HD Streaming Comparison: Amazon, IDAGIO, Qobuz, Spotify Premium, Tidal

[CorvusCorax]

I'm a new subscriber to Primephonic's top tier (hi-res). It's search functions are phenomenal for classical music. I find myself sitting down to listen to music while reading a book at night, and before I know it, I've listened to way more music than I had expected and hardly read my book. The liner notes are a treat. And BTW, you CAN search by conductor, soloist, composer, etc. Perhaps this feature was added after the poster earlier in the thread suggested that you cannot. 

 

One question regarding Primephonic v Qobuz:  how can the hi-res recordings sound different between the two services, if they're the same recording delivered at the same lossless sample rate and bit depth? Seems to me that they would be the same bits streaming to my DAC.

 

Primephonic vs. Qobuz. I have hi-res subscriptions to both. My review, based on headphone and speaker listening with entry-level audiophile gear (Chromecast Audio connected to Topping D50s DAC via Toslink, NAD AV713 receiver, KEF Q50 speakers, HiFiMan HE400i 2020 headphones):

 

1. No sound difference between hi-res tracks.  I would think they are bit-identical. I can't speak to the quality of their lossy formats. 

 

2. Primephonic's search feature for classical is head and shoulders above any other service, including Qobuz. it's an absolute joy for lovers of classical music. In just a few days, I have discovered many many many recordings that are new to me. Before subscribing, I found the search for classical on Spotify so painful that I only listened to jazz and pop on Spotify and relied on my own collection of recordings for classical.  Now, with the entire universe of recordings at my disposal and with a search tool that makes finding appealing music so easy, I'm awash in new classical experiences. No longer do I listen to the same albums that I've had for the past 20 years.  For example, I've never had the luxury of listening to five different recordings of Elgar's Cello Concerto in a sitting. Wow!  Or listening to different recordings of Bach's Trio Sonatas wherein one voice is a recorder, or the same voice is an oboe, or the same voice is a violin!  (I know I'm gushing here, but the search is really phenomenal. And, no, I'm not affiliated with Primephonic in any way.)

 

3. Occasionally, I hear a skip or drop-out with Qobuz's streaming. My WiFi is fast (~200kbps on speed test). I haven't had a dropout on Primephonic.

 

4. I have experienced a sudden blast of white noise on Primephonic while Chromecasting. This has happened mid-track about three times in the past two weeks. If I grab my phone (which controls the Chromecast) and click the "next track" icon, the noise goes away and the next track plays correctly.  I have no idea where in the chain of events/gear this is caused, but I haven't heard it on Qobuz or Spotify.  This is pretty annoying when it happens. I hope it stops.  It hasn't happened while I'm listening on my phone (with an iFi Hip-Dac) -- only via Chromecast.

 

5. Qobuz's handling of favorite albums has a search feature.  For example, you can search your favorites for "Bach" and see only your favorite Bach albums. I really like this.  Primephonic tech support told me that they hope to add this feature soon. Currently, Primephonic's favorite albums can be sorted by title or newest/oldest, but basically it's just a heap of recordings.  Reminds me of when I used to listen to LPs in college and I'd end up with a messy pile on the floor.

 

6. Neither service currently allows you to search only hi-res recordings. I'd really like this.  Primephonic tech support suggested that something like this may be added.

 

7. Currently, Primephonic only streams at 44 or 48Khz to my Chromecast Audio connected via Toslink to my DAC.  Qobuz streams on my system at up to 96Khz (the limit of the Chromecast Audio). Their stream should Chromecast at full hi-res. I've contacted Primephonic's tech support about this.  They told me that they couldn't reproduce the behavior. I hope that this is a bug that they can fix.  If you can currently Chromecast Primephonic at sample rates above 48KHz, please chime in to let me know! (This is as of February 24, 2021.)  Qobuz streams hi-res fine on my gear, so I doubt that my gear is the problem.

 

8. Qobuz has a very limited integration into Apple's CarPlay. You can only stream your pre-downloaded albums. There is no search feature.  Primephonic has no CarPlay integration at all. 

 

9. Primephonic has super radio stations. Qobuz has none. I really like listening to the Primephonic radio while reading my morning news. You can set the "radio" to genre, time era, mood, and instrument. I usually set my morning radio to Baroque chamber music with a joyful mood. I love it. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an option to create a radio stream dedicated to a composer, like "Mozart."  You also can't create a radio based on a track or album the way you can with Spotify.

 

So, my take: if you like classical music, Primephonic is the clear choice. It's simply a joy to use compared to all the other services.  I tried Idagio for a few hours, but found their search less convenient and they don't offer hi-res audio (max is 16/44). I use my Qobuz subscription for jazz and pop, because, of course, Primephonic only offers classical. 

 

BTW, a nice feature of Qobuz is that you can customize the genres displayed on the home page. I have mine set to jazz. When I tried out Tidal, I didn't find a way to focus the home screen on my preferred genres. I found this really annoying. As another previous poster has said, Tidal uses MQA for their hi-res streams, which requires hardware certified for MQA. My Chromecast Audio doesn't support MQA, and a lot of other hardware solutions I've researched do not support MQA.  It's really nice that Primephonic and Qobuz support hi-res PCM streams with no additional hardware requirements.

 

 

[CorvusCorax]

I received a quick response from Primephonic's excellent tech support:  as of Feb 25, 2021, Primephonic limits their Chromecast streams to 16-bit, 48KHz sample rate due to their current server architecture. Primephonic is considering revising their architecture to allow hi-res support for Chromecasting. You can currently stream Primephonic up to 24-bit 192Khz sample rate via phones that support this quality or USB direct to your DAC.  My iPhone 12 successfully stream at 192KHz.  My Android Moto G7 streamed at 48Khz due to the downsampling to 48Khz that occurs on most Android phones.