, with a full aluminium enclosure and reinforced bottom plate. The inside is divided into 3 chambers to separate digital and analogue sections withy twin shielded transformers. The N-70A has balanced outputs, which are phase adjustable in terms of selecting either pin 2 or 3 as hot

The player has 200 hours on it at time of this mini review, and still improving!

I replaced the standard feet with 3 Symposium Rollerblocks jr. Powercord used is Audioquest NRG10, and Interconnect is 0.75M Audioquest Niagara XLR

Here is a good overview of the N-70A
Pioneer N70A Black | Network Music Player | Richer Sounds

Note the internal view here;

http://www.review33.com/news/news.ph...20141203022126

It would appear that we have a revolution on our hands in terms of value for money. These latest NETWORK players are simply outstanding. I think Bryston with their digital player were on the money from day one. I have not listened to the Bryston yet, but if it’s notably better than the Pioneer, then I would say that CD is truly dead, or is it!

Negatives:

The Pioneer control APP is abysmal. Pioneer need to get their house in order and redesign the App

listening to Internet Radio in the background, and sounding pretty good. I discovered a station called Audiophile Stream Network (Audiophile Jazz) (320kbps) and the music is just fantastic.

I have bought Waylon Jennings, Analog Pearls Vol 1, 24 BIT / 44.1 album and it sounds very good.

I read somewhere that the jump from 16 to 24 bit is more important in terms of SQ than increasing resolution from say 44.1 to say 192 kHz. I can attest that it sounds fantastic. It is clearly an excellent remaster. This is a recommended album, excellent stuff

The N-70 is still improving with about 300 hours on it now.

For those interested I have the DAC lock range set to 3, the default setting is 7.

SQ is better when the range is tighter. I also find that selecting 32bit with the slow filter gives best all-round sound quality or rather musicality in my system.

This option draws one into the music. The direct setting which should theoretically provide best SQ, sound slightly bare bones

Firmware update:

The Pioneer can now play DSD, including DSF & DFF from local USB storage devices, very impressive!

Douglas, is this device Tidal and Qobuz ready?

Thank you for your review!

Hi Bart, Unfortunately not yet, only internet Radio and Spotify. I am a Tidal subscriber and hoping Pioneer would add compatibility soon.

I will never return to CD , this marvelous Network player is the turning point for me. I especially like the fact that it sounds so good with local usb storage devices.

I believe Pioneer has created the audiopile format of the future with this player and just wish more of the big name companies would design integrated network players.

Have you considered the Lumin S1?

Would like to see a U.S. release.

I am surprised that it has not been released in the US yet. There is probably an Elite model in the wings for the US