The State of Streaming Audio


The State of Streaming Audio - Hi-Res Music, Dolby Atmos, Best Streaming Platforms (a panel discussion on YouTube)

The State of Streaming Audio Skip around. Some will like this and some will fall asleep. Minute 28.15 is very useful talking about Soundiiz for transferring palmists.

Great advice about networks!

 

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Bluesound Node Gen 3 with Focal Arche DAC/Amp for bedroom (headphone) use.

Naim Uniti Atom HE DAC/Amp/Network Streamer for main (small office) listening room - headphone and speakers.

Roon + Tidal HiFi for organizing/streaming local HiRes files and streaming online content.

IMO - (for the money), doesn’t get any better than that.

 

@gwilmot Try Qobuz if you haven’t and it’s available in your area.  You can do a free trial, and most here seem to prefer it over Tidal for sound, more hi-res content, and user interface.  I switched to Qobuz a while ago and never looked back.  FWIW. 

+1 on Qobuz. In fact, my perception of the relative sound quality of streaming services.has Tidal sounding worst of all of the streaming services as of Nov 2020.

1. Qobuz

2. Primephonic

3. Spotify Premium (320 kbps Ogg Vorbis which is not lossless)

4. IDAGIO

5. Amazon HD

6 Tidal

Are you including Tidal MQA in that comparison - just curious.

Quick background on my typical usage - I tend to use Tidal to "try out" albums, and if I fall in love with one, I'll buy the highest resolution I can find for "serious" listening. So my library at any time tends to be a mixture of hires files and Tidal albums/tracks, which is why the seamless integration of my Tidal library into Roon is a must have.

But I'm always up for experimenting, so maybe someone can help me out - suggest 1 or 2 tracks available on the other platforms in high quality that you feel really highlights their superiority to the same track on Tidal and I will do a comparison on my gear.

Thanks.