Spotify on my Hi Fi

Johnjohn

I have just got into using Spotify by connecting my laptop to my Hi Fi. However this is going to become a bit of a pain - e.g. when I want to use the laptop for something else and don't really want a headphone cable attached to it + my wife won't be able to use it when I take the laptop to work.

So, what is the cheapest and most straightforward way of getting Spotify on my Hi Fi? I am currently considering:

1) Buy a netbook that will be dedicated for this purpose - but cost of £200 seems a bit expensive considering I will only be using a small amount of the Netbook's capabilities.

2) Buy a "no name" Android tablet for Approx £100. The trouble is that Spotify for Android seems to have been developed for mobile phones - will it work on one of these tablets?

Any comments on these or other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

jayme1

yeah if you have a premium subscription (required for the mobile apps) then I would think another device way would be best, perhaps a 2nd hand ipod touch or a 2nd hand mobile phone (would have to have wifi in it such as a nokia n95) that can run spotify, a no brand android tablet might run it but with no android market you would have to sideload it or find it in another app store to download.

also it might, if you go the ipod touch way, if you get an ipod dock then you can control the music from the remote (but I'm not sure if that would work or is even possible)

eamon

I'm sure that in the Spotify FAQ's there may now be a solution for what you want to do. Its one of the things that annoys me as well and is the main reason that I don't use Spotify often. I suspect that a new piece of hardware will be required.

Johnjohn

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't considered using a dedicated mobile phone. I could buy a "cheap" PAYG mobile (e.g. Nokia 5230) and use it for Spotify and never use it to make calls.

Johnjohn

Just realised Nokia 5230 doesn't have Wifi. Just need to find the cheapest phone that has Wifi and runs Spotify now.

jayme1

Johnjohn wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't considered using a dedicated mobile phone. I could buy a "cheap" PAYG mobile (e.g. Nokia 5230) and use it for Spotify and never use it to make calls.

it would need to have wifi inbuilt so it can log in and sync/get the music from spotify, it would cost far far to much to use 3G

edit: you noticed

eamon

Just had a look at the Sonos site. Expensive!! I don't need Spotify that badly.

esuhl

Are there any issues regarding sound quality if you're going to use Spotify via a phone? I can't help think that a tiddly phone would be unable to match a PC... but the technology in phones is pretty impressive these days, and the free Spotify service is pretty low quality anyway (is it 128kb/s or 160kb/s?) so maybe it's fine!

jayme1

have a look at CEX they have a lot of 2nd hand phones, something like the nokia 5800 (most symbian nokias will run spotify), the htc tattoo, nokia n78, n82, they are all 'old' phones but should work perfectly for it.

but it would be worth a google of, *phone name* spotify, before you go with that phone to see what others have said.

jayme1

esuhl wrote: »

Are there any issues regarding sound quality if you're going to use Spotify via a phone? I can't help think that a tiddly phone would be unable to match a PC... but the technology in phones is pretty impressive these days, and the free Spotify service is pretty low quality anyway (is it 128kb/s or 160kb/s?) so maybe it's fine!

you cant use free spotify on a mobile device, only if you pay the £10 a month, as for quality if you get a deacent phone (nokias are well known for their very good sound quality esp. n series and music devices such as the 5800) then it will likely be as good if not better than the built in audio decoder of your laptop.