Spotify Connect Announced

[markush]

Devialet announced compatibility of Phantom and Spotify connect.
Any idea when this will become available for expert line too?

[David]

Good news for Phantom owners.

But i'd like to see Qobuz connect with the expert range :-)

David

[hk6230]

If they can make our Expert range to be Spotify Connectable, that will be great.

[Antoine]

Probably never. Just connect a computer to the Expert and use AIR/USB to use Spotify Connect (through an installed instance of the Spotify client) and/or every other streaming or radio service available in this world (or basically anything that outputs sound or music).

[hk6230]

Yes, I'm doing that now, AIRed from my Win10 Tablet to Le200. Somehow I think this is not the most ideal playback as Spotify desktop app is not bit-perfect and can't set it to forced max volume output like Roon/Sonos/Bluesound. I have all these options to stream Spotify to Le200 but it will be great if our Expert range can be like Phantom to be Spotify Connect-able.

[Antoine]

Yes, I know you are. Sorry, my comment was meant as a general one.

I guess what I was trying to say is that people IMO have unrealistic wishes/expectations for their Experts. The Expert is not a streamer. It's an integrated amplifier, DAC, phono pre-amp with several digital and analog inputs including a WiFi/ethernet digital input that's been designed to be used with AIR. AIR is a Devialet proprietary technology that allows one to "hook" the Expert into a PC functioning as a virtual soundcard.

The Expert's don't have the computing power, memory etc. to cater for all the wishes of functionality a streamer/music server usually provides. They have powerful DSP's but there's no general purpose CPU, generous amounts of RAM and storage available inside this small box to run what most streamers run (most of them run some Linux distribution). It simply has a completely different architecture than the average streamer/music server which in their basis are nothing but computers with digital outputs to connect to a DAC or amplifier when the streamer has a DAC built in.

Devialet has also never promised or suggested the the current Expert would/could be a general purpose -stand alone- streamer capable of supporting all that's out there like Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, Last FM, Tidal, Roon, or whatever everyone wants. It's sold to all of us with AIR over WiFi (and later also USB and AIR over ethernet) as a digital input to directly connect a -separate- computer to. Using that computer you can output anything and everything to the Devialet Expert. Besides that one can of course also use the analog or digital S/PFIF/AES inputs to connect a standalone streamer/music server.

Perhaps Devialet could support one of the streaming services but I'm quite sure it will never be able to support all and any. If anyone wants more, use a computer or stand-alone streamer/music server (Dialog is also nothing more than a streamer) or keep being disappointed every time Devialet releases new firmware for the Expert or new functionality for Phantom.

I'd love to be proven wrong but don't think it'll happen.

[hk6230]

Yes, Antoine, your detailed explanation is absolutely correct. I was being "greedy".

[markush]

Well adding support for Spotify Connect to Expert line should be not that difficult to achieve - controlled by a device like tablet / smartphone and send via AIR to Devialet. There have already been some rumors for quite some time that Spark app will come to Expert line. So that would than provide Spotify Connect too.

[Antoine]

I thought that for Spotify Connect to work with Phantom you need a Dialog, and the same to be true for the other streaming services like Qobuz, Tidal etc. The Devialet site at one place it says it is required:

"Devialet's accessory, Dialog, is essential to connect more than one Phantom together and to have access to the online music services Deezer, TIDAL and Qobuz."

...but in another place the website says it isn't: http://en.devialet.com/phantom/app-spark/#dialog/ and I did just read confirmations in this forum that Spotify Connect works without the Dialog.

So it looks like Devialet has been able to incorporate the code needed for Spotify Connect into the Phantom. IF they can also make it part of Spark then this indeed, at least theoretically, opens possibilities IF they're able to incorporate the AIR protocol (or some sort of replacement for it) into Spark as well.

Still I think anything else requiring external code running inside the Expert would be anything but "not difficult to achieve" or not possible at all. (Roon for example) Same goes for code/programs that can't be made an integral part of Spark. For Phantom they can run that code on the Dialog, for Expert it would most likely mean it's a dead end street since we need the app to bridge to AIR.

We're also not sure if the changes Devialet has made to the Phantom firmware to support Spotify Connect are possible for the Experts. I don't know what kind of microcomputer/-controller hardware is running inside the Phantoms but am going to look for clues and hints what is to see if it's comparable to the Experts.

Again, I hope to be proven wrong, time will tell!

[Jwg1749]

The incorporation of Spotify Connect will be nice, as a matter of convenience. I can see I might well use it with my Phantoms or for checking out new music. But the SQ isn't optimal, so I'm not interested in it as a long-term listening option.