Spotify

Posted by: skyebridge on 06 January 2019

I have an ND5XS with DAC and Nac282. The streamer operates onmy BT Broadband/WiFi setup. The Router is a Z6. I've tried in the past to connect to Spotify, without success.

How does this work best?

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Brian H

Do you have a Spotify account

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by skyebridge

Yes - I have a Spotify account.

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Guinnless

And you have the Spotify App on your control pad. If so you you then start the Spotify App and connect to the ND5XS. It must be a Premium account, the free one won't work.

You also need to ensure that the ND5 has Spotify enabled in the input settings.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander

Is that the case, that the free Spotify service can’t be used? (I hadn’t discovered Spotify when I had an ND5XS.) Seems a pity as it’s a great resource for hearing new music to decide if you want to buy! Yes the SQ is limited, but serves the purpose free of charge! 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Mike1951
Innocent Bystander posted:

Is that the case, that the free Spotify service can’t be used? (I hadn’t discovered Spotify when I had an ND5XS.) Seems a pity as it’s a great resource for hearing new music to decide if you want to buy! Yes the SQ is limited, but serves the purpose free of charge!

Yes.

Assuming you are relying on ‘bought’ files for SQ, try paying for a Tidal lossless option.

 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander
Mike1951 posted:

 

Assuming you are relying on ‘bought’ files for SQ, try paying for a Tidal lossless option.

 

While the model suits some, I have no interest in paying for an online streaming service: I prefer to be sure the music I like is permanently available and that it always will be, so for me online streaming is just a way of sampling to see if I like enough to want to listen more, in which case I’ll buy. 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Mike1951

Hmmm. Do you buy DVD box sets?

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander

None to date - why?

I buy music as CDs to rip, or downloads, mostly discrete albums, though there was a Maria Callas set at a bargain price on Qobuz a year or so ago.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by skyebridge

I did not realise there was a debate around this. I am a newcomer to streaming in any format. TBH it's my wife who asked me why can't she have Spotify enabled on the ND5XS.

I thought it would simply be a matter of posing a question on the Forum.

In case there is further advice available, I have the ND5XS operating with a Naim DAC and PS. The pre-amp is a Nac-282 with 2xPS  and I also have a CD5XS with PS.

For storage/distribution I have available BT Cloud or a mass storage computer system.

What - if any - music streaming choices do I have? And how are these priced?

Thanks,

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Guinnless

You have a fairly similar system to mine. But without the CD Player.

I stream from Tidal but I've tested it with Spotify and that works too.  Tidal Hifi is £20 per month and is integrated into the ND5XS.  You can use Spotify and that is £10 per month for the Premium version which is the only one that works with Naim.

I also have local streaming from a QNAP NAS running Asset UPnP. BT Cloud won't serve up music, you can run Asset UPnP on your PC if you wish but most people have a dedicated device.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander

There are a number of subscription based online streaming services, regarding which I’ll let those who use them advise. Your choice may depend on your taste in music. 

Then there is ‘streaming’ from your own music store – in essence a bit like playing CDs but you use an app on your smartphone or tablet to navigate and select files stored on your computer system and it worked to the ND5XS.  Many people after going to streaming from their own store have ripped their CDs (that means extracting the music files from them) and put the CDs away in storage purely for backup and license purposes.

Depending on their players involved streaming has the potential to sound better than CD because it doesn’t need real-time play and error correction to cope with misreading.  Storage is best on a NAS (network attached storage), a small dedicated computer server designed to be on 24 hours a day ready for use and not inhibiting Or interfered by other computer uses.

Incidentally, given that you have a separate DAC, you are only using your ND5XS as a tenderer – there are alternatives you could consider, some of which may allow use of the free version of Spotify, but that is another story for another time.

 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by ChrisSU
skyebridge posted:

I did not realise there was a debate around this. I am a newcomer to streaming in any format. TBH it's my wife who asked me why can't she have Spotify enabled on the ND5XS.

I thought it would simply be a matter of posing a question on the Forum.

In case there is further advice available, I have the ND5XS operating with a Naim DAC and PS. The pre-amp is a Nac-282 with 2xPS  and I also have a CD5XS with PS.

For storage/distribution I have available BT Cloud or a mass storage computer system.

What - if any - music streaming choices do I have? And how are these priced?

Thanks,

I think the debate above is a bit off-topic. Your streamer should certainly be able to use Spotify. If the firmware is quite an old version, it may need updating. 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander
ChrisSU posted:
skyebridge posted:

 

 

I think the debate above is a bit off-topic. Your streamer should certainly be able to use Spotify. If the firmware is quite an old version, it may need updating. 

Erm... that was the OP extending his own  topic!! 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Chris, the point is the OP only wants to use free streaming services. Naim have incorporated Spotify’s Connect integration. Spotify currently only offer their  Connect integration with their premium service, which costs £10 pcm.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by ChrisSU
Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Chris, the point is the OP only wants to use free streaming services. Naim have incorporated Spotify’s Connect integration. Spotify currently only offer their  Connect integration with their premium service, which costs £10 pcm.

I don't see any mention from the OP of whether his Spotify account is a paid one or not, but yes, if it's the free version, it won't work. Airplay into an Airport Express/optical cable into the ND5 should work as it wouldn't be using Spotify Connect.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Indeed, I see it was actually IB who was not wanting to pay for streamer services.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander

Yep! The OP’s position is unknown yet - I take it that what he wants is info so that he can decide whether and what, both in terms of online streaming and from his own collection. Meanwhile no-one has yet mentioned Qobuz as an online streaming provider...  nor pros & cons of the different services.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by SpyderTracks
Innocent Bystander posted:

Is that the case, that the free Spotify service can’t be used? (I hadn’t discovered Spotify when I had an ND5XS.) Seems a pity as it’s a great resource for hearing new music to decide if you want to buy! Yes the SQ is limited, but serves the purpose free of charge! 

Spotify recently announced that they've opened up Spotify Connect to include free tiers, all it takes is for partners to push out the new Spotify Connect firmware to devices and it's supplied free to partners, here's hoping Naim will update fairly quickly after it's released:

 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/...ad-supported-premium

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by fatcat

For the past week I’ve been streaming Deezer through my SBT/main system. I received 9 months free subscription when I bought my Qb, which bizzarely I am unable to use with the Qb. The sound quality is very good (320kbit/s), I’ve been having great fun listening to albums I intended buying, but didn’t get round too.

Spotify used to be available on the SBT, but became unavailable virtually overnight. Presumably the same could happen with Naim streamers, plus, what would happen if you own a 5 year old streamer and a new streaming platform becomes available, will Naim make the new platform available on old streamers.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by dave4jazz
fatcat posted:

Spotify used to be available on the SBT, but became unavailable virtually overnight. Presumably the same could happen with Naim streamers, plus, what would happen if you own a 5 year old streamer and a new streaming platform becomes available, will Naim make the new platform available on old streamers.

I'm sorry but that's not correct there is a well maintained plugin available for Spotify if you are running LMS devices, e.g. SBT.

Dave

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by skyebridge

Thanks to all so far for the contributions, all of which are clearly intended to be helpful.

As readers may infer, I'm a traditional type, and a bit slow. But I'm not technophobe. So, I've got a QNAS storage device with dedicated PC. I also play vinyl, and have a second high-quality CD-player.

However, recently I've had to deal with my wife's devices playing Spotify + other streaming music via her 'improved' speakers - which appear to me to be a revolting group of expensive but entirely vile miniature 'boom boxes' labelled by such big names as JBL.

What am I supposed to do? My ND5XS appears to be 'Spotify capable', but simply does not work with my wife's devices, and appears incapable of doing anything on it's own.

Do I want to pay £10 a month to stream Spotify? What am I getting? If it's CD-quality or better that I can store and re-play, OK. If it's trash that I don't want to listento anyhow - forget it.

Does this clarify what I'm looking to find out more about?

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by ChrisSU

OK, so it's a free Spotify account. The paid version is still not lossless CD quality, you would need to go for the £20 a month Tidal subscription for that. Alternatively, get an Apple Airport Express (cheap on ebay), connect it to the ND5 with an optical cable, and use that for Spotify.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by fatcat
dave4jazz posted:
fatcat posted:

Spotify used to be available on the SBT, but became unavailable virtually overnight. Presumably the same could happen with Naim streamers, plus, what would happen if you own a 5 year old streamer and a new streaming platform becomes available, will Naim make the new platform available on old streamers.

I'm sorry but that's not correct there is a well maintained plugin available for Spotify if you are running LMS devices, e.g. SBT.

Dave

Well, it’s not quite as simple as ‘there is a well maintained plugin available’. From my experience with the SBT, certain plugins require specific firmware revision, (I’m not using the latest revision, as this doesn’t support the EDO plugin I’m using). Plus, the LMS is loaded onto a Qnap NAS that no longer allows updating of LMS firmware due to security problems???????????

Although, I do think it's amazing that these third party plugins are available for the SBT. Take the EDO plugin, it seems inconceivable that a private individual could convert the USB input to a USB output for use with an asynchronous dac.

When spotify pull the plug on supporting Naim, will a plugin be available.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by fatcat
skyebridge posted:

Do I want to pay £10 a month to stream Spotify? What am I getting? If it's CD-quality or better that I can store and re-play, OK. If it's trash that I don't want to listento anyhow - forget it.

Does this clarify what I'm looking to find out more about?

I suspect only you know the answer.

£10 a month is 35p a day. Or at the moment you can get spotify for 3 months for 99p. That’s less than 1 new pence a day.

I've got deezer for 9 months for zero new pence a day.

 

 

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by dave4jazz
fatcat posted:
dave4jazz posted:
fatcat posted:

Spotify used to be available on the SBT, but became unavailable virtually overnight. Presumably the same could happen with Naim streamers, plus, what would happen if you own a 5 year old streamer and a new streaming platform becomes available, will Naim make the new platform available on old streamers.

I'm sorry but that's not correct there is a well maintained plugin available for Spotify if you are running LMS devices, e.g. SBT.

Dave

Well, it’s not quite as simple as ‘there is a well maintained plugin available’. From my experience with the SBT, certain plugins require specific firmware revision, (I’m not using the latest revision, as this doesn’t support the EDO plugin I’m using). Plus, the LMS is loaded onto a Qnap NAS that no longer allows updating of LMS firmware due to security problems???????????

FWIW that's the main reason I give up on a QNAP NAS as it was difficult, for me anyway, to maintain the latest version of LMS.

Dave