Music streaming Source

[ABSOLU7E]

Hello everyone new member here,

I just have a quick question about preferred music sources in regards to streaming services

Before anyone tells me to GIT GUD …I want to clarify That I do have a decent FLAC library myself, but cant beat the 50M+ options and easy discoverability of streaming services.

I’ve moved from Spotify premuim to Tidal hifi a while back, but I’m seeing decent competition recently when it comes to quality now in 2020

I have also tried Qobuz studio (with Roon), and Deezer hifi trials for comparison, they had good quality, but I didn’t like their interface and limited library that much at the time

My setup is mostly run through my PC >USB>DAC>AMP>Headphones

Also my DAC does not decode MQA files and that is mostly the reason I’m thinking of moving from Tidal to something else.

I have not tried the new Amazon HD service yet as its only in limited countries atm and I can’t create an account

I listen to a bunch of different genres mostly jazz and metal, but enjoy some classical symphonies, and even pop and R&B sometimes.

Any recent experiences and recommendations would be appreciated

[TwoPaperCaper]

Hey man, first welcome!

there’s a few threads relevant to this topic you may want to check out

Spotify - Tidal - How do you get your Music?

New spotify user here, never tried it before because I didn’t see value in paying the same for something without some sort of “hifi” options. Big mistake, on checkout, Spotify Premium is actually 5euro here. Can’t complain for this price. Both Tidal and Deezer have constant technical issues, Tidal was fast to fix them, Deezer not so much. What I love about Spotify and seems to run flawless: the synced playback between Phone and PC, no more fucking around with bluetooh to play the main system …

Anybody else wish Spotify would just get flacc?

the first one is randomized so no one knows what specific one i was very different… i could EASILY tell a difference between a 128 and 320… i always felt like i was getting something more and the only one i guessed 128 on was the spoken word song where there is almost nothing to really lose, but when it came to WAV i was like “ok i dunno what this sounds like compared to this” and i was like “ok i notice this detail here now but was that in the previous one (and it always was)”

In my personal opinion/experience I much prefer spotify for finding new music despite being worse quality wise. The mixing and recommendation algorithm just seems to work a lot better than the other services. Of course it’s not perfect and probably never will be given you can’t specify what it is about the song you like particularly but for sure i think the daily and weekly mixes are the best i’ve seen from automated lists based on your listening preferences.

[DagoRed]

I’m personally quite happy with my Amazon HD streaming service. My only issue is that since I’m linux most of the time when on my personal machine my HD options are VERY limited. But on windows, I’m content with Amazon HD. Music server is on the todo list again.

[Antpage2]

I did a review here:

Qobuz and Tidal and Amazon, oh my!

Ok so ive subscribed to all the main music streaming services: Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Ultra HD Music and i’ll include Spotify even though it doesn’t have CD quality just cause its the most popular. For obvious reasons I wont touch Apple Music. I had it before and it was horrible. Unfortunately they are not all equal. I use Windows 10 and Android LG V20. PHONE APP So i set out today in my car, had full network reception. I loaded Qobuz and tried ABC’s greatest hits and wow! the sound was fantasti…

I use mainly Amazon Ultra HD and Qobuz. I find these are the best. MQA is lossy format.

[BadgerRivFan]

I subscribe to Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz. I stream music via Roon to several endpoints made by various manufacturers within my home, and link zones together for multi-room syncing. In my shop (another building on a different property separate from my home) I have a Yamaha MusicCast system and an Apple TV.

I mention all of this, because someday you may want to listen to your streaming service in different places other than your desktop computer (and most likely your phone). Of all the various streaming services, two of them (ime) seem to be integrated into the greatest number of third party audio products. Which are they? Spotify and Tidal.

Ultimately in the OP’s case it sounds like the music catalog and the quality of the stream are the most important factors in making a decision. If you throw in the availability of your streaming service built into the highest number of consumer audio hardware and software products, than your “winner” is probably Tidal (at least for the time being).

For me, my preference would probably be to use just Qobuz if I were to pick one service.

I’ve never used Spotify and did a trial of Amazon Music HD. For varying reasons I will stick with the 3 that I’m currently using.

The longer you tend to stay with any of these services the harder it seems it is to change.