I am the oddball here, but I use YouTube Music most of my work day, and for mobile listening. It tops out at 256kbps AAC, which isn’t great ( most are 320 ), but works pretty well for most of my daily use. The interface is pretty good, the library for classic rock is good, with one glaring exception, it could use more Hendrix. You can upload music, so if you think it is missing something, just add yours. The YouTube Premium family plan is $18/mo, includes YouTube Music, and ad free YouTube Video, for up to 5 users.
I have my CD collection ripped to FLAC on my home network as well.
@John_W_Clark I have YT premium, which includes music (love videos, hate ads!)
I find it quite decent sounding and like watching orchestra concerts that are streamed “live”
like Concertgebouworkest. Love that hall! I recently subbed to Spotify and imo the audio
is a significant step up, tho maybe not as noticeable with “on the go” gear.
Also have AMHD for serious at home listening/exploring.
Tidal … I tried the rest, tidal is the best … for me. I do have spotify for podcasts, that is not music
Get an annual subscription thru Best Buy … save mas dinhero
Grab up an old phone, install USB Audio Pro, pay for the nasty mqa plug in (unless you have a dac that decodes it … my Burson Composer does not … and it does sound different without it) … Log into your tidal account, set it up for bit perfect, and enjoy.
Just signed up for Apple Music, 1 month free. Mostly to try Dolby Atmos (interesting). I’m on Android phone, windows PC. Android app, nothing amazing, but seems to work. Right… how to I run this on windows. I have to install iTunes…? and it looks the same as the last time I used it (ten years ago).
Alright, best cancel the subscription now in case I forget to do so before the trial is up. Sticking with Spotify it is…
I personally could not justify sticking with spotify.
Bought a lot of new high priced equipment this year (speakers, amp, subwoofer, IEM, Overear ) and don´t want the Streaming platform to be the weak link.
I personally can hear quite a difference comparing spotify to TIDAL…not with every song…but it is there and I don´t see why i should pay thousands of Euros for really good Hi-Fi gear and then continue using the platfrom with the worst sound quality.
Spotify announced Spotify Hi-Fi to launch last year but it never happened and there is still no date when it will start so I switched to TIDAL and I am more than happy, I really like it a lot.
A few days ago a friend invited me into his spotify family account for free so now I am back there but still keep using Tidal
nah not fully blind test but i can name you a song, go get the Tidal trial for 1 Euro and compare for yourself.
Grouch - Computer Language
When i did the test i tried it several times on both platforms and the intro sounds way more spacious/atmospheric on TIDAL.
I was not alone with that impression and am really curious how it sounds to you if you are willing to compare
I would not say spotify is bad, it is good enough but if you once hear the better quality on another platform it keeps bugging you in the back of your head
I know the test from a German hifi forum, we had the exact same discussion there
I never finished the test but might do so the coming days!
In the end just use what feels good for you and enjoy the music and you are fine I guess… It’s luxury problems in the end
However, as I said I will perform your suggested comparison, and let you know my findings. I may even look to blind myself if I have time. I would have to find some method…
See below, I got the flac, and then I made a 320kbps MP3 transcode (this is the highest quality on spotify - well actually I don’t know exactly what encoder they use etc, but this should be close enough).
Found this software for doing this process. I load the two files, then start the shootout. The tracks are shuffled and I do not know which one is which. I can switch back and forth as much as I like.
Nice that you did a comparison!
Close enough but still not the same
I know about placebo and also did an A/B testing with both apps running at the same time so i could seemlesly switch during the song.
I tried it with an older android version where it worked seemlesly from the drop down menue… Now it kinda sucks
Will do a blind test with my girlfriend.
But whatever comes out this time… I really like TIDAL better now, I love that you have the song radio in the main playback screen and not hidden somewhere behind the 3 dot menue
Only thing that sucks is sending music to friends because most of them use Spotify
I do agree that the Tidal UI is good. In some case I prefer it to Spotify and I would prefer both strongly to all other of the major services. I think the ubiquity of Spotify is an advantage. Curated playlists are often compiled on Spotify.
I found Amazon / Youtube / Apple all to be inadequate.
Tidal is more expensive than Spotify though, and there is also some inertia on my part, we have the family plan, my wife and son also use it, so to switch to some other service would inconvenience them. So unless I have a compelling reason to change, it would make no sense.
In your case i would probably also stick with spotify then
I am happy to be in a TIDAL family established through a german Hi-Fi Forum and i only pay 5€ per month for the full experience and spotify i got for free…lucky me
Amazon HD / Youtube / Apple / Tidal / Spotify / Deezer / Qobuz…I’ve not tried all of them but I put a library that suits me above all else, the ones I’ve tried all sounded ‘good’ (how much better than each other I don’t know as I don’t have a £10+k HP set up or a £100k speaker system)…user interface, music discovery and Dolby Atmos etc are of no real interest to me…settled on and have been happy with Amazon HD for 18+ months with no regrets
Same here. AMHD just works for me. Period. No MQA scam, no bullshit - just great music. My Brother, who is a musician - just goes with Spotify. He loves it and won’t change to anything else. And that works for him. Whatever gets it done for ya.
This is my issue, I currently use YouTube Music, but if I switch to Tidal, we will still be paying for the YouTube family plan, because it is also what makes YouTube Video commercial free for my wife and I, plus our grandkids ( they are on our family plan ).
Any upgrade isn’t a marginal cost to me as a result. None of my family would care about it, so it wouldn’t be worth getting the family plan, which is a pretty good deal.
after my 30day free trail with qobuz, i did not renew. I could not get around the sluggish and just so much worse user interface compared to spotify. Sound quality was better, and for most part the selection of music was just as good as spotify for what i listen to.
Now i’m thinking of trying out Tidal, but i know i will be quite busy for a while, with less time for enjoying music, so i will probably wait a bit before lay down my hard earned money for a second music streaming service
This is a pretty good point, and definitely an advantage for Youtube music. If you watch a lot of Youtube (I watch a fair amount), the ads get fairly annoying. I think they’re limited to 256kps, which is probably fine, but I don’t really understand why they would limit themselves to what is essentially the lowest bitrate on offer. It’s not a big difference to get to a parity situation with Spotify.
Then again, I suspect if I blind tested, I likely wouldn’t reliably discern a difference.
