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

[Bevok]

Thanks for the heads up on Primephonic! Looks very promising in terms of its layout and editorial content, certainly more satisfying than the mainstream services. Hopefully they can up the quality of Chromecast streaming. Other elements that would be good are video performances and ideally live performances. 
 

I switched to Qobuz for general hires recently after further revelations about MQA’s deficiencies. Very nice app and good sound quality via Chromecast (I use Airplay when gapless is essential). 

[Bevok]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

I've personally talked to streaming services that tell me this information. I'm not making it up or using info from another source. The rights holders hold all the cards as well. Spotify can't invent Sort of Blue and sell it as a competitor to Kind of Blue. If Spotify goes away tomorrow, it wouldn't be a big deal given there is so much competition. Either services take the deal or they don't. Also note, the labels double dip because of ownership in Spotify. 

 

Each individual rights holder doesn't go to services to dictate terms. The majors say here's the deal, do you want it? 

 

I've been in countless conversations with artists who believe there is a per rate stream because they've backed into a number using simple division. It's pretty simple to prove to them that there isn't a per stream rate, yet they refuse to believe believe it. If the fake per stream rate changes, that's evidence it doesn't exist. It's all percentage. 

 

 

Yes, the per stream rates are a construct used by a lot of commentators and activists but they just aren’t commercially relevant. It’s a bit like saying Uncle Ben’s Cola is so much better for caffeine producers than Coca Cola because they pay 14c per litre and Coke only pay 8.

You can verify this by looking at the number of artists who only have their music on Qobuz.

[Bevok]

I can’t paste the link but search for a BluOS support article entitled “WHAT MUSIC SERVICES DOES BLUOS SUPPORT?”.

 

Deezer is worth considering also, with CD quality across the board on the Hifi tier, big library, a mature recommendation engine and big range of playlists, original content and one of the widest ranges of hardware support.

 

 

 

 

[Bevok]

I find 256k AAC sounds really good in virtually every application, apart from perhaps the most critical listening, and even then you really need training to spot the tells. IMHO. Youtube Music sometimes gets a bit of a bad rap but I've found the recommendation engine to be spot on and unbeaten among the other services I've used. I did use GPM for a number of years which probably helps. 

Probably the only issue is that you can only get gapless playback directly off your device or via Airplay - hopefully one day Chromecast will be able to manage it. 

You're right about the catalogue, unparalleled.

[Bevok]

39 minutes ago, audiobomber said:

I agree, the quality is surprisingly good. I normally only listen to YTM on my less resolving systems, where I'm not too nitpicky about sound. I find the quality quite acceptable, and so did the audiophile friends who heard my new desktop system.
 

Actually a friend brought his laptop over to stream Tidal to my main system and I thought YTM sounded better, even though Tidal was streamed to a Playpoint streamer and YTM to a hopped-up Chromecast Audio streamer, both connected to my DAC. Tidal had very poor PRaT. This was before firmware 1.8, so Tidal has apparently upped its game since then. 

 

I like to watch videos of live music on my computer monitor, or on a 65" TV. The TV is connected via Toslink to my exaSound DAC and main audio system, and is great fun. I listen to rock and jazz, so the lack of gapless is no biggie.

 

I noticed a huge improvement in YTM software and recommendations in the past year, probably because of all the complaints they received from GPM members who were shuffled over, kicking and screaming all the way. 

Its interesting actually, I did quite a few subjective comparisons between the services about three years ago, and consistently found Spotify inferior to Apple Music and Google Play Music as it was then. Fast forward a couple of months ago and Spotify lured me to give them another shot with a cheap three month deal, and I found the quality had improved and was in fact indistinguishable. I later found out they have changed from using 320 ogg to 256 aac. If you read up on it aac is superior in terms of the mathematics of how it works but I am surprised I noticed a difference - could still be other factors of course, I definitely don't have Golden ears!

 

Now Tidal  ... I've had a couple of people comment on how they were so so subjectively with Tidal then switched to Qobuz and noticed an improvement. They have a definite volume bump which artificially makes them sound better in comparisons if you're not careful too. I had a Tidal Hifi membership for a year or so until the infamous "Goldensound" video earlier this year (and Qobuz came on the market in New Zealand around the same time) and was just never blown away by the sound. Not saying it was worse than lossy or anything like that, just that it seemed ordinary. I didn't have any beef against it, MQA or anything else (still on the fence on that really but I can get FLAC/ALAC elsewhere and don't have to buy special hardware so why bother with it). Qobuz over Chromecast though - certain pieces really seem to sing! 

 

Tidal emailed today offering a month of Hifi for free, then a year at the same price as Apple Music (interesting they haven't yet made the price drop permanent or available on the website). I'm almost tempted to do some more testing. I will say Tidal did have very good recommendations for me anyway. 

 

Love the Bertrand Russell quote, spot on and thinking critically and taking everything with a grain of salt is one of the most important skills of the Internet age. "Strong opinions held weakly".

[Bevok]

Ah, I've always just called it Ogg but you're correct, to be accurate they are using Ogg Vorbis. Interesting comment here:

 

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Spotify-use-the-relatively-obscure-Ogg-Vorbis-file-format

 

Googling around just now I think I'm wrong that they've replaced it - it sounds like they use 256 aac for the web player but still use Ogg Vorbis for desktop, mobile and tablet. Time to repeat that testing if I can get an hour or two, perhaps with Tidal in the mix too!