Music Streaming Services

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by rott, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I meant that Apple Music is currently $9.99. I was saying I hope they offer hi-res at the same price to undercut the competitors.
     
  2. trung225

    trung225 Facebook Friend

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    I think there is something fishy here. From what I know, only Karajan 1960s cycle has been remastered to HiRes PCM. Karajan 1970s cycle, apart from the Ninth, is not. So, I think a few UltraHD tracks in Amazon is something like from 1960s cycle.
     
  3. Elmer Danilovich

    Elmer Danilovich MOT:Earmen, HeadAmp, Bricasti; AKA:MShenay

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    I picked up the trial as well and my experience matches yours, if it's not in Ultra HD it's a bit obvious to my ears, even from my humble car system. Now what I have not tinkered with is running it on Windows, I've been mostly listening just on Mobile Devices. But I'm hoping once the three month trial is up the app will have had some updates to address the concerns that alot of us are picking up on. Not just here of course but also elsewhere online!
     
  4. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Very perceptive. I bought the 1963 cycle from HDtracks years ago in 24/96 flac format but have never seen HD of the 1977 or1985 recordings.
     
  5. TazerMonkey

    TazerMonkey Acquaintance

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    The 1970s cycle was recently remastered for Blu-ray as seen here: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Beethoven-The-Symphonies-Blu-ray/216761/

    I only have the CD boxset of this cycle, so I can't compare the sound to the Blu-ray. Still, I think you might be correct because the hiss and distortion that I heard from the stream reminds me of the sound of his 1960s cycle. Something is definitely off because it appears to be pulling from at least two different masters for what is supposed to be the same album.
     
  6. StageOne

    StageOne Friend

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  7. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Undercutting competitors by price is not the Apple business model.
     
  8. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Not on their hardware, no. But on software and services? Much of their software that used to cost money is now free (OS X, Pages/Numbers etc), and I believe iCloud storage is or used to be cheaper than similar cloud storage offerings by competitors.
     
  9. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    I found this interesting: First wave of product support for Amazon Music HD confirmed. Amazon had coordinated the HD rollout with hardware makers, and it's clear that Amazon sees connected devices as the future of audio. This is what they care about. Giving audiophiles bit-perfect streams from a PC is probably way down on their list of priorities.
     
  10. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    In the immortal words of David Byrne, same as it ever was.
     
  11. Superexchanger

    Superexchanger Friend

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    I've not kept up with the Sonos hardware, but when I had one in house to play with I could absolutely not tell the difference between high and low quality sources connected to it. That stuff must have been improved quite a bit for this kind of thing to matter. Interesting.
     
  12. Inoculator

    Inoculator Friend

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    It looks like Amazon Music HD lists a lot of the same partners as DTS Play-Fi (a Sonos like ecosystem with the ability to stream up to 24-bit/192kHz). As a Play-Fi adopter, I find this pretty encouraging. I don't use Play-Fi on my reference rig, but I do for every other speaker setup throughout the house via Klipsch Gate that you can now get for as cheap as $25. Despite a kind of an archaic app, I have been pretty happy with it, and am happy to see signs of life for it. Already happy with Amazon music that I can skip the Play-Fi app and select my speakers within the Amazon app once they are setup via Alexa. (Like using Spotify Connect).
     
  13. JonnieD

    JonnieD Acquaintance

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    I also signed up for the Amazon Music HD trial, and have done some comparative tests too. Using their app on iOS, I compared a few HD (16/44.1khz) tracks to Tidal and those directly from my own rips running on my Mojo / Poly into my Flares Pro Gold IEM's. And its fairly easy to spot the difference between Tidal / direct rip and Amazon HD where the latter is noticeably worse, predominantly in the areas of micro detail, ambience and sound staging. It actually reminds me of the difference between lossless and 320kbs compressed music!

    So I do wonder what Amazon have done. Its possible I guess their versions of those albums are different to mine, but I've tested a random set of tracks that seem to be the same on each.
     
  14. trung225

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    I have listened Karajan Beethoven 1970s cycle on Amazon HD today. So far I can confirm all the UltraHD tracks are from 1970s cycle, not 1960s one. But they have different master vs the old CDs I have. Unlike you, I have positive opinion about the UltraHD remastering. Apart from one clipping (which I think because of the Windows audio mixer), I think the new remaster sounds more real compared to the old CD rip. The old CD's mastering suffers from the Karajan's studio sound signature, ultra smoothness with no bite from instruments and no timpani sound. The new remaster gets rid of that sound, now it sounds more like Karajan's live Beethoven cycle in Tokyo (Bluray audio release in 2015 by Tokyo FM). Both cycles (live and studio) were recorded in 1977
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2019
  15. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    One thing I like about Qobuz apart from SQ of their streaming service is the ability to buy individual song in Hi Res at a very reasonable price.
    I have bought more songs since I became subscriber then I was doing earlier.
     
  16. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I was just about to sign up for the Amazon HD trial when I found out that Amazon cannot bypass Android on Kann Cube, playing "hi-res" in 24/48 only . All other apps side loaded through using OpenApp: Tidal, Qobuz, and Foobar are bypassing Android. Jason from the A&K support posted on HF that they are working with Amazon, but it was not promising. Until Amazon decides to support HD playback on a platform of my choice, I am not really interested.
     
  17. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    Just another reason to be glad I am old. I couldn't hear the difference between 24/48 and 24/96-192 for all the tea in China. Especially mobilely. Score.
     
  18. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Most of the time I cannot hear it either but it is about the resolution or original recording. Android can use only one clock (48 kHz), and is re-clocking everything, including 44.1, 88.2 etc to 24/48.
    So the issue is not the resolution , but differences in DSP that could and actually do affect the sound.
    And Kann Cube has nothing to do with mobile, it weighs almost two pounds, and can drive big planars as easily as low impedance IEMs.
    If you are willing to pay with for a DAP with dual ESS9039 PRO SABRE 8channel DAC, and with Femto clock, how does it make sense to use a player that cannot take any advantage of any of it? And yes, there are SQ differences.
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2019
  19. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    Last edited: Sep 20, 2019
  20. psuKinger

    psuKinger Facebook Friend

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    I'm *mostly* excited about this news from Amazon, because I'm choosing to be glass-half-full and believing that they will:
    a) listen to their customer-base and the folks with genuine interest in high-bitrate HiRez audio, and begin to incorporate the kinds of things we want/need in order to get-and-stay in the boat with this.
    And/Or
    B) It'll drive more streaming services (Spotify, Apple, Google, etc) to join in and make more/better quality (lossless and 24-bit) options available.


    I'll echo what others have said. If I can't:
    1) Get bit-perfect output via USB, from either my phone (Android; UAPP support or other) or laptop (Win10; WASAPI support from a stand-alone desktop app)
    2) Integrate it with my current whole-home-audio solution Roon

    This specific option doesn't work well *for me*. But choose is a good thing. Having higher-bitrate better sounding audio available for more people is a good thing. I've already gotten texts from 2 friends wanting to talk to me about it and what they need to know/do in order to make this work for them... and that's a good thing!
     

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