I’ll tell you what I do to stream Pandora from my iPhone: I use a Lightning USB camera adaptor. It plugs into your phone and the other end you plug in your USB cable that goes to your dac. This thing bypasses what passes for the dac in your phone. Very cheap and simple if you want to experiment with going that route.
Pandora again, and now Spotify too...
For the last several years we have been streaming happily Pandora and Spotify (along with Qobuz) on an LMS (Logitech Media Server) streamer (Magna HiFi Mano Ultra), with an RME DAC, on our decent home stereo system. Recently LMS became Lyrion, and the plugins which enabled Pandora and Spotify access and streaming became inoperational with no substitutes or remedies that I can find. Qobuz is still streaming fine, but it is my understanding that perhaps due to artist royalty issues the only way to stream Pandora and Spotify in their top native resolutions is via their apps or when logged in directly to their sites via a browser.
I found no audio streamers or platforms (e.g., Roon, Jplay) which support these two services. Could not even ask the question on the Volumio site without a subscription...
First of all please correct me if I'm wrong... I'd love to be wrong here.
However, if I'm right, I am coming to the conclusion that the only way to stream these two services at their best quality (with no upsampling from USB) on our system is to stream them on a computer with a good sound card which has digital coax output which I would route to my DAC.
If the latter makes sense to anybody, can you please recommend a good sound card and basic computer, I assume a Windows desktop it can be installed in. Would love to use a Mac but am not aware of any current "open chassis" models which would accept a separate sound card.
Any thoughts and ideas are appreciated!
Cheers, Yoram
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Doesn't the RME have a USB input? |
Folks, thanks for the quick feedback! @gkelly , I looked at the WiiM Ultra in the past and wasn't clear on how they stream Pandora. Looked again briefly now. Spotify Connect is there, not clear about the interface/bridge and resolution for Pandora (and Qobuz if I were to consolidate). Will look again a bit deeper. Thanks! Will skip for now your third option... @thecarpathian , Excellent idea! Will test this approach. I read a bit through the RME manual and hoping this will not be too painful... Will report. @kr4 , yes, the RME has a USB 2.0 input, in addition to coax and optical. Thanks again, folks! |
P.S., @gkelly , I like that the WiiM Ultra has digital outputs which would allow me to compare its internal DAC with the RME, once I decide to get it. |
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