Is there a reasonably priced network streamer that supports Spotify Connect and has either: 2 x coax digital output or coax digital output and USB digital output?
My setup works brilliantly and sounds sublime (in my opinion) from ripped CDs and Tidal via my Innuos Zen and Roon.
However, the children and wife use Spotify and don’t want to migrate to Tidal as they have many collaborative playlists on Spotify with their friends.
I don’t care about the DAC stage in the streamer as I will just be feeding the digital stream to the DAC in the Benchmark or Audio Technica. I just don’t want to be swapping cables every time I want to switch between headphones and speakers.
I am running the following setup at the moment:
Innuos Zen Mk3 (Roon Core) -> USB -> Audio Technica AT-HA5050H DAC/headphone amp
-> USB -> Benchmark DAC2 HGC -> Bryston -> Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor
Innuos supports Spotify or are you asking about a separate device all together?
I’m not familiar with Innuos devices so I’m not sure if you can run Roon Core and Spotify at the same time as I suspect Spotify might be done via Logitech Media server.
Edit: can’t run Roon and Spotify side by side, Roon needs to be disabled to allow Spotify Connect to be seen so that’s probably a non starter.
Simple solution for the family is a Chromecast audio using a mini Toslink to Toslink cable into the DAC, I’m sure that would be more than adequate for occasional listening, unless they are critical listeners of course.
Spotify app can connect direct to the CCA from anyone’s smartphone or tablet.
Thanks for the advice and yes, you can’t run Spotify from the Zen if you are using it as a Roon Core.
I have tried the Chromecast Audio but everyone agrees that it sounds pretty poor. It also requires the cable to be switched between the headphone amplifier/DAC and the DAC/preamp for the speakers, which I am trying to avoid.
You may want to try a Denon Heos Link. I think Yamaha makes a similar musiccast device. I think all you would need for spotify would be the older Heos Link HS1. the newer HS2 I think only added hi-res support. Not bad for the $100-$150 ish a used one will cost on ebay. I used to have a heos link, and if I recall it does have some nice features like selectable fixed/variable for digital outputs and bass/treble controls if that is your thing.
It has optical as well as coax. Getting two coax is not going to be something you will find easily on most streamers at any price as there is no general need for it. You need a bespoke device designed for multiroom playback. There are some out there but are servers not streamers.
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SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
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Would an RPi with digiHAT work? The digi out would give coax and there are the USB ports on the RPi itself. I don’t use HATs with my Pi so don’t know if you can use the USB ports when a HAT is attached???
Still only one coax out but you can connect multiple DACs to the pi’s usb sockets each will show in Roon as a seperate endpoint off it. But you will need to have powered DACs as the bus wont power many on its own, I assume you can have a a hat operational as well never tried it though.
Not clear to me where your 2 coax outputs are going to plug into. If it’s not a problem if the two are active simultaneously I would think that you could either use an RCA y splitter to get 2 coax output or you could get an inexpensive Optical to coax converter on Amazon.
The elac discovery connect DS-C101W-G actually just have 2 coaxial output and is a roon endpoint also
One plugs into my Audio Technica Headphone Amp & DAC, the other into my Benchmark DAC & pre-amp. I was hoping to get a solution that stops me from having to keep switching the coax cable between the headphone and the speaker setups.
Sadly, Spotify Connect only works with Output 2 on the Elac
I am coming to the conclusion that the simplest solution may be to buy two inexpensive Spotify Connect compatible streamers, such as Yamaha’s NP-S303, and connect one to the headphone amp/DAC and one to the stereo pre-amp/DAC.
As I understand it; digital coax cable has an impedance specified at 75 Ohms. Wouldn’t an RCA switch change that impedance and so cause problems with the signal?
Is the Yamaha Roon ready? They have their own Musiccast protocol , so unlikely to support Roon as well, I can’t find any reference to it.
One option is a CXN , coax to headphone amp, analogue to preamp. This negates the Benchmark. The CXN is superb but no idea in comparison to the Benchmark
It’s how I run my setup, Audiolab M DAC as a headphone amp to HD800, analogue out to my Samsung HW950 sound bar. I don’t have an amp and speaker setup these days.
The StreamMagic app supports Spotify, Tidal , Amazon, AppleMusic and DLNA servers and Internet Radio
