Spotify to end support for Squeezebox Touch - where to go now?

Posted by: Honeyquince on 16 July 2017

Hi,

I'm finding it hard to believe that Spotify is ending support for the squeezebox range of products but if that's the case I'm going to have to look for a replacement (both kids have outlawed dropping spotify for an alternative). I curently use my squeezebox touch with a USB hard drive (FLAC) and spotify controling it with the Squeeze Commander app on my smart phone. With the exception of occasional loss of connection with my phone it all works very well.

Can anyone suggest an alternative 'cheap' solution to my dilema (of course I would love a NAC N 272 but funds don't stretch that far). Budget might look something like £300-ish though this could be higher if the solution were a used all in one that could replace my NAC 72. Alternatively is there a get around out there - I have previously run a raspberry pi. Could something like this be used to stream spotify into the touch? You can no doubt tell that I'm clutching at straws here lol.

Any thoughts gratefully received,

Robert

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by DrMark

If I live to be 100 (and Lord knows I won't) I will never understand how the whole SBT thing went down - what was really the story behind stopping such a popular and well-functioning product that provided excellent VFM. I will rue the day mine dies and I have to find a replacement.

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by james n

DrMark posted:
If I live to be 100 (and Lord knows I won't) I will never understand how the whole SBT thing went down - what was really the story behind stopping such a popular and well-functioning product that provided excellent VFM. I will rue the day mine dies and I have to find a replacement.

Yes a great shame - it was way ahead of its time really.

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by DrMark

I must admit I am intrigued by the Yamaha solution mentioned above, although it does not yet appear to be available in the USA as yet.

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by ChrisSU

DrMark posted:
I must admit I am intrigued by the Yamaha solution mentioned above, although it does not yet appear to be available in the USA as yet.

I can't speak for that particular Yamaha device, but I've been impressed by the performance of their WXC-50, which is basically a streamer/DAC/preamp in a small box. I bought one for my daughter, who wanted to give streaming a try. I first set it up into my 282, and whilst it was no match for my NDX, it certainly didn't embarrass itself for £260. It uses the same MusicCast streaming platform, which seems to be very robust over Wifi and generally easy to use.

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by Honeyquince

So far so good... I decided that as I had the raspberry pi lying around I may as well have a go with it. Several hours later I have Spotify playing through my sbt! Things aren't perfect particularly around swapping players between my sbt and the rpi (I have to do this manually on the touch to access spotify). Also I still don't claim to understand any of it and live in fear of having to do it all again but still I have spotty music!

Robert

Posted on: 21 July 2017 by Suzy Wong

Honeyquince posted:
So far so good... I decided that as I had the raspberry pi lying around I may as well have a go with it. Several hours later I have Spotify playing through my sbt! Things aren't perfect particularly around swapping players between my sbt and the rpi (I have to do this manually on the touch to access spotify). Also I still don't claim to understand any of it and live in fear of having to do it all again but still I have spotty music!
Robert

What image are you using for Spotify?

I've started to play around with a couple of RPi3 into our systems. I've got one running MoodeAudio via USB into a Musical Fidelity VDac, and the other running Volumio2 via an IQAudio Digi+ into a Numerik. Both are accessing the iTunes library on the NAS, but I now have "management sign-off" on a second NAS which will be dedicated to CD/HiDef Audio.

Posted on: 22 July 2017 by Honeyquince

What image are you using for Spotify?

Suzy Wong posted:
Honeyquince posted:
So far so good... I decided that as I had the raspberry pi lying around I may as well have a go with it. Several hours later I have Spotify playing through my sbt! Things aren't perfect particularly around swapping players between my sbt and the rpi (I have to do this manually on the touch to access spotify). Also I still don't claim to understand any of it and live in fear of having to do it all again but still I have spotty music!
Robert
What image are you using for Spotify?
I've started to play around with a couple of RPi3 into our systems. I've got one running MoodeAudio via USB into a Musical Fidelity VDac, and the other running Volumio2 via an IQAudio Digi+ into a Numerik. Both are accessing the iTunes library on the NAS, but I now have "management sign-off" on a second NAS which will be dedicated to CD/HiDef Audio.

I'm using piCoreplayer and then Logitech Media Server if that answers your question... as I say I am someone who just fumbles their way through these things and words like 'image' send a shiver down the spine lol.

I am still having a few problems with changing the libraries on my smartphone (I think I've figured it out on the touch - at least different music comes out when I switch libraries). I'm running 'Squeeze Commander' on Android and profess to know little about it's controls. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually but if anyone has experience of this and can give me a hint that would be great!

Posted on: 22 July 2017 by Honeyquince

Have figured out the niggles - now I have spotify running seamlessly again - hooray.

If anyone else is missing their hit of spotify due to it disappearing from their squeezebox I would recommend the use of a raspberry pi... the intructions are out there - you just need to do a bit of searching and have either an IT head on or a willingness to take a punt. Happy to help where I can.