2. pc-audio
  3. 164654-155531

What do you use for streaming Classical?

All of the streaming services out there (Tidal, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Qobuz Pandora etc.) pretty much suck for classical music IMHO except Primephonic and the problem with them is they ONLY do classical and they have no wifi controller app so you are tethered to your streamer and not integrated with the rest of your music collection.
I have it from a reliable source that they will integrate with Roon eventually but what do others out there do in the meantime?
I also hear that PSAudio will be coming out with their own proprietary software that will do Classical properly but it will only run on their server and they have been promising something for several years now.
mrbobm
mike_in_nc
1,154 posts
 
@mrbobm -

Like the previous poster, I tried Roon for a month, but it wasn’t for me . . . at least it wasn’t at that time. I have a large library, all carefully tagged, so I can find anything I own.

But now, more and more, I play music from Qobuz, and I am considering Roon again. While the fidelity and selection on Qobuz are fine, I agree that it’s difficult to find specific recordings. I think the combination of Roon and Qobuz would work quite well for that, but at a considerable increase of cost and complexity,  especially considering the added hardware requirements of Roon.

Services that don’t work via WiFi are not for me, either.
gdnrbob
4,447 posts
 
@mike_in_nc ,
I only purchased the software ($120/year or so), as the Innuos works with Roon- no need to buy a Roon Core.
The latest version seems to be a significant upgrade over previous versions. IMHO.
B
cm6td
14 posts
 
I mostly listen to classical (but sometimes other things) and I’ve been happy with Qobuz playing on a streamer controlled by Roon. It isn’t perfect of course, but most of the time I can easily find the particular version of a work I’m looking for, assuming Qobuz has it, and they have a lot. Selecting all the movements of a work is easy — I just hold down my finger on the title of a work, and all the tracks for that work are selected, from the particular recording I chose.

I did play around with Primephonic for a while, but as far as I can tell it isn’t supported by any streamers, so you have to keep a computer connected to a DAC that’s connected to your audio system. I don’t like doing that because I don’t have a fanless computer, and because I don’t like having to walk over to the computer to control things. I tried a couple of programs that let you remotely control a computer from a tablet, but I found them sluggish and awkward. Controlling Roon from a tablet works very well, and there are a lot of Roon-ready streamers.
apdxyk
20 posts
 
I listen mostly to Classical. Wanted to say that all points above are valid. Hard to find anything 'bad' though.
And another ditto to Radio Swiss Classic. Swiss are masters of balance, and it is amazing what they can do with only 96 kbps channel.
antigrunge2
1,418 posts
 
Qobus has good SQ and ok library features.
More to discover