What options (except NDS) to integrate Spotify into my Naim 300DR / 252 system

Your amp deserves better than Spotify! Their lossy stream sounds poor to me, although it’s a great service for new music discovery. Some web streaming services offer a (more expensive) lossless subscription which sounds better, although still not quite as good as streaming from local storage in my experience. 

I would never play Spotify for serious listening, however I  bought a Linn DS specifically for my wife to play her Spotify / Google Play / Pandora 'musak' while I am not at home.

Btw, Audio chromcast can be a good option if you are on a budget,

Hi Frank, your right.....for serious listening I prefer my VPI or CDS3 but sometimes I like ‘easy listening' from my Spotify list....and that’s very poor with my current devices.

The Auralic Aeries mini would be a good Spotify Connect player to play into your 252. It has the advantage of also being a gateway into streaming in general. (Tidal,Roon, UPnP)

I can’t put direct links up but a google should tell you all you need to know. It’s not expensive (compared to NDS) and is really one of those mad Hifi products that you can spend a lot of money on before you better it. 

A great gatweay drug!

.sjb

I think there are two issues here. First, if NDS/555 is too expensive, how much are you prepared to spend to improve your 'easy listening' source? From the Naim stable, how about NDX, with or without external PSU? If that still sounds too expensive for casual listening, how about an ND5XS? Second, if you want better sound, the more you improve your hardware, the more your system will reveal the shortcomings of a lossy Spotify stream. So you might want to consider a lossless steaming subscription, such as Tidal, as part of the equation. There is always a free trial of these services, so you can try it out before committing.

ChrisSU posted:

I think there are two issues here. First, if NDS/555 is too expensive, how much are you prepared to spend to improve your 'easy listening' source? From the Naim stable, how about NDX, with or without external PSU? If that still sounds too expensive for casual listening, how about an ND5XS? Second, if you want better sound, the more you improve your hardware, the more your system will reveal the shortcomings of a lossy Spotify stream. So you might want to consider a lossless steaming subscription, such as Tidal, as part of the equation. There is always a free trial of these services, so you can try it out before committing.

Exactly. Surely if you don't want to go to an NDS, and NDX is the logical Naim solution. If not a main source a bare NDX. If you need something that is up to the 252 in terms of source quality, an NDX/XPS. That will set you back 1/4 or 1/2 of a full NDS/555 respectively.

An Innous Zen Mini will stream Spotify and also allow you start ripping your CD collection it has a 2TB hard drive (about 4,000 cd's).  I'm sounding a bit like a broken record at the moment as I keep praising these Innous units, I'd been looking for a simple streaming solution for a while and dismissed these because I probably only own about 100 cd's and didn't need a ripping solution but these units are much, much more than that and so I thought why not?  I will rip the few CD's I do own and if I like it I can look forward to trawling the charity shops for cheap CD's which can be bought for as little as 50p.

Of course you will need a dac but there are many to choose from ranging from a few pounds to tens of thousands but a used Chord Hugo at around £650 or even a new Chord Qutest at £1,400 will sound perfect into your 252/300.

If all you want is spotify (which is a compressed, reduced quality data feed), then a Chromecast Audio at £30 is an appropriate amount to spend.

If you're looking to expand into other sources (e.g. uncompressed Tidal data streams), then you can justify a considerably more expensive solution.