You want to add streaming to a system you own
Smart move — and easier than you think. If your amplifier has one free input on the back, it can stream. Doesn't matter if it's two years old or forty: one small box, one cable, and your system plays everything — Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz, internet radio from around the world — with your phone as the remote. Nothing you love gets replaced.
Walk over to your amplifier and look at the back. See a free pair of red-and-white jacks labeled Aux, Tape In, CD, or Tuner? Then you’re ready — that’s all a streamer needs. Not sure what you’re looking at? Snap a photo of the back panel and email it to us at talktoanexpert@audioadvisor.com. We’ll tell you exactly what to buy and which jacks to use. We do it every week.
The red-and-white input jacks you’re looking for
This is the one-box answer that works with every amplifier ever made — including a 1970s receiver. The streamer's built-in DAC (the chip that turns digital back into music) converts everything internally and sends ready-to-play analog sound out of ordinary red-and-white jacks, straight into any free input. One box, one cable, done. If you're not sure which path is yours, it's this one.
If there's already a quality DAC in your rack — or your amplifier has digital inputs of its own — you don't need to pay for another converter. A streamer with a digital output feeds the DAC you already trust, and the DAC keeps doing what it does best. Your existing investment stays right at the heart of the system.
Here's the move most people miss: choose a streaming DAC with digital inputs, and it doesn't just add streaming — it can take over converting duty for your CD player as well. Run the player's digital output into the new box and your twenty-year-old discs get brand-new electronics. One purchase, two upgrades, and the whole digital side of your system moves into this decade.
One input on your amplifier is off-limits: Phono. That input is specially built for the whisper-quiet signal of a turntable, and plugging a streamer into it will sound loud, distorted, and awful. Use Aux, Tape In, CD, or Tuner — never Phono. And if the interconnect cables in your rack are decades old, replace them while you’re back there; old, oxidized cables are a weak link no new streamer can overcome.
Skip the Phono input — CD, Tuner, Line 1, or Line 2 are the ones you want
BEFORE YOU BUY
The five-minute readiness check
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Find one free input on the back of your amp — Aux, Tape In, CD, or Tuner all work. (Not Phono.)
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Check your Wi-Fi reach. Streaming boxes connect over Wi-Fi or a wired network cable; if the stereo lives far from the router, the wired jack is your friend.
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Count your shelf space. Most streamers are small — some are barely bigger than a paperback — but measure the gap you've got.
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Have a fresh interconnect cable ready so you're not reusing one from 1988.
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Pick your first playlist. Seriously — the box arrives, the app walks you through setup, and you'll be listening in about fifteen minutes. Be ready.
LET'S CLEAR A FEW THINGS UP
Four things people get wrong about adding streaming
To stream, I'd have to replace my amplifier — maybe the whole system.
Streaming is added, not swapped. If your amp has one free input, it qualifies — vintage receivers included. The system you love stays exactly where it is; it just learns a few million new songs.
These boxes are complicated — I'm not technical enough to set one up.
If you can install an app on your phone, you can do this. Modern streamers walk you through setup step by step, and most people are playing music within fifteen minutes of opening the box. And if anything snags, you have our number.
Streaming can't sound as good as my CDs.
The days of tinny internet audio are long gone. Services like TIDAL, Qobuz, and Amazon Music deliver full CD-quality lossless streams — and often better — and a good streamer hands them to your amplifier untouched. Same quality as the disc, plus millions more albums.
Adding a streamer means paying for a subscription forever.
A subscription is optional, not required. Every streamer also plays free internet radio from around the world — thousands of stations — plus your own music files, no monthly fee attached. Many people stream happily without ever subscribing to anything.
Still not sure? Talk with an Audio Advisor.
Alex Johnson
Senior Audio Specialist