STR-DN1040 Gapless Audio Playback - Finally it Works!!!!!!!

[MK_Slinky]

I've been doing a bit of research recently and it would appear that gapless audio is quite a challenge for manufacturers to add to hi-fi equipment. I've mentioned this myself in another thread and was really disappointed that Sony hadn't given us this feature. For me personally, music that does not support gapless playback is not worth listening too unless of course it's an un-mixed track.

I've been trying my hardest to find a way of getting gapless audio playback recently on my own STR-DN1040 and asides playing conventional CDs via a connected CD player it seemed this desire would never be fulfilled. Playback of audio via a connected iPod was unsuccessful and gaps between tracks remained as did playback of audio via a USB thumb drive. Would my dream ever come true?

Well yes! Finally I have found a way to get gapless playback and it would seem the feature was there all along in the guise of Apple's 'AirPlay' feature! OK so I admit I had heard of 'AirPlay' and to be honest I thought it was a feature only available to owners of Apple products. Not so it would seem, 'AirPlay' is supported on Windows PCs too! Basically music from iTunes can be streamed directly to any DLNA equipment, that includes the STR-DN1040 & STR-DN1050 (there may be others too). Of course not having a manual in the box users might not automatically be aware of this awesome feature, there are no buttons on the remote to indicate this functionality. I only really stumbled across AirPlay while trying to achieve gapless playback with additional software. As luck would have it, AirPlay needs no additional software it just works!

Here's how. Open iTunes and look for the icon on the toolbar shown in the image below. Simply choose your preferred playback device and hit play. Music will playback on your preferred device almost instantly as soon as you begin play. As an added bonus iTunes or any other AirPlay device can wake the STR-DN1040 from standby  to begin playback. Cool!!

As a side note, I did have to tinker with my firewall initially to allow traffic through but if you use Windows firewall this should be set automatically.

Also I would advise to set the volume in iTunes quite low to begin with as AirPlay volume is quite loud!!! You can adjust the volume of audio from within iTunes or on the receiver, both work great. The benefits of AirPlay truly come into their own if you download a remote control APP for iTunes so you can control it with your smart phone.

Enjoy!