Streaming Spotify to a DAC via Roku

[soundman]

Roku just announced a refreshed line of streamers.

Roku Announces All-New Streaming Player Line Up Starting at $29.99 | Roku Online Newsroom

 

An issue with Roku in the past has been its reliance on the internal DAC and only getting analog audio out of the device or relying on a complicated or expensive setup to extract the audio from the HDMI interface. With the refreshed line, the Roku Ultra (https://www.roku.com/products/roku-ultra) offers an S/PDIF optical out for both stereo and dolby sound. So no longer are you bound to the internal DAC or an expensive or complicated setup to deal with the HDMI handshakes and other copyright protections.

 

One issue with Spotify that remains is that there currently is no support for Spotify Connect; They say they've been working on it for over a year. Without Spotify connect, you are forced to use the outdated and terrible interface solely inside the Roku app.

 

So with the hardware problem sorted out, it's a matter of a software update to make this one of the cheapest Spotify streaming options out there with support for an external DAC. To my knowledge, the next cheaper option would be the SONOS Connect at ~$349 at the time of this post... Correct me if I am wrong.