Post by MartinT on May 1, 2018 20:25:14 GMT
Before anyone laughs too hard, it'll do you no good as I've had plenty of cause to laugh at myself! An internet streaming service would be bad enough, but a compressed streaming service? No, I wouldn't have taken it seriously either. Let me first clarify: I'm talking about hi-bitrate that comes only with a Spotify Premium account. For a tenner a month (£15 for the family), this brings you the high quality streaming and also the ability to use Spotify Connect devices, the phone app without adverts, etc.
So why am I suggesting it's time to consider using Spotify as a primary source? Firstly, the format used (320kbps Ogg) is just good enough in the way that CD at 16/44 was just good enough all those years ago. In the same way as CD required quite a lot of work to gain the respect of audiophiles like us, Spotify needs some work, too. However, it really is virtually up to CD levels of perceived sound quality, and I use that word carefully. I am not going to measure comparative waveforms and guess what has been sacrificed because the only real arbiter is to sit and experience Spotify and decide whether you can enjoy a full evening's listening without tiring or thinking that something is missing. By the way, 320k Ogg format sounds a lot better to my ears than 320k mp3 even using the best encoder (LAME) with the highest quality conversion. When I play Spotify, it sounds real. When I play the same song as an mp3 file, it sounds flat and lacking.
The first thing you're going to need is a decent way to receive and decode Spotify to give of its best, again in the same way that a cheap CD player only gives you a facsimile of music. I'm not using anything like as expensive a setup as my SACD player which cost around £4k when it was on sale. A Raspberry Pi 3 with Allo DigiOne reclocking S/PDIF card and Volumio make up the player. A good but inexpensive DAC like the Beresford Caiman SEG, which itself is reclocking, makes up the basic subsystem. Care and attention around battery/supercap power, supports/damping and S/PDIF cable all help push it into the audiophile zone. £400 gets you started, £500 more than covers it.
The next killer USP is the range of music on offer, which I understand to be the widest of all the streaming suppliers. It's extraordinary to be able to call up vaguely remembered music of all genres and have it appear ready for playback. If I were starting out now, with no music collection, I would not be bothering with vinyl, CD or files. I would use every last bit of my money optimising the above and the accompanying system. Of course you need a decent internet connection and the means to get it to the Pi. Mine is barely adequate at 20Mbps with wi-fi to the Pi, hardly the best way of doing things but it's what I am stuck with for now. All that reclocking is doing wonders for the jittery packets coming over wi-fi (effectively, a radio system) into my system. Others will have it much better.
Then we have the convenience, of course. If you have the required Spotify account, you have the ability to stream to other devices around the home, use it at work, stream over the phone into the car etc. It's the integration that works really well: all your playlists able to be used from anywhere, the Recently Played being constantly updated and the wonderful Discover Weekly introducing you to new music that it thinks you may like. Not to mention making it easy to post your favourite tunes into forums like TAS.
I'm never going to dispose of my record and CD collections, they're precious to me. However, I am prepared to say that I was wrong about using a streaming service as a primary source because here I am, doing it and enjoying it.
I'd like to give a shoutout to Jerry jandl100 who was the first person I know to move wholly over to Spotify as his primary source. He saw it first and led the way. Kudos to him for making us all think about it seriously.
So why am I suggesting it's time to consider using Spotify as a primary source? Firstly, the format used (320kbps Ogg) is just good enough in the way that CD at 16/44 was just good enough all those years ago. In the same way as CD required quite a lot of work to gain the respect of audiophiles like us, Spotify needs some work, too. However, it really is virtually up to CD levels of perceived sound quality, and I use that word carefully. I am not going to measure comparative waveforms and guess what has been sacrificed because the only real arbiter is to sit and experience Spotify and decide whether you can enjoy a full evening's listening without tiring or thinking that something is missing. By the way, 320k Ogg format sounds a lot better to my ears than 320k mp3 even using the best encoder (LAME) with the highest quality conversion. When I play Spotify, it sounds real. When I play the same song as an mp3 file, it sounds flat and lacking.
The first thing you're going to need is a decent way to receive and decode Spotify to give of its best, again in the same way that a cheap CD player only gives you a facsimile of music. I'm not using anything like as expensive a setup as my SACD player which cost around £4k when it was on sale. A Raspberry Pi 3 with Allo DigiOne reclocking S/PDIF card and Volumio make up the player. A good but inexpensive DAC like the Beresford Caiman SEG, which itself is reclocking, makes up the basic subsystem. Care and attention around battery/supercap power, supports/damping and S/PDIF cable all help push it into the audiophile zone. £400 gets you started, £500 more than covers it.
The next killer USP is the range of music on offer, which I understand to be the widest of all the streaming suppliers. It's extraordinary to be able to call up vaguely remembered music of all genres and have it appear ready for playback. If I were starting out now, with no music collection, I would not be bothering with vinyl, CD or files. I would use every last bit of my money optimising the above and the accompanying system. Of course you need a decent internet connection and the means to get it to the Pi. Mine is barely adequate at 20Mbps with wi-fi to the Pi, hardly the best way of doing things but it's what I am stuck with for now. All that reclocking is doing wonders for the jittery packets coming over wi-fi (effectively, a radio system) into my system. Others will have it much better.
Then we have the convenience, of course. If you have the required Spotify account, you have the ability to stream to other devices around the home, use it at work, stream over the phone into the car etc. It's the integration that works really well: all your playlists able to be used from anywhere, the Recently Played being constantly updated and the wonderful Discover Weekly introducing you to new music that it thinks you may like. Not to mention making it easy to post your favourite tunes into forums like TAS.
I'm never going to dispose of my record and CD collections, they're precious to me. However, I am prepared to say that I was wrong about using a streaming service as a primary source because here I am, doing it and enjoying it.
I'd like to give a shoutout to Jerry jandl100 who was the first person I know to move wholly over to Spotify as his primary source. He saw it first and led the way. Kudos to him for making us all think about it seriously.