What's the best (or at least a decent) budget streamer for Spotify?

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neekomax

I use Spotify all the time. I generally stream using Airplay from my iPhone to Apple TV, which kills the battery quick, or I connect my MacBook Pro with a Toslink cable to my DAC, which sounds great, but isn't the most convenient.

Any ideas for a HDMI, USB, Coaxial, or analog connected streamer that works well with Spotify Connect? Ideally under $100. Thanks in advance!

Doublej

  • Full Member
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I think a Chromecast, Chromecast Audio or Roku should work. They all have apps for the iphone. Under $40.


geowak

Look at the Meridian Explorer USB device. I don’t know if that is what your looking for but if you plan on using your computer than that is a budget way to go. My budget option was a little higher, the Bluesound Node 2. Explorer 2 is $199 and Node 2 is $499. The Node 2 is a dedicated streamer.

neekomax

Look at the Meridian Explorer USB device. I don’t know if that is what your looking for but if you plan on using your computer than that is a budget way to go. My budget option was a little higher, the Bluesound Node 2. Explorer 2 is $199 and Node 2 is $499. The Node 2 is a dedicated streamer.

Isn't that just a DAC?

kaka89

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 42
I use Raspberry Pi with Volumio installed. USB output to my DAC.

pfarthing

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 49
Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV

sone

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 13
Raspberry PI 3 with Moode Audio, Volumio or Runeaudio.

Works out of the box with USB/HDMI output. Its cheap, reliable and easy to use.

Install this plugin for easy Spotify connect use:

https://github.com/dtcooper/raspotify

Please dont use the built-in analog output of the rpi3.

you can add plenty of hw mods to the rpi3 if you want DAC, or digital output.

I personally use Allo Digione for my rpi3, gives clean spdif output to my DAC, a bit over you budget, but not by much. Well worth it if you have a good DAC.

You can also add digital-out to the rpi or a decent dac, most are around $50 or less, look for IQaudio / Allo or similar.


geowak

neekomax - my apology for the late response. You are correct the Meridian is a usb dac and would need your computer to stream Spotify. Therefore I would default my suggestion to the Bluesound Node 2 for $499. With that you do have a streamer with a very good dac.

neekomax

Thanks for the suggestions all. I ended up getting a Fire TV stick (the most recent one) and going in through my HDTV, taking optical out to my current DAC/processor, mainly for Spotify Connect (I already have an Apple TV which I use for other stuff as well).

For $40, it's a decent solution for now. Can't really tell if it's doing 320 Khz streaming through the Firestick, but it sounds good to me, a bit better than Apple Music through the Apple TV, hooked up the same way.

I might be getting a new processor / DAC in a month or so, which does HDMI in, so it will be interesting to see if it help getting the TV out of the chain.

The Raspberry PI and Bluesound Node solutions sound cool, maybe I'll give the PI a try in the future.

grelcar

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 1
Airport Express will provide optical or analog output an can be seen as an airplay device from any apple source over your wifi.