grantr77

Just checked, unfortunately day pass doesn't give access to higher bit rate "Day pass does not give access to premium features such as mobile and higher bit rate. To get access to premium features, please buy Spotify Premium" so looks like I may have to join up for a month and see how it goes, no big deal. V interested in the DAC route so still welcome comments on budget DAC for my set up.

Hi Eloise, You gave me advice on my set-up a month or so ago, really pleased with the Spotify AE Airfoil set-up, been listening to TONS of music, thanks. A good idea about the day pass, didn't think of that, will give it a go. Essentially though as I understand it your belief is that the quality will be much better to use standard Spotify but with DAC in the mix rather than no DAC ad 320kbs upgrade? You mentioned the Beresford before, I believe it retails for around £150, any others in that range I should look at or is that well rated generally? Cheers, Grant

Current setup - MacBook Pro streaming Spotify (free version) via Airfoil to Airport Express connected to Arcam Amp with 3.5mm jack to RCA cable. I realise with Airfoil and no-DAC set-up the quality of my system isn't exactly top-end but would upgrading to Spotify Premium to get the 320kbs bit rate noticeably improve quality? I don't have an iPhone and ads don't bother me too much so only advantage to paying £9.99 is the CD quality streaming. Thanks for feedback.

thanks for all the advice above, have ordered up an AE and will see how I get on. Will get the 3.5 - phono lead from Richer Sounds as recommended. One last question on this topic - on my amp I have various inputs, phono, cd, tuner, vcr, av/dvd, I have an Arcam cd player hooked into the cd (obviously) but all the the other slots are spare, does it matter which slot I use to connect the AE??

thanks, will an iPhone work as a remote for both itunes and Airfoil/Spotify???

Thanks everyone, going to mull this over, as you say maybe the best thing is try the AE out and take it from there, if not happy with that set-up return the unit and then consider the TOSLINK / DAC route suggested here also. I presume Airfoil will do the trick in terms of streaming from Spotify rather than just relying on iTunes, reason I want to use that is to free up some space on my Mac seeing as so much of my library is already on Spotify. I have searched the forums and seems Airfoil is well rated although of course do shout if anyone knows of any pitfalls in such a plan.

Thanks everyone, perfect feedback, the Richer Sounds one looks like the one to get. Just one thing I wanted to pick up which I am sure has been covered before (apologies), you say that the quality of the AE isn't that good to begin, I currently have my MacBook Pro tethered with a very cheap phono/headphone cable to my hi-fi set-up, to be fair it sounds pretty good, the only reason I want the AE to perfom this function is so I don;t have to sit right next to the hi-fi etc. Will the AE set-up mentioned above be comparable in sound quality or is there an appreciable degradation? Thanks again guys. Grant

Hi, about to plump for an Airport Express, aim to run iTunes and Spotify (with Airfoil) from my MacBook Pro. Can't afford a DAC so for now going to just connect the AE straight to the back of my Arcam Amp using a simple 3.5mm stereo jack to phono interconnect. Few questions: - recommended connection cable for this set-up please (is this any good: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-3-5mm-Stereo-Phono-Interconnect/dp/B0009HC4O4/ref=pd_bxgy_ce_text_b) - for future reference what is the best value DAC on the market that will enable me to properly realise the quality from the AE? Cheers.

Airport Express > AVI ADM9.1 controlled by Ipod Touch sounds like the ideal solution but to be honest at this stage that's outside my price range. Intrigued by the Asus EEPC option you mention, thing is what's the sound quality like from something like that compared to a MacBook Pro??

Ok, thanks Tim, seems wise to keep the MacBook in the loop. You mention setting up the sleep mode, can you elaborate on that please, is it possible to shut the lid and still have it running all the time or do you mean keep the lid/screen up with a screensaver or something? Also if I'm going to do that perhaps I could buy an Airport Express and stream it through after all, would you recommend that? If so is there a way of me/wife/kids having some sort of remote control to access iTunes? Thanks, Grant (p.s. not sure I know what you meant by clicking on the big right-facing error??)

I have a dedicated amp and cd player plus speaker set up in my lounge. I did toy with the idea of streaming music from my MacBook Pro but that means leaving it on all the time and also I don;t like the idea of the wife and kids firing it up everytime they want to listen to some music. However fed up with tons of CD's in the lounge and wondered if there was another way of having perhaps a dedicated piece of kit hardwired to the amp much like the CD player currently is but that will store all my 500+ CD's? I have looked at the Sony Giga Juke but it seems to come in kit form which is no good for me, Sonos and Squeezbox rely on streaming. Also considered getting a 160gb Ipod and ripping in lossless and using Arcam rdock to connect to the amp. Any ideas / advice on a cost effective solution t?? I note there is another forum called 'music server' perhaps that is what I am after (and apologies if this is in the wrong section) but any general advice for a newbie to this area much appreciated.

Ashley, I took your advice and ripped a CD into iTunes setting preferences to AIFF encoding and with error correction on. For playback I set the volume in iTunes to the max. Turned the amp down, played a song and slowly turned the amp up. The quality was actually really good. I ran the CD in tandem and kept switching back and forth, the ripped version was a little 'tinnier' but I guess I main gripe was that I ahd to turn the amp right up in order to get anywhere near the levels being output by the CD player. So as you said I probably had ripped something in a lower format which was why I was getting poor sound before. So moving forward - 1) how do I boost the sound level so that I don't have to turn the amp up so high 2) what's the best way to add Airport Express to the mix, in other words will the sound coming from the Airport Express match that being output by my Mac, if not how do I improve that? Down the line I can see me upgrading to the ADM9.1 and doing away with my conventional kit but need a workaround in the meantime. Cheers for further help on this. Grant

Hi, have searched for ages before stumbling on this great site. Apologies up front if the questions I pose here have been covered before or indeed if this is in the wrong section, couldn't find what I was looking for using the search forums. I have an Arcam A65+ Amp (see http://www.arcam.co.uk/prod_diva_A65_large.cfm) which has no digital input/outputs. I also have a MacBook Pro and around 500 CD's. I am thinking of ripping most of my CD's into iTunes using lossless and then streaming them from the MacBook to my hifi via Airtunes (which I haven't bought yet). Thing is when I connect the MacBook and amp using a headphone to phono lead the sound is so terrible that I suspect Airtunes will be even worse! Whilst I am no audiophile (evidenced by my humble kit) nevertheless I do like decent sound quality. So first off forgetting Airtunes for the moment how does one go about hardwire connecting the MacBook Pro and Amp to get decent sound, do I need any of these - DAC, pre-amp, headphone amp?? Assuming that is a yes what is a decent budget model? Taking this further is Airtunes a viable option or will sound just be awful? Thanks