Spotify’s new Connect feature seems as good an excuse as any to throw a party

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This is a sort of hardware / software announcement for Spotify, a hardware partnership with a number of big names in audio like Philips, Pioneer, Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Marantz and Yamaha that allows you to keep the party going on those Spotify playlists. Start playing one on your handset, click play on a compatible speaker system, and it will keep streaming on the speaker without interruption — even when you take a call or leave the vicinity of your WiFi network. The audio system will actually start streaming music directly from the cloud. That means you can, say, turn on an iPad in another room and let your party guests skip songs — though, granted, that might not be the greatest idea, depending on who you invite.

Specific devices have yet to be named, though compatible systems will be branded with a Spotify Connect logo, so you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into. Those should be arriving in a late-October / early-November timeframe. Spotify will be holding up its end of the bargain by rolling out a software update for iOS ahead of those launches. Android and other operating systems will be receiving it at a later date.

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Marantz – 7.1ch AV amplifier with slim body – “NR1604″

Marantz - 7.1ch AV amplifier with slim body - "NR1604"

Marantz will release a new 7.1ch AV amplifier model “NR1604″ in late May.

The amplifier has slim dimensions at 440 x 367 x 105 mm and has a discrete power amplifier rated output 50W × 7ch (8Ω), maximum output of 100W × 7ch (6Ω).

It supports DLNA, FLAC / WAV files up to 24bit/192kHz and Apple Lossless support up to 24bit/96kHz. Also available is “2 M-DAX” through which you can play compressed music files MP3, WMA, such as AAC. USB and smart device connection is possible through the front.

It also supports AirPlay to play music wirelessly through a PC or iPhone and Internet radio. M-XPort “RX101″ to connect Bluetooth receiver is sold separately.

There are a total of 7 HDMI inputs in the system, 1 in front, 6 in the back and it can also be scaled up to output 4K, and 4K video pass-through (3,840 × 2,160 dots).

Price: 84,000
Color: Black

Spotify comes to Denon and Marantz receivers, shares music over NFC

Spotify comes to Denon and Marantz receivers, shares music over NFC

Spotify didn’t want to leave all the spotlight time to phone manufacturers today. To start, it’s widening its toehold in the living room: three Denon AV receivers and four Marantz counterparts now have support for streaming Spotify Premium music through respective firmware updates, with control coming either through the on-device screen or through Denon’s mobile remote app. You’re not necessarily left out if you have no compatible home theater to call your own, however. As long as you have a device with at least Android 4.0, an update to the Spotify app will let you apply audio effects or share Premium music between NFC devices through a tap. All of the updates are free — just know that you’ll need Spotify’s full $10 per month subscription to grease the wheels. Check the source links for the supported receivers and app updates.

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Spotify comes to Denon and Marantz receivers, shares music over NFC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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