Time To Dump Tidal? Bluesound / BlueOS Now Has Deezer HiFi

[The Computer Audiophile]

Roon integration usually requires a streaming service with the data and willingness to provide Roon access to the data. If Roon can't get this, the company has been hesitant to integrate a new service. 

 

I'd love to see options for lossless streaming in Roon.

[MikeJazz]

On 20/11/2017 at 9:09 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

Wow, perhaps the desktop app is lossless now!

 

https://support.deezer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115005516009-Introducing-our-new-desktop-app

 

Cool! Count me in when the desktop offline downloads works. Or maybe Tidal will also join with the download feature?

It's an important features that can see me moving from Tidal.

[alcarp]

Is Flac  audio quality in Deezer available in Australia?

 

 

[psjug]

23 hours ago, blownsi said:

Since this is the same cost as Tidal Hifi, what's the advantage of Deezer?

For me, the Deezer apps are just much better than Tidal's.  My main gripe with Tidal is that they keep two different albums lists for "my music" and downloads, so that it is difficult to manage changing the downloads list on a phone from a large list of "my music" albums.

 

I have been using Deezer Elite/Hifi for about two years with a Sonos Connect.  It sounds great.  Someone gave me a Bluesound Node so yesterday I was listening to Deezer FLAC tracks on that and it sounds really great too.  No AB comparisons but I doubt I could tell the difference between the Sonos and Bluesound (I think I like Sonos controller software better).  I also did a trial of Tidal to check out MQA with the Bluesound and I thought that sounded fine too but nothing noticeably better than 16/44.

[arcman]

I believe Deezer is going MQA in the future for their HI REZ (higher than redbook) http://www.techradar.com/news/move-over-tidal-deezer-is-getting-serious-about-hi-res-audio-with-mqa-support

[Rexp]

On 11/21/2017 at 9:35 AM, Sonicularity said:

I had to cancel.  I need a library where if I add a single track, the artist and the album the track is from are added to my library.  I add full albums to my library, but even if I only like one or two tracks from an album, the album should appear in my library with only those tracks shown.  I don't want to have to maintain a separate list of favorite songs, albums, and artists.  So, similar to Tidal, it is a service that only works well if you basically already have a good idea of exactly what you want to play.  It is not shuffle or random discovery friendly.  That said, I was still going to give it a few months, but when I go to play an album, I discover that Deezer has decided to use cross-fade for their solution to gapless playback.  I can't even listen to many classical albums or even the Beatles "Abbey Road" side B without distracting pauses between tracks that are supposed to be continuous.

Yes Deezer adds gaps to albums that are meant to be continuous which is a big no no, shame coz it sounds great. Does anyone know if it streams Flac via Chomecast, read it might?

[Cebolla]

I can confirm that the Windows version of the Deezer Desktop App does not support gapless playback, regardless of the audio quality you've selected - including the HiFi 1411 kb/s setting.

So, the Windows Desktop app is not much use with the HiFi account, especially if you consider its lack of ability to directly select the Windows audio output device in exclusive mode.

 

[Cebolla]

On 11/20/2017 at 9:16 PM, Cebolla said:

The 'exclusive' Deezer Elite CD quality lossless FLAC service was also available to Squeezebox devices, via the ickstream LMS plugin's standard Deezer access, as long as you used the same login for your Sonos Deezer Elite subscription.

 

Edit:

The Deezer and Sonos 16-Bit / 44.1 kHz quality service 30 day free trial still appears to be available, but has be renamed to HiFi

https://www.deezer.com/us/offers/?referer=sonos

 

At least this is still working - so direct streaming of Deezer HiFi lossless FLAC tracks and gapless playback for Squeezebox type streamers and also potentially for UPnP/DLNA renderers (via the UPnPBridge LMS plugin), ie, including UPnP supporting software players such as JRiver!

 

Google Cast devices should also be able to stream the Deezer HiFi FLAC tracks, via the CastBridge LMS plugin, though of course gapless won't be supported as no Chromecast device currently supports gapless playback when streaming contiguous audio files.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Perhaps we should start contacting Deezer to request these features. The company may have no idea what's needed until we tell them.

[psjug]

57 minutes ago, Rexp said:

Yes Deezer adds gaps to albums that are meant to be continuous which is a big no no, shame coz it sounds great. Does anyone know if it streams Flac via Chomecast, read it might?

The gapless problem with FLAC streams is only the Windows app, right?  I thought the Windows app was beta.  Maybe Deezer will fix this?

[Rexp]

15 minutes ago, psjug said:

The gapless problem with FLAC streams is only the Windows app, right?  I thought the Windows app was beta.  Maybe Deezer will fix this?

Premium also gaps on Andoid and Ios, needs fixing.

[Dr Tone]

Wow, no gapless.  How a basic music function like gapless can be overlooked is beyond me.

[The Computer Audiophile]

17 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

Wow, no gapless.  How a basic music function like gapless can be overlooked is beyond me.

Could be overlooked or could be skipped because it's harder to implement than just having gaps. 

[Johnseye]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Perhaps we should start contacting Deezer to request these features. The company may have no idea what's needed until we tell them.

 

+1

 

I won't be dumping Tidal until it can do everything, or more than Tidal can at a lower cost.

 

I noticed their subscription page shows $9.99 for "Hi Quality" and another "HiFi" for $19.99.  A bit confusing.

[schiit]

Given how terrible Tidal's connection reliability is, this is welcome news. It has become almost impossible for me to rely on Tidal on a 100Mbps line that has no problem with Netflix 4K. 

[Dr Tone]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Could be overlooked or could be skipped because it's harder to implement than just having gaps. 

 

Either way it not acceptable, you don't roll out a more expensive lossless tier and introduce gaps in music that was intended to flow track to track.

 

Obviously lack of gapless really rubs me wrong.   I'd rather listen the lossy Apple Music.

[Johnseye]

35 minutes ago, schiit said:

Given how terrible Tidal's connection reliability is, this is welcome news. It has become almost impossible for me to rely on Tidal on a 100Mbps line that has no problem with Netflix 4K. 

 

I've never had a problem with my Tidal connection through a browser.  When I use it on a PC with their dedicated app, which is necessary for MQA, it constantly hangs.  So I don't use the app.  Streaming through Roon is never an issue.

[psjug]

1 hour ago, Rexp said:

Premium also gaps on Andoid and Ios, needs fixing.

Since Abbey Road was mentioned, I checked this on Deezer Hifi playing with Sonos and Bluesound.  On both Sonos and Bluesound Deezer plays FLAC gapless just fine (Polythene Pam -> She Came in Through The Bathroom Window is seamless).

 

Premium is a different story.  Pretty typical for mp3 to play with gaps.  I doubt they will make Deezer Premium gapless.  Is Tidal Premium gapless?

[Cebolla]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Could be overlooked or could be skipped because it's harder to implement than just having gaps. 

 

10 minutes ago, psjug said:

Since Abbey Road was mentioned, I checked this on Deezer Hifi playing with Sonos and Bluesound.  On both Sonos and Bluesound Deezer plays FLAC gapless just fine (Polythene Pam -> She Came in Through The Bathroom Window is seamless).

 

Premium is a different story.  Pretty typical for mp3 to play with gaps.  I doubt they will make Deezer Premium gapless.  Is Tidal Premium gapless?

 

The issue is definitely with Deezer's own client/player applications, rather than their online servers supplying the lossless audio files for streaming over the internet. As I pointed out in my previous post, Squeezebox players are able to play gaplessly with the same Deezer HiFi lossless audio file streams.

[psjug]

7 minutes ago, Cebolla said:

 

 

The issue is definitely with Deezer's own client/player applications, rather than their online servers supplying the lossless audio files for streaming over the internet. As I pointed out in my previous post, Squeezebox players are able to play gaplessly with the same Deezer HiFi lossless audio file streams.

 

Deezer is in fact calling the windows app beta. Hopefully the gapless problem in that will get a fix.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Gapless isn't something mainstream companies think about. We'll need to contact Deezer and follow up to make sure this gets in there. 

[jhwalker]

30 minutes ago, psjug said:

Since Abbey Road was mentioned, I checked this on Deezer Hifi playing with Sonos and Bluesound.  On both Sonos and Bluesound Deezer plays FLAC gapless just fine (Polythene Pam -> She Came in Through The Bathroom Window is seamless).

 

Premium is a different story.  Pretty typical for mp3 to play with gaps.  I doubt they will make Deezer Premium gapless.  Is Tidal Premium gapless?

 

Tidal Premium is gapless in that there is no gap between tracks; however, in my system, there is the slightest glitch / tick between tracks - which is annoying, but not so much as the ½" gap between tracks in Deezer

[jhwalker]

12 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Gapless isn't something mainstream companies think about. We'll need to contact Deezer and follow up to make sure this gets in there. 

 

I'm incredulous this is still an issue   At least 25% of the albums in my collection need to be played lossless to make any musical sense whatsoever - virtually all of the classical ones, for example.

 

Is there an official link for feedback anyone has found?

[psjug]

8 minutes ago, jhwalker said:

 

I'm incredulous this is still an issue   At least 25% of the albums in my collection need to be played lossless to make any musical sense whatsoever - virtually all of the classical ones, for example.

 

Is there an official link for feedback anyone has found?

You can email [email protected] but my experience is they will just say they passed it on to the technical people.  There is a new Deezer Community forum that might be a better avenue: https://en.deezercommunity.com/

[Samuel T Cogley]

Many don't remember, but gapless didn't come to iPods until iTunes 7 / iPod Gen 5.

 

I don't understand the technical reasons why it's so hard.  I know Fiio DAPs achieve what I call "almost gapless" (there is still a perceptible, but low millisecond pause between tracks).

 

Perhaps there are some patents in the mix which requires "creative" (i.e., expensive) developers to achieve true gapless.  For me, gapless playback is the demarcation between the real players and the poseurs.