Spotify Connect in Naim streamers

I would imagine the Mac itself has to convert the audio from native ogg votbis to a pcm stream to send  it via Airplay where connect your streamer is doing the conversion and is better at it. Or your settings on the app onmac are set to not us the highest quality, connect will use the highest bandwidth by default.

When I used Spotify a couple of years ago, I found the sound rather dull and moved to Tidal. Much better sound quality, but double the price, and not as good as Spotify in other respects. Worth a free trial, though.

Ipad was using a recommended quality setting so i changed it to the best option spotify app offers. I haven't been able to properly compare settings yet to make assuption whether or not i hear a difference between options.

My first touch with Tidal was few weeks ago when I went to visit my local dealer and listen possibly my next setup Atom&Aria 926.  Tidal's sound quality was impressive on most cases. Also listened some songs using Spotify and the difference was there when repeating the same track first on Spotify then Tidal. For now though im running Spotify and trying to get the best out of its vast libraries.

Spotify is always lossy, so it won't get but so good.

I find Spotify Premium running on NDX/nDAC/555 sounds better than widely reported.  I have stuck with it despite trying and abandoning Tidal.  Of all the services I have tried (Tidal, Deezer, Pandora), Spotify is the most usable by the whole family: it has a catalog that covers bases for all of us, at a decent price.

I do not know why it sounds as good as it does — it sounds better than my Sonos Connect playing local lossless rips into the same system.

I am not arguing against others who differ, only suggesting everybody judge on her/his own.

Nick

I agree Nick I don't find it as bad as some make out and it really depends on the source and it's library is way bigger than all the rest. Sounds good on my Atom and Allo USBridge, but I admit its not as good as Tidal on the whole.