Does Bluetooth and Airplay. Built in Spotify. My daughter and wife constantly interrupt my streaming with there music when they don’t like what I’m listening to 
And you can connect Alexa to it as well
Tori,
No, you absolutely do NOT need to spend big money on a streaming setup. If I had to do it all over again, I’d get an Allo DigiOne Signature streamer with the nice power supply ($400) and a Topping DAC (the D50 is $250). All this you can control with cheap iPhone apps. Alternatively, there’s Roon, which I use and is excellent.
The above items are measurably transparent to the source material to well beyond the limits of human hearing – I see no reason to throw down a big lump of dosh at expensive streamers and power supplies. (Ahem.)
Happy hunting,
–Joe
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All depends at what level sound quality you want to go. If it’s just to discover new music or approach the level of the P10. Any chance a PI box can do the later.
It would be good to know more about what you want to use the streamer for. Is it to rip your CD collection for playback and ultimately replace the CDX2, or to start investigating streaming services such as Spotify and Qobuz? If its the former, there is no way you will be able to get something satisfactory without spending a four digit sum. If you are just looking to explore the world of internet music, a number of options are available. Probably the most straightforward is a Bluesound Node 2i, which would connect directly to your preamp, and enable you to stream hires from Qobuz, or lossy via Spotify. Alternatively, if you have a laptop, you could purchase a USB dac and then stream using the Qobuz desktop app, connecting your laptop via USB to the DAC. USB DACs are available at all price points from the Cyrus one mentioned earlier, Musical Fidelity around £400, to a used Naim nDAC for around £800. The advantage of a DAC like the Musical Fidelity/Naim is would allow you to connect TVs/Bluray players etc with digital outputs to your system. If you want to stay within the Naim ecosystem, a used ND5XS or NDX can be picked up starting at around £800. Bear in mind though that the old platform streamers won’t provide access to all online streaming platforms, only Spotify and Tidal. The newer Naim streamers provide access to a greater number of platforms, but are more costly.
Allo USBridge Signature, DigiOne Signature, Shanti PSU - around £650
Moode Audio 6.7.1 * software for the above - donation ware.
Naim nDAC - around a £grand on the auction site.
And it sounds superb…
Note: the released (today) MoOde version 7.0 has a bug related to the USBSig, but a workaround is in place and the formal release of the software will be updated in due course.
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Node 2i as a starting point and hard to beat for £500 and as others have stated above supports Qobuz, Tidal etc
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For a pure streamer I’d go with a raspberry pi4 - this is the cheapest option as well.
I’ve actually been quite impressed streaming Qobuz via my iPad into an Ndac. So much so that I’ve now ordered a Blue Node 2i for a bit more SQ and convenience. Just waiting for it to arrive.
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I want to use streaming to look up new music.
I use Tidal on my iPhone for this now, but would like to hear the music on my system also.
I do not want to rip my cd-collection.
I rather tend to buy the vinyl versions of albums I think highly of.
I do not need my (comming) streaming-system to sound as good as my system.
Thank you all for your replies.
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Yamaha would be ideal then.
Second hand Sonos Connect for about £100? It won’t be as good as the rest of your system for sure but plenty good enough to get a flavour of what you’re listening to.
There’s lots of cheap solutions as this thread shows, but what if the new music you “look up” and like and then want to hear in best quality is only available as a download, or much cheaper that way or available in higher quality than CD?
I took out a Qobuz subscription primarily to assess new music, eg. some of the recommendations in the Music Room threads. But the quality took me by surprise and it’s now more than half of my listening. You might end up catching the streaming bug. Anyway enjoy the ride.
Roger
In that case, a Naim ND5SX2 and away you go.
It gets you started with good quality and is readily upgradable later on, should you so wish.
Best regards, BF
Hi, does the Yamaha manage MQA files? thanks in advance.
Not sure. It has tidal built in. Might sign up for there free trial and see
Just checked Tidal website doesn’t look like it supports MQA
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Yes, it can be done but you need a decent DAC. A second hand Naim DAC or a Chord DAC would probably be adequate sources for your system, as already suggested. You can feed the nDAC with a Raspberry Pi (3 or 4) + hat with SPDIF output (Allo DigiOne, HiFIBerry, etc.) running upmpdcli (https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/) and MinimServer (https://minimserver.com/) or with transports like the Primare NP5 or the Meridian 210. As a source for a DAC with USB inputs, you could use the Allo USBridge Signature.
What about selling your CDX2 and your XPS (since you never listen to them) and buy a used 272, and subscribe to Qobuz with the change. The 272 is very musical (and so is Qobuz) and the choice of music on Qobuz is excellent.
(I appreciate there are some gaps in their catalogue, but there are also some great inclusions, such as multiple masterings of the same album so you can choose the one you prefer. Also Qobuz don’t use auto gain levelling, so each version maintains its original volume).