I’m driving myself round the bend trying to figure out if a DAC will improve listening to Spotify on a decent HiFi set up.

Can’t figure out if it will or if it will just show up Spotify as a low bit rate source?

Any one got any experience?

Depends how good a source it is.
Better than laptop speakers – probably will improve it.
Better than a decent soundcard/ speaker setup – might improve it a little
Through a Sonos/ Squeezebox – may not improve it much, but will be more convenient!

Pretty pointless I’d say unless you have a very poor analogue source.

Spotify sounds rubbish through a half decent hifi in my opinion.

Sounds great through my

Onkyo NR609 + B&W 602 S3

IMO 😆

Sounds great to me also.

NAD C350 and B&W 601 S3

And possibly more important, Spotify premium at 320kbps ?

I run Spotify through my HiFi, sounds great. Premium user.

I have used Spotify premium in a reasonably hi end system without a problem. It’s not quite as good as uncompressed audio, but I still find it more than adequate. I think you have be pragmatic about it. There is lots of good music on Spotify, so it’s great for sampling stuff, and if I like it, I buy the CD.

What system have you got? If Spotify is your main source, I can’t see the point in spending a lot on a DAC, but if you have other sources, then a better DAC is going to benift everything. Without an indication of how much your thinking of spending and the context of your system, it’s hard to give advice.

Spotify premium for me through decent separates and AirPlay through a B&W Zepplin. Sounds great.

Which DAC to which Amp? a cheap DAC may be no better than the one in your P.C..

Personally I wouldn’t bother for spotify alone but it’d be worth it if your playing lossless music from the P.C/ Mac

A system is always limited by the source ,there’s no point splashing out on hi end gear and feed it low quality material from spotify / internet radio etc . A lot of music nowadays is already dynamically compressed enough as it is without further degrading it by use of spotify etc.

I run a Cyrus / Quad system.

I added an Audiolab DAC to my squeezebox touch streaming flac & the improvement was huge. On lower bitrate sources it may not be a great advantage. Does spotify have high def source files available in it’s premium service?

Thanks all.

Some more detail on the set up I’m talking about…..

Streaming Spotify (premium/hbr) from a Macbook Air wirelessly via AirPort Express.

Amp is a mid range Denon AV amp (can’t remember the number) and the speakers are B&W M1/Sub 5.1 set up (Home Cinema)

So not so straight forward and clear weak links to me for music are the AirPort streaming? And Speakers.

I’m thinking swapping out the L&R speakers for some proper floorstanders might be best bang for buck improvement.

As you might have guessed this is for music on a home cinema set up, never intended it for music really but due to a few changes around the house have ended up listening to music on it a lot.

What Dac are you looking at adding?
I’m assuming the D/A conversion is currently being done by the Denon?

No – I’m guessing D/A is happening in the AirTune AirPort thingy? Cable from that to Denon is just a regular jack cable. That’s why I think there is room for improvement somewhere!

I’m looking at something round the £2/300 mark. DAC Magic something like that.

I stream from a PC running the full bit rate “premium” spotify, via a cabled USB connection into a Cambridge Audio DACmagic, using short balanced analogue audio cables into a tri-amp’d Bi-wired Arcam FMJ pre/dual power amp combo and then into some Kef refference speakers, and…….

Pretty disspointing, TBH, on Spotify compared to a “lossless” CD rip played on something like media player or VLC or similar. Really notice the compression and limited bandwidth compared to CD digital data. Playing lossless ripped CD’s, That setup is very nearly a match for my Arcam FMJ CD player playing from the master discs.

So, as mentioned above, using a quality DAC is recommended, for the convenience to stream lots of different music, but to get the best from it, and to rival direct from CD resolution, you’re gonna find Spotify as a source a bit disappointing.

If you are using a 3.5mm audio lead from the airport express then you are using the DAC in the airport express. If your AV amp has a digital optical in you can connect that to your airport express, the 3.5mm jack includes an optical connection(it does in the latest airport express, don’t know about earlier versions). Finding a suitable optical lead shouldn’t be too difficult.

If your AV amp has a digital optical in you can connect that to your airport express, the 3.5mm jack includes an optical connection(it does in the latest airport express, don’t know about earlier versions)

Yes and yes. Good call. It does do this and now I know is obviously the quick win! Thanks, will give it a go!

Be warned the optical out in airport express doesn’t play well with all DACs. If audio fades in and out or breaks up you may be better off using an apple TV which has a standard optical out but no audio out. In an AV set up the Apple TV would have the advantage of also being able to stream video, photos, etc.

I love airplay, I never owned anything apple until I found out about airplay.