[Closed] Streaming amplifiers - how do you find them?

Yamaha MusicCast uses Apple's Airplay 2 system, I understand. I've used Airplay across various devices and equipment over the years, via things like the 2nd/3rd generation Airport Express, gen.3 and 4k Apple TV units, Homepods and other Airplay compatible speakers. Had the occasional glitch, but nothing too bad really. Sound quality seems to be better overall than say a Chromecast Audio, and Airplay is definitely better than Sonos' system. If I were looking for a streaming amp (might be soon), I'd only be considering something that is Airplay compatible. Which unfortunately leaves out quite a few otherwise decent amps, such as Audiolab and Quad (they use PlayFi I think).

I use this plus a conventional amp. seems to work well
https://www.richersounds.com/yamaha-wxad10-darkgrey.html

I use an echo link amp in the office. Works with any of the main streaming apps, or with the Alexa app, or with voice command. I would think with Spotify you don't need to worry about any of the amp manufacturers apps. What do you want to stream?

I was gonna say can't you get something to plug in the aux socket of an existing amp.

Though I notice TJ's link also says "stock erratic".

Sonos is great for us, and I'd recommend if you want to have stuff playing without relying on your phone for the stream (like bluetooth ones) or to zone units together. I had a poor experience with an older Denon streaming thing - most of the others are trying to do what Sonos does, and doing a pretty poor job of it.

If you've got nice speakers + amp already just get a Sonos Port for it.

Have one of the cheapo bluetooth amps in the garage with some old Mission speakers attached, it works remarkably well for a £30 device.

I’d rather have ok sound quality and a seamless app, than great sound quality with constant dropouts and connection issues.

So, what have you got, and how annoying/nice is it to use?

A pair of Amazon Echoes and a Spotify subscription.

I went a bit giddy on the recent "Prime Day" when it was all near half-price. I now have a Bluetooth stereo pair of full-blown Echoes in the front room, a stereo pair of G4 Dots in the back room and a stereo pair of G3 Dots in the kitchen. "Alexa, play music downstairs" gives me a flood of synced music throughout the ground floor. It occasionally shits itself but it's brilliant 99.9% of the time and the big Echoes can throw some noise out.

Upstairs coverage is spotty but we're decorating and stuff so not at the stage of kitting out audio yet. I'll probably do similar once we're straighter up here and The Girl and The Boy have moved out.

A pair of Amazon Echoes and a Spotify subscription.

Echos sound tinny compared to echo studios, which in turn sound rubbish compared to an echo link amp, which in turn isn't up to much compared to an echo link and a decent amp. I have all 4 setups in different rooms.

I had a Chromecast Audio but it was awful - couldn't get through a single track without dropping out. So I bought a (cheapo) bluetooth dongle to stream from my phone and reliable range is about 12 inches. So now I'm like 'Right - I'm feeling flush and I'm happy to spunk £500 on something that will be really good and not piss me off every day'. (I have also improved the wifi around the house too, so fingers crossed...)

Main uses will be (roughly in order)

Spotify (so can probably use Spotify Connect to bypass any apps?)
DAB
FM
Turntable
Internet radio like NTS etc
Some sort of NAS device to replace the CD player.
Occasional bluetoothing

The NAS seems to be the main thing that would use the app (possibly internet radio too) and since I don't yet have a NAS setup, I don't really know how much of an issue it would be! 'Most' stuff is on Spotify.... for now...

Half of that lot sounds redundant to me. If you have (say) Spotify Premium and Internet radio, why do you need any of the rest of it?

Sonos Amp here. It's excellent. I also have an Onkyo receiver with streaming for cinema duties. It's painful to use for streaming. Much easier just to send via bluetooth APTX. I stream loss-less whenever I can (Deezer HiFi) and use a Sonos Connect to said Onkyo instead.

Avoid TuneIn Radio on Sonos - sound quality is dreadful (48kHz).

Half of that lot sounds redundant to me. If you have (say) Spotify Premium and Internet radio, why do you need any of the rest of it?

I do still use FM for a couple of local community radio stations. And I don't want to give up DAB as it's still the most reliable thing I've got! But I'd be happy for internet radio to replace those if it could do so (without cutting out every time your phone rings etc, as seems to be the case with Play-Fi).

As for the NAS, I'm sort of on the fence. Most stuff is on Spotify, but not all my CD collection (or the random old mixes on my iTunes etc), and I increasingly see things disappearing, especially older stuff. Or, almost as annoying, you go to listen to your favourite album and it's been replaced by the 29-track deluxe edition remaster with all the b-sides, demo versions and live edits!

Spotify and an Echo of some sort plugged into a half decent hifi amp would be my suggestion.

I use an Echo Input (small disk shaped thing without an inbuilt speaker) plugged into a Naim amp in the living room and an Echo Dot plugged into a Teac all in one thing in the kitchen. All voice controlled so rarely use an app/screen.

I have a Naim Mu-So 2 and the app works well (integrates with Tidal and Spotify - I've only used it with Tidal though). I use it in a pretty basic manner (just starting a playlist going on shuffle) then use it's remote to skip/pause/change volume etc. You can manage playlists through it but I find it quicker/less frustrating to just go into the Tidal app, change stuff there and then it's picked up within the Naim app.

I assume you already have decent speakers so a Mu-So would be pointless but worth looking at the Uniti Atom if it's in your budget

First question is whether you need multi-room or not? Are you actually going to want to play the same music in different rooms at the same time?

Airplay works well most of the time. Occasionally I'll find it will drop one device when I'm playing to more than one at the same time. BUT the main issue is that it's playing from your phone - if you browse the internet and something autoplays with audio it interupts the music you're listening to.

My (>5 year old) Yamaha AV Amp has "Spotify Connect" which is way better than an airplay type connection - Spotify is playing directly on the amp so you can do whatever you want on your phone (including wandering out of Bluetooth/wifi range) without interrupting it. And any device that's on the same Spotify account can then act as a remote control for it - and you're using the Spotify app, not the devices app

BUT only works on a single device at a time so no multi-room.

My office set up working from home is a Denon M41DAB, this gives me DAB, CD Player and Bluetooth, play through Q Acoustics 3020i speakers and i have a Rega P1 turntable as i still have a stack of vinyl, sound is great, dead easy to use and gives me lots of options, cost me £600 in all to put together.

Usually listening to records, but often have podcasts/ Apple Music playing via Bluetooth or 6 Music on.

I've got an Echo Link (not plus) that is wired straight into a power amp, rather than a pre-amp. It's a bit loud, I have to listen to it on level 1 or level 0.5 if I want quiet listening, which is a little annoying since Alexa herself can't set volume to 0.5 you can only do it from the knob.

It's extremely detailed, crisp and open when used with HD audio, but it's not as warm as my older CD setup. It's a joy, and it's pretty cheap for hi-fi. Obviously it works with Amazon Music, but I think they also can link with spotify and BBC sounds etc but tbh I've not tried it on that device.

BUT only works on a single device at a time so no multi-room.

you can multi-room spotify connect over several echos. I'm not sure I'd go for an echo dot or input to a nice amp (the DACs in them are really cheap) - but you could have several echo link amps and just put them into a group if you really wanted to. That said the multiroom stuff on echo isn't flawless. sometimes one device will drop out for a minute or 2.

I've an 'everywhere' group that contains
echo link amp (driving some monitor audio bronze 1s)
echo link (hooked up to a yamaha 685 driving some monitor audio br6s)
echo studio
2x echo
1x echo input (hooked up to a cambridge audio amp driving some old mission speakers in the garage).

They can all be driven out of spotify connect in one go if you want.

Ive been eyeing up one of these.

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/amplifiers-receivers/yamaha-rn602-blk.html

Seems to tick all my boxes with connecting to the future (bluetooth) and the past (phono) for me and it gets not bad reviews. I'm not a massive audiophile but I need something to take over from my ageing Cambridge Audio amp.

Says it's available to buy online

I don't need multi-room - just the connectivity.

My office set up working from home is a Denon M41DAB, this gives me DAB, CD Player and Bluetooth, play through Q Acoustics 3020i speakers and i have a Rega P1 turntable

Does that Denon have a phono stage though??

Ive been eyeing up one of these.

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/amplifiers-receivers/yamaha-rn602-blk.html
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That looks pretty similar to what I've ordered (I didn't pay that though - looks like they've whacked £100 onto the price, perhaps it's too much hassle!) - but it looks really bulky! They've also suggested one of these, but all the stuff I've read about Play-Fi puts me off, and this thing looks ok too but it seems to need a TV to set it up, and possibly access some functions as it's designed to be more of a home-theatre thing really.

We don't have an Alexa or Siri etc, and I'm not really minded to go down that route.

The route I am, in fact, minded to go down involves me going round in circles for several weeks without making a decision, driving myself slightly mad and boring MrsD to tears in the process. Hnnnnnrnghhhhh

 

Get yourself a Majority Fitzwilliam.

Cheaps as chips and feature packed: internet radio, DAB,AUX-in FM, USB. BT, Spotify Play.

Dead easy to connect and use and less than £120.

I've got the small Yamaha CRX N470D. It's got an ethernet cable to my router and I've plugged a Chromecast Audio into the aux 1.

The good things:
The remote will let me with 1 button press select Radios 4 5 and 6 (all Network, noticeably better than DAB) Spotify (via ethernet) Aux and CD. Dead simple.
My phone then mirrors it with a well-designed app so I can change channels, volume. tone etc. and control what's being played through Spotify.
If I want to listen to 6 Music on catchup I get it on phone, tablet or laptop and cast it to the Chromecast.
It's got a CD player in it!

The not so good:
The sound is very good. But I'd like a bit better than very good, I want really good with great dynamics and a full range of sound when it's at low volume. It doesn't quite give me that.

I'm still looking for a way to keep all the good bits but with a better amp. I've not been able to find it. Supposedly Music Cast should allow me to send the raw signal to a separate amp but I think that's been quietly dropped. There's no line out, but there is a headphone socket, but I don't really want that palaver and I guess the audio characteristics would be set by then anyway.

I did look at an £800 Audiolab streaming amp at Richer Sounds but there were downsides: the app is a bit horrid (reportedly) and the internet radio is through Tunein which I think has de-listed BBC.

I guess if I had an Apple phone instead of Android choices might be easier but I still like the fact that I can just walk up to a fairly smart small box, push the on button and turn the knob up and listen.

I have a Yamaha streaming pre-amp plugged into my old Cyrus amp: here

I've been very happy with it as I can have Spotify connect, internet radio, tv digital optical all via the pre-amp, with the turntable plugged directly into the Cyrus.

Yamaha also do a streaming amp in the same range: https://www.richersounds.com/yamaha-network-stereo-amplifier.html

Another Muso user here.
I love it but it’s a fair chunk of cash.
Inside my turntable occasionally but everything else is spotify or radio paradise lol
Sound from the Muso is astonishing.

Spotify Connect on the FItzwilliam. Apol's

If you have a raspberry pi lying around then Moode Audio is great. Spotify connect, AirPlay, chrome cast, internet radio, local usb storage, NAS, tidal via upnp etc. The web interface isn’t amazing but it’s not terrible, I find it perfectly usable. And if you are mostly using Spotify then you bypass all that and use the Spotify app.

Easy enough to set up, and if you want really good sound then you can get a DAC hat for about £60.

Raspberry Pi plus one of these Pi-DAC
They also make one with an amp built in.

That combined with an echo in the kitchen works for me. Sound quality from the Pi/DAC combo is superb. I was going to buy another for the office until I saw the price of Pi’s now. Doesn’t need a latest model so will be looking on eBay soon.

Ive got an Amazon input wired up to a Yamaha R-N500 amp in the front room with a set of Warfdale bookshelf speakers and another Amazon input wired upto a Cambridge audio topaz am5 in the garage again connected to a set of Warfdale bookshelf speakers

Perfect for internet radio, spotify, Amazon music etc..just walk in a room and tell it what you want to listen too and off it goes

The input has no built in speaker, it all comes through your amp set up

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Echo-Input-Black-Alexa-Bluetooth-Speaker/dp/B07CH6JKW3

My Yamaha amp has the option to use the Yamaha app but i wasnt a fan of it

@5lab how do you find the Echo Link devices quality wise?

RIP Logitech Squeezebox touch. Seems to me exactly what the OP needs?

There is a demand for them secondhand.....

@molgrips - absolutely fine. To be fair the echo link is currently used to push music to an av amp via digital coax, so I'm not using the DAC in there, but the sound quality on that setup is not noticably different to the quality of the echo link amp setup I have in another room (which is pushing amplified music out to bookshelf speakers). The echo link amp isn't mind blowing - but it is also only a few hundred quid for receiver/dac/amp - so it won't be as good as a £500 standalone stereo amp.

The only limitation is the cho link amp is fairly quiet\underpowered. Its fine for listening in a small room (3x4m), with small speakers, but I can get it up to max volume without it being painfully loud, which isn't the case with most of my stuff.

I have a Yamaha WXAD10. Sound quality is great but I find it's app and some other areas frustrating. MusicCast does not support gapless playback so if you put a mix CD on a NAS and play using the Yamaha app you get these infuriating 2 second gaps in the middle of a mix. Can use a 3rd party app that does support gapless, but then I have to bluetooth to the Yamaha. Not ideal.

Thanks @Bassmandan - your comment

Moode Audio is great

prompted me to go check, and I've now replaced Volumio with Moode - seems better to me.

I use it to stream spotify using spotify connect - so the phone becomes a glorified remote.

The next step is to figure out how to get Alexa to control it like you can using an Echo as a source. I think it's possible but havn't had success yet.

You're most welcome. I've been poking about with a few recently. I think the interface to hifiberry OS is better but unless you custom build it, it won't output to the built in audio outs (these things are all really designed for 3rd party DACs). Moode seems to have the best of everything and I can put up with the interface.

Alexa control sounds interesting, something like this might work: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lawrence-Thorpe-Connect-Control-Spotify/dp/B074KFNWFD

I know you can install Alexa onto a pi, but I don't know if you could then directly control the Moode Spotify from there. As you can ask Alexa to play x on Spotify, it doesn't seem unreasonable to also say 'connect spotify to moode'.

I have a Yammy RN-303D receiver in the garage, running MusicCast

And I use 'two' Bluesound systems; one in the kitchen and one upstairs (although it's all one system, in some ways).

Of the two types (MusicCast vs Bluesound) I much prefer the Bluesound, as the BluOS software is much better, and integration and reliability is better too.

So if you just want a streaming amp then I'd definitely consider the Powernode 2i, or new Powernode. Pricey I know but it's really good kit.

Ooops - just realised the OPs was asking about streaming amps.

The Majority Fitzwilliam needs an amp...soz.

FWIW I just fitted some signal attenuators between my Echo Link and my power amp. Works nicely, no pre-amp required. Volume 1 is now whisper quiet, volume 3-4 is normal listening.

Majority is run some old work mates of mine, lovely blokes and doing really well for themselves!

Personally I have a mix of Yamaha musicCast (Surround amp, 2xWXAD10s for bedroom and kitchen, stero pair of 20's for the office/spareroom).

When it works you only need the MC app to link and power things on and off, then switch to spotify for everything else. IT does have periods where it drops out and at times the only way to recover this is reboot all the devices as well as the router. But at the moment, it's been running every waking hour this week just fine. I love that it synchronises througout the house, I also love that it doesn't have the Sonos app in the loop (I tried it, we didn't get along). Spotify connect to the surround amp works well especially with my new Dali speakers 🙂