Best way to integrate spotify into the Nds?

What sort of quality are you looking for?  Even 320kbps (thats still their max, right?) is a bit lossy.

I'd try Airport Express and I'd try Bluetooth (both from an iDevice) and see which sounds better.

If you have 2 Apple devices you can plug one into NDS,ie. iPhone or iPod, then control the Spotify app on this device with another device, ie: IPad. Thats what I do, but into nDAC instead of NDS.

Works well for me and pretty good sound at 320kbs via the DAC.

I hook up qobuz and spotify directly using the USB at the front of my unity qute 2. The problem is that the iPhone battery runs out after while since this USB doesn't charge. The solution could be a special USB cable with a lightning connector on one end and two USB connectors one the other. One for data connected to the qute and one connected to a power supply. Will this work and is it safe for my qute?

I use a laptop, and stream to my nd5xs using a neat little freeware package called "streamwhatyouhear".

It will stream anything from your laptop to your streamer.  You Tube, Spotify ...etc  

the only constraint is that if watching a video on You Tube,  the sound would be a few seconds out of synch, because the streamer buffers the signal..  but for audio only it's great...

regards

FF

Squeezebox Touch via optical link into NDS. Works flawlessly. Controlled with iPeng on iPad 

iPad airplay -> Apple TV optical -> NDS

Easy to set up, sounds good (but nowhere near as good as Qobuz Hi-Fi)

Or wait until September when Naim are rumoured to be announcing Spotify integration with N-Stream. 

According to the Qute manual, you can turn on charging when an iPod (or presumably iPhone) is connected through the front USB port.  It is a toggled option in the setup menu.

MM, Airport using wireless will use more power on the iDevice compared to the lower power Bluetooth mode (could be important for non powered iDevice) - but will have a longer range (BT usually limited to 10m). AE digital out can cause lock issues for some Dacs, bluetooth products from Arcam or Mass Fidelity don't show this issue.

Bluetooth generally is simpler to connect and does not require access to your wireless network to do so - good for security ie visitors (but you will need the wireless connection if the streamed material is not stored on the device).

Taking the analogue signal directly from the iDevice either via dock or cable from the dock connector is limited by the dac in the iDevice - of all the ones I've had the best sounding analogue out was from the iPod 5.5 (80gig Video version).

Lastly as previously stated the method will depend on the stream quality - I'm happy with a BT unit using Spotify, the analogue out is far superior to that of the iPod 5.5 (which I still have) and has proven to be very stable and simplicity itself to use.

Si.

Unfortunately, unlike the nDac and the Qute, the NDS will not work with an iOS device connected to its USB port, according to discussions earlier here on the forum.  It doesn't have the Apple certification (this was a deliberate choice, based on SQ issues, evidently).

I use both sonos and AE and think the former will give you better SQ though at 320 I don't know how big of a difference.  I would not buy a sonos only for this

Arcam rBlink or Musical Fidelity Bluetooth V90 may be options...$250 and $300

Seems crazy to use an Apple TV or Express, or Sonos to stream into the NDS, a $14,000 product (w/PS).  But that's what we have to do because Naim has yet to integrate Spotify, Qobuz, or even Airplay into it's products.  Other companies like Marantz, NAD, Auralic have released hi-end streamers with these musical services, while Naim only makes announcements (Spotify Connect) then retracts them without explanation.  I really want to buy a Naim streamer this fall but will look elsewhere unless Naim adds Spotify, Qobuz, or Airplay.      

You can always buy one of these low cost streamers and use it's digital out into the NDS.  Problem solved.

Ath thanks! This works!

this is my way with Spotify

ipad > Arcam AirDac dig out > Rega dac

i found out that Airport Express with external dac causes constantly signal dropouts.

arcam stuff does the same work than AE but without any dropouts.

The Plutinosoft AirMusic app, used to stream audio from your iOS device to any UPnP / DLNA renderer, should work perfectly fine. No hardware required.

Dave--Thanks for the tip!  I bought the app for 3 bucks, seems to work very well so far.

Yep-hard to justify AirPlay-enabled apps, once you've got this....

...with the caveat that iOS 7 or earlier is required.

Perfect!

The AirMusic works to play locally stored music. For Spotify, I needed to get the Plutinosoft MusicFlow app.

Not much of a reason for Naim to put spotify - and the other dozen apps on the NDS after this, IMHO.

It's 320Kbps anyway - and it's probably better to offload the internet facing piece of software on this other device. If you had this software running on the NDS - I would expect it sound worse, not better.

What about Mac Mini running Spotify and Spot Remote Server.  How you connect the Mini to NDS is up to you -- WireWorld SuperNova optical lead works well for me into the Naim DAC.

Squeezebox Touch used to be my top choice; but I am getting a "Bad Gateway" error these days, which may signal a network issue, more than a problem with any of the services.

Nick

Yes, it's MusicFlow - I manage to confuse the two on a regular basis.

MusicFlow requires the use of an existing Wi-Fi (infrastructure) network for UPnP discovery; it will not work in Wi-Fi Direct mode.

Sonos Connect -> Digital In on NDS

Use the Sonos app to control.

Work great.

I don't have a dedicated spur - but don't have anything else plugged into that spur when music is playing. Making MusicFlow the ideal solution for me - I'm a little paranoid of having any non-naim gear (specially switching psus) on the same network as naim equipment.

Hence, SBTouch, Sonos etc. are out.

And the Mu-So