spotify streaming help ! Best Combo ?

That's a bit of a tricky question to answer, partly because there are so many different options. Spent too little, and you might get something no better than what you have now. Spend too much, and....well....you might still get something no better than what you have now, because lossy Spotify streams just aren't that great. One option you could try is to wait for the widely rumoured Spotify Lossless service to become available, and see how that compares using your existing hardware. If you're feeling impatient, try Tidal, which already has a lossless sub, but is inferior to Spotify in all other respects in my opinion. Or maybe Qobuz?

Regarding hardware, if you're happy to continue streaming from your phone, you could try a better DAC like the Chord Mojo. The cheapest Naim option I can think of would be a used Unitiqute, using it's analogue output into your preamp. This, or any number of non-Naim streamers, would remove the need for a wired connection to your phone.

Chromecast Audio is a very nice and cheap solution to start with. At this very moment I am listening to 24/96 music stored on my NAS, streaming via a ChromeCast Audio into a Naim AV2, into a SuperNait. This sounds a bit better than the internal Dac of my SuperNait.

I bet the AV2 is s/h cheaper than a UQ :-)

If you want to go cheap, and like to play with gadgets, the Raspberry Pi + some Dac on top of it is probably the cheapest way to give you high quality music. Plenty of it on this forum elsewhere.

Thanks for the replies i think the UQ is out of my price range for the moment ! But i hadn't considered or even realised there was a raspberry pi solution and from a quick Google , seems like hifi berry produce some cheap burr brown DACs for the pi ....I know absolutely nothing about using the pi so I'll search the forum and get my knowledge up to speed.

highflyin posted:

Thanks for the replies i think the UQ is out of my price range for the moment ! But i hadn't considered or even realised there was a raspberry pi solution and from a quick Google , seems like hifi berry produce some cheap burr brown DACs for the pi ....I know absolutely nothing about using the pi so I'll search the forum and get my knowledge up to speed.

You can find some basic information on how to use a Raspberry Pi on https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...aspberry-pi-3?page=1. If you already have a Dragonfly you do not need to add a HIFIBerry DAC to the Pi. Install MinimServer (http://minimserver.com/) and upmpdcli, connect the Dragonfly and you are up and running. upmpdcli (https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/) works as a renderer and gives you access to Tidal and Spotify. You'll need a control point, ideally running on an Android or iOS device. I use Linn's Kazoo which works fine with MinimServer and upmpdcli.

nbpf posted:

highflyin posted:

Thanks for the replies i think the UQ is out of my price range for the moment ! But i hadn't considered or even realised there was a raspberry pi solution and from a quick Google , seems like hifi berry produce some cheap burr brown DACs for the pi ....I know absolutely nothing about using the pi so I'll search the forum and get my knowledge up to speed.

You can find some basic information on how to use a Raspberry Pi on https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...aspberry-pi-3?page=1. If you already have a Dragonfly you do not need to add a HIFIBerry DAC to the Pi. Install MinimServer (http://minimserver.com/) and upmpdcli, connect the Dragonfly and you are up and running. upmpdcli (https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/) works as a renderer and gives you access to Tidal and Spotify. You'll need a control point, ideally running on an Android or iOS device. I use Linn's Kazoo which works fine with MinimServer and upmpdcli.

Thanks NBPF, for some reason I did not think of combining my RPi and my Dragonfly. When I have some free evenings, I'm going to try it.

Got it working. Synology Nas, RPi, Dragonfly Black (the recent one) into Supernait.

Have problems with Linn Kazoo - which is giving 'failed to add track to DS' messages, but Synologies DS Audio works for me. Need to sort out some ground loop.

I noticed that the colours of the Dragonfly change based on the format I feed to it. Cool!

Ardbeg10y posted:

Have problems with Linn Kazoo - which is giving 'failed to add track to DS' messages, but Synologies DS Audio works for me. Need to sort out some ground loop.

This suggests that Kazoo might have a problem with your UPnP server, what are you using? You can also get rid of the data transfer over your LAN by running a UPnP server on the Raspberry Pi and having your music collection on a drive connected to the Pi via USB. This way your Pi does not need to be wired. You should try MinimServer, it gives you great flexibility and easy of use. If you install MinimServer on the RPi you should also install MinimWatch on a laptop or computer connected to your LAN. This makes managing MinimServer (monitoring, upgrading, configuring) very simple and straightforward. The Raspberry Pi is a very flexible solution. If you later upgrade your DAC and need a SPDIF output (for instance, for a second hand Naim DAC) you can add to the Pi a HIFIBerry DIGI+ Pro. Best, nbpf

Thanks, NBPF. I use MinimServer already since the beginning. Linn Kazoo starts to work now, after I've updated my Synology NAS. I got rid of the ground loop and have quite good music now. Better than the ChromeCast Audio + SuperNait. Over the next days I'm going to improve cables (I'm using an old 3.5 to Phono cable now to connect the DragonFly to the SuperNait and I'm going to order a iFi PS for the RPi.

My Lan is fantastic both wired and wireless (that was quite a project), I stick to that and keep the music on the NAS. If I get a Naim Dac, I would put my favorite music on a usb stick and use that directly in the Dac.

A new Dac, there must be (yoda style language). The Dragonfly Black is good, but it is like the goodlooking girl from school who always had good marks but no humour (or other imaginary qualities) and therefore misses the point.

Tested 3 high res albums over the working day now.

But ... thanks again, I got a free upgrade just by connecting the right things together.

Get the Sonos "connect" (I think that is the model) 300$ best vfm.

Ardbeg10y posted:

Thanks, NBPF. I use MinimServer already since the beginning. Linn Kazoo starts to work now, after I've updated my Synology NAS. I got rid of the ground loop and have quite good music now. Better than the ChromeCast Audio + SuperNait. Over the next days I'm going to improve cables (I'm using an old 3.5 to Phono cable now to connect the DragonFly to the SuperNait and I'm going to order a iFi PS for the RPi.

My Lan is fantastic both wired and wireless (that was quite a project), I stick to that and keep the music on the NAS. If I get a Naim Dac, I would put my favorite music on a usb stick and use that directly in the Dac.

A new Dac, there must be (yoda style language). The Dragonfly Black is good, but it is like the goodlooking girl from school who always had good marks but no humour (or other imaginary qualities) and therefore misses the point.

Tested 3 high res albums over the working day now.

But ... thanks again, I got a free upgrade just by connecting the right things together.

Update: since all software is updated, no issues with Linn Kazoo anymore. Working better and more intuitive than DS Audio - which came with my Synology Nas.

There seems to be shortage on iFi PSes for RPi's.

Ardbeg10y posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

...

Update: since all software is updated, no issues with Linn Kazoo anymore. Working better and more intuitive than DS Audio - which came with my Synology Nas.

There seems to be shortage on iFi PSes for RPi's.

Glad to hear that Linn Kazoo works fine now! Thanks for the information on iFi PSes, I was thinking of ordering one. Best, nbpf

Another vote for the Sonos Connect from me. The unerringly solid connections the wife's Sonos devices and software are able maintain is a constant source of disappointment to me.  

My Naim ecosystem is a flaky, under-developed mess in comparison.

Did you set the chromecast audio to "full dynamic range" otherwise it sound crap.

I think the Chromecast audio is a bargain, works flawless and perfect to hide to.

... if you use an optical cable, it always is using full dynamic range ...

I did set the Chromecast audio to full dynamic range. I was a bit disappointed with it from a sound perspective, although the concept and size / functionality were excellent i ended up sending it back. (I have the Chromecast TV puck & love it)  

My current solution is taking the USB sound out of an 'nvidia shield' android TV box with installed Spotify app. USB goes into an audioquest dragonfly black DAC then 3.5 mm audio out of dragonfly into back of nac 102. I did a back to back test playing a cd on my Naim cd player then switching between that and the nvidia / dragonfly set up .. i couldn't perceive any difference in quality of sound at all  ! The nvidia shield has 24bit 192khz sound output from the usb.

As someone suggested using a raspberry pi as an alternative to my current solution to stream Spotify, I'm also going to give this a try in the near future to see if i squeeze a bit more sound out of this set up.

JulianL posted:

Another vote for the Sonos Connect from me. The unerringly solid connections the wife's Sonos devices and software are able maintain is a constant source of disappointment to me.  

My Naim ecosystem is a flaky, under-developed mess in comparison.

we can only wish ,sonos was my first streaming platform years ago, I thought great idea. tried many since and none beat it

Do you think the sonos connect is better than the equivalent streaming box such as a £350 yamaha, pioneer, etc ?. These boxes get pretty good reviews on what hifi etc and from users . I haven't checked out the sonos so it'd be good to hear if someone has done a back to back test with this against alternatives at the same price.

highflyin posted:

Do you think the sonos connect is better than the equivalent streaming box such as a £350 yamaha, pioneer, etc ?. These boxes get pretty good reviews on what hifi etc and from users . I haven't checked out the sonos so it'd be good to hear if someone has done a back to back test with this against alternatives at the same price.

So long as your music files top out at 16 bit I found no significant degradation in listening to the same file on my NAC N-172xs through its streamer section and the Sonos Connect via the optical dac input. 

The difference with Sonos is its ability to maintain a connection to the network and the Swiss army knife approach to streaming services.

A further big advantage is that secondhand they are like currency; buy well on ebay and, if you don't get on with it,  you'll losses will be minimal.

Sonos is the clearest possible demonstration that however good your hardware the challenge for anyone marketing a streamer is software. Their development budget is likely to be a an order or two of magnitude greater than Naim or any other traditional "HiFi" manufacturer.