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Post by Chris on Jun 16, 2018 19:42:00 GMT
I use Tidal hifi and Spotify Premium. Think I prefer Tidal but they're both good.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 8, 2018 22:53:48 GMT
I'm bumping this. Please re-vote as appropriate for your usage now. Tick all that apply.
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 8, 2018 23:51:29 GMT
Spotify only for me
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Post by John on Sept 9, 2018 4:09:44 GMT
No changes for me
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Post by MartinT on Sept 9, 2018 5:53:56 GMT
Spotify and Qobuz for me, although the latter is hanging in the balance.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 9, 2018 6:32:57 GMT
Qobuz 16/44.
I had cancelled my Spot sub, but went back this month after the sound quality eulogies of Martin and Tony S.
I'm sure it's my setup, which is as basic as can be - USB cable from PC to DAC, with a Halide Bridge USB converter - but Qobuz is clearly and obviously superior in sound. I'll be cancelling Spot again before the month is up.
I like Qobuz - PC interface is excellent to use, it's fast (Spot can really slow down at times) and the indexing and search facility allow the use of recording company names (very handy for music searches).
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 9, 2018 9:25:48 GMT
Not much from any. Let my Spotty sub go. Might come back to paying for it
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Post by Stratmangler on Sept 13, 2018 17:35:42 GMT
Using Qobuz for the next 30 days. I'm delighted with the sound quality.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 13, 2018 19:44:32 GMT
It sounds very good playing that Koch Marshall Trio album you recommended on Qobuz. Very good indeed. Then I played the same thing on Spotify. It's so very close that I soon stopped listening to differences and just listened to Funk Meat again!
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seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
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Post by seanm on Sept 15, 2018 7:05:42 GMT
Annoyingly, there is no single/simple/obvious answer to this for me at this time...
I currently use Amazon music.... free trial about to turn into paid subscription.... I have ended up being a big prime customer, (never actually planned)... also this summer, I picked up a couple of the small cheap echo dot Alexas and Amazon music is the natural route here.... The echo dots were a £30 experiment which I am enjoying... I actually have a 3rd party speaker with rechargeable battery which makes the dot like a portable version of the larger echo. This can follow me around the apartment for rooms where the hifi isn't and provide music locally at a low volume (noise is potentially a problem in my apartment)
However, I am also experimenting with "Android Auto".... runs on my phone.... puts the phone into a cut down.... SatNav / Music only mode with big buttons and "OK google" voice control. This is very useful since it removes the need to navigate/search a large tree hierarchy structure of artists/albums/tracks.... just jump straight in with "OK Google, play ashes to ashes by david bowie". (alternate live/demo/extended/remix versions confuse this however). Powering on my bluetooth dongle, (which hangs out of the aux socket in my reasonably priced hire car) puts my phone into Android auto mode automagically. Google music is obviously the natural streaming route here.
I am probably of the opinion that spotify is the most established/universal streaming service and I am keeping a watching brief on lossless services
Having reached the end of this post, I have concluded that there is a growing link between choice of streaming service and choice of smart speaker and other related technology.... which is exactly why they sell them cheaply. Had I gone for a Google speaker, the division above would have been avoided. Moreover, my experiments with voice control have convinced me of it's value when you are listening to music and doing other things at the same time. I sense history repeating itself.... around 20 years ago I first ripped my CD collection to moderate rate mp3s with an old laptop acting as a player via 3.5mm jack!. Obviously, sound quality was severely compromised at the time, not least by affordable disc space. However, with a young family, for casual listening, the ease of use justified the loss of sound quality. The blatant loss of sound quality was addressed during the last 20 years with lossless rips, spdiff and in recent years raspberry pi's et al. Voice control can be really convenient and ultimately I play more music when I probably would be otherwise preoccupied... so here I go again!
Cheers Sean
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Post by MartinT on Sept 30, 2018 7:47:34 GMT
I have just cancelled my Qobuz trial. It wasn't giving me anything that Spotify wasn't already giving me and I found the service a little less reliable with a horrible user interface. Yes, the artist bios are better but I can just look them up. Much to my surprise, 16/44 gave me no better sound quality over 320k Ogg, but then I have honed Spotify playback quality to a very high level.
Am very, very happy with what Spotify gives me, it has opened up whole worlds of music previously undiscovered.
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Post by John on Sept 30, 2018 8:25:49 GMT
I been reflecting on my streaming service playback For years I struggled with Spotify I really had issues getting decent sounds from it. At the time I was using a fanless W10 pc with a PSU. I actually cancelled my subscription as I just was not using it. Moving to the pi started to change that. I started to enjoy Spotify sound quality. Since then I mainly use Spotify as my main source. The sound quality constantly suprises me and as I pushed my system the sound quality kept on improving. I love that I am discovering more music. I can listen with a tablet and take me to wherever me muse wants to without having to get up. But it is discovering of new music from Discover weekly that I really love.
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 3, 2018 7:48:02 GMT
I have just cancelled my Qobuz trial. It wasn't giving me anything that Spotify wasn't already giving me and I found the service a little less reliable with a horrible user interface. Yes, the artist bios are better but I can just look them up. Much to my surprise, 16/44 gave me no better sound quality over 320k Ogg, but then I have honed Spotify playback quality to a very high level. Am very, very happy with what Spotify gives me, it has opened up whole worlds of music previously undiscovered. Interesting. On my much less well honed streaming system, Qobuz 16/44 is clearly and obviously superior in sound. That's not to say that Spotify Premium is bad, it isn't and I found it very listenable. For me it's a bit like going from well-honed analog cassette playback (which can be very good!) to a really good CDP (which is even better). The Qobuz rez and transparency is a clear step up in my system. Qobuz has a "horrible user interface". Really? It seems just fine to me, in fact I prefer it to the Spotify UI. We must be being presented with very different screens! I wonder why? I have now cancelled my Spot Prem sub and can't imagine wanting to return to it with my present setup.
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Post by MartinT on Oct 3, 2018 7:51:24 GMT
Do you have an adequate range of classical music on Qobuz, Jerry?
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 3, 2018 8:11:37 GMT
Yes. More stuff that I would like to listen to than I could possibly have time for!
I am baffled by your UI comments, Martin, what Qobuz presents to me is perfectly usable and informative. What issues do you have?
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Post by Stratmangler on Oct 3, 2018 8:14:35 GMT
The Qobuz interface is fine using LMS. It's a bit clunky, as I have to open the web player on my computer to add something to my favourites (what is this fixation with having to put love hearts on everything you like?), but other than that it's workable.
Sound quality is better than Spotify (I'm using the 16/44.1 flac service), there's no doubt about that. Spotify does have a more comprehensive library of material.
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 3, 2018 8:41:58 GMT
Spotify does have a more comprehensive library of material.
It's swings and roundabouts for me. Re: classical music (that's all I really care about) Spot does have a bigger selection. But there is quite a lot that Qobuz has that Spotify doesn't. For example, Qobuz does much better with the Dutton catalogue that has a wealth of wonderful and obscure British classical music that isn't on Spotify. Perhaps not many people would find that of interest, but it fascinates me!
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 3, 2018 8:44:37 GMT
The Qobuz interface is fine using LMS. It's a bit clunky, as I have to open the web player on my computer to add something to my favourites (what is this fixation with having to put love hearts on everything you like?), but other than that it's workable.
Interesting how many different presentations there seems to be. I don't need to open the web player to add to my favourites, when browsing I just click on the 3-dots icon and click on the heart symbol. Admittedly, my Spotify is easier with just a single click needed. Only one click needed when accessing the album, though.
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Post by Stratmangler on Oct 3, 2018 8:55:56 GMT
Interesting how many different presentations there seems to be. I don't need to open the web player to add to my favourites, just click on the 3-dots icon and click on the heart symbol. Admittedly, my Spotify is easier with just a single click needed. LMS is what I use to drive the Squeezebox Touch players here. I actually run LMS on a RasPi, and it performs server duties, nothing more. Have you changed the way you stream, Jerry? You were using a laptop/USB lead/DAC combo.
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 3, 2018 9:07:50 GMT
Have you changed the way you stream, Jerry? You were using a laptop/USB lead/DAC combo. No, that's still my method. I am deeply suspicious of 'streamer boxes'! For years I was put off the idea of music streaming when I heard other people's systems - they just seemed bland to me. Then I heard a friend's setup (user211 on other forums) and Pow!, we have life. He used a direct lappy to DAC connection, all the other systems I'd heard had 'proper' streaming boxes. So I tried that at home, and I find it perfectly satisfying. YMMV.
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