Music Streaming Services

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by rott, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Landric

    Landric New

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    Just started my Qobuz trial today, and I'm really perplexed by a few things:
    1) Responding directly to your "stuff I want" comment, I can't figure out the rhyme or reason behind which albums they've got and don't. They had the 2 most recent Dirty Projectors albums, but not the rest of the catalog. It felt analogous to video streaming services that only have the current, in-progress season. Strange.

    2) Qobuz's lumping of everything into a "release" is silly from a design perspective. To get to an early album that doesn't rank highly on "relevance" you've got a lot of scrolling through promo singles to do...

    3) Comparing to both Spotify and Apple Music through iTunes, Qobuz's tracks just play louder by default. Feels like that thing where Best Buy jacks up the saturation and brightness on floor model TVs.

    My experience today makes me wanna go back and check out Tidal to scratch the quality itch without the weirdness mentioned above...
     
  2. Deep Funk

    Deep Funk Deep thoughts - Friend

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    Tidal is more for on the go for me. Somehow Tidal have hired a very good music curator because they sometimes have music in the library that was once quite rare. The Nujabes albums for starters.

    I remember the days you had to find thus import those albums in physical form because almost no one had them. That was 10-15 years ago before streaming was a big thing. There are some music nerds at Tidal making sure the library stays interesting, not just Top 40 or Hot 100 fodder.

    Once I have some more cash, I will simply get the FLAC-albums I want and walk off.
     
  3. dark_energy

    dark_energy Friend

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    I agree. Services like Tidal are great, even when they are 320Kbps only.

    Based on my experience, having BitP playback is important to sound quality, high priority on my list. I already have a solution to running Daphile with Tidal in BP. It shouldn't be much hustle to achieve that on Android smartphone with the right app (BP should work with internal audio chipset as well). Some DAP might do the trick as well with better DAC/AMP components do begin with.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2019
  4. psuKinger

    psuKinger Facebook Friend

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    Has anybody made purchases yet through the Qobuz download store?

    - Are purchases available for download multiple times (similar to 7Digital; not like HDTracks)?

    - Do purchases made at Hi Rez stream through Qobuz at Hi-Rez, regardless of streaming subscription tier (for example: If I opt for the 16/44.1 "CD" stream tier, will a HiRez purchase made from the download store play back at HiRez through the Qobuz app)?
     
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    I can answer the first question you have, and it is yes. You can redownload it with out DRM.
     
  6. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    I have worked on streaming apps, and I expect the answer to be no. The streaming service must operate under its licensing agreements and operates independently of download purchases.
     
  7. dark_energy

    dark_energy Friend

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    Discovered that Spotify has official Linux snap app. Cool.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2019
  8. Don Miller

    Don Miller Banned from FS; never sell me anything

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    Any way to play all albums by an artist in Qobuz rather then needing to add them all to the que? What about Tidal in this regard? Really missing this ability from Spotify. Don't want to invest in Roon. Don't know how to get foobar2000 to interface with Qobuz..
     
  9. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Are there any Canadian subscribers to Qobuz? I am now on the Qobuz trial in the US subscribing to the hi-res service. I kept the Tidal subscription to do some testing, and because I was not sure if I could continue with my US Qobuz subscription when I m back to Canada. I did a simple test using VPN to change my address to Toronto and sign in from there and it worked. So I hope that as long as my billing address remains in the US, I can use Qobuz. in Canada. In this case I will drop Tidal, and here are some of the reasons:
    • I use Roon and Roon relationship with MQA has become somewhat unhealthy. If you have Tidal and Qobuz account and add an album to your library on Qobuz, if this album has an MQA equivalent on Tidal,Roon will "prioritize" your versions, so MQ is played if you do not pay attention. The only way to avoid it is to sign off Tidal.
      Other than that, Roon Qobuz integration works very well.
    • Qobuz hi-res streaming quality is noticeable,and very useful on Android players. 48, 92, 192 kHz files do no go through Android resampling.
    • Qobuz classical music library has everything I need, and it is much easier to find than on Tidal.
    • Last but not least Qobuz download prices, at least for classical music, are very competitive, better even than Presto Classical.
    EDIT: I am in Canada now and, although Qobuz is not available in Canada, my subscription that I started in the US continues without any problems

    The account is still associated with my US address and Paypal account. I locked into Qobuz hi-res subscription for a year at $249 and dropping Tidal today.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2019
  10. psuKinger

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    I'm not sure when this change took place, and I *might* be the only person that cares about this/is impacted, but at some point between when I signed up for a year of Qobuz (February) and today, the Firefox web player has switched from only supporting 16/44.1 CD Quality (and 320 kbps MP3) to now supporting 24-bit HiRez streaming.

    This is a big deal for me because it's my only real option at the office. The support for 16/44.1 via FireFox was the reason why I went Qobuz over Tidal; back when I did my last audition with Tidal (December-January 2018-2019), 16/44.1 CD-quality wasn't supported via all browsers, and Firefox was limited to 320 kbps (in Tidal). Today, Qobuz isn't just supporting at the CD level, but it looks like I"m not able to take full advantage of my HiRez subscription while at my desk. :)
     
  11. Marlowe

    Marlowe New

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    Amazon Music launched a Tidal competitor today, offering its music with CD or better quality: "HD" at 16 bits/44.1kHz and Ultra HD at 24/192. Its significantly cheaper than Tidal--$12.99 for Prime members ($14.99 if not) and there is a generous 90 day trial. I've been playing with it for about 45 minutes and, with brief casual listening, it sounds comparable to Tidal though the UI is quite clunky to navigate, though that may just be unfamiliarity. Three months to decide which to keep.
     
  12. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    Does Amazon Music HD work only using a browser or is there a desktop app like Qobuz? Have you compared it to Tidal or Qobuz? I am wondering how much content Amazon has at 24/96 or better compared to Qobuz.
     
  13. bixby

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    They did have an app for win and mac and still have that app on their dl page, not sure if that app supports regular cd quality or not or the hi res stuff. One would think it does :confused:

    EDIT: @allegro
    Answer is yes
    Note: Amazon Music HD is supported on the Amazon Music app for PC and Mac but not the Web Player. Actual experience depends on device and network.

    Faq is here
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  14. Phantaminum

    Phantaminum Friend

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    I tried Qobuz a few months ago and thought that it needed more refinement before I would consider switching over from Tidal/Spotify.

    They had more albums than Tidal, less than Spotify but I did find some pretty nice one off albums I couldn’t find on either. I’d still stick with the other two, Tidal for their lossless streaming, and Spotify to easily find new music or any tracks that Tidal doesn’t offer. Plus their interface is much more refined imho.

    I would love if Spotify just jumped on the HD music streaming service. I’d drop Tidal in a heartbeat.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  15. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    @allegro There is a dekstop app available. It looks to be based on HTML5 if I had to guess. The app appears to be pretty basic. I have not found audio controls outside of the volume slider. It appears to depend on the OS for sound output. If your default device is tagged to allow exclusive mode the Amazon Music player leverages that setting. I was able to verify this by trying to play system sounds while listening to music.

    I currently have Qobuz and Tidal now and will be making comparisons over the weekend. So far the HD (CD Quality) and UltraHD (Better than CD Quality) appear to be on par for what I have listened to so far.
     
  16. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    If looking to have direct streaming to a DAC from your PC, prepare to be disappointed right now. Everything on my end has to go through the Windows Mixer.

    Still in the step of the right direction Amazon.
     
  17. Inoculator

    Inoculator Friend

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    I am excited to check out Amazon HD as for casual setups at home I use Alexa to stream music to Play-Fi speakers and there are occasional hiccups with Tidal. Initial impressions are it sounds good, but dear god the desktop app is garbage.

    I was surprised to see that you can't use soundiiz to transfer spotify/tidal over to amazon. Anyone have any suggestions for a way to transfer artists/albums/tracks/playlists over to Amazon Music?
     
  18. bixby

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    There are some exceptions. If you mean streaming as is "from an outside source in the cloud" then I believe Roon totally bypasses mixer when using Roon Core to stream tidal to an end point. My end point uses ASIO driver to the dac, which should bypass everything Windows when streaming a raat stream to it from the core.

    I need to try using tidal as I am trialing Roon right now. Have only listened to Tidal on target computer using the app which definitely uses the WDM driver and mixer.
     
  19. Marlowe

    Marlowe New

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    I've been playing with this for a couple of hours. I was hoping it might plug some prominent holes in Tidal's catalog (such as several Richard Thompson albums), but most are missing on Amazon also. (Though Amazon does have Jerry Garcia's '70s solo albums that are missing on Tidal). But I have found some odd things. On one of my favorite albums of all time--Fairport Convention's Liege and Leaf--Amazon has the ten bonus tracks from the deluxe edition on Tidal, but only three of the album's original eight tracks (they are all on both Tidal versions of the album). No Tam Lin? No Matty Groves? For me, that's probably a dealbreaker right there.
     
  20. Metro

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