What Streaming Service Do You Use?

[Ambleton]

I have been using Spotify for a few years. Sound quality is okay (everything set to maximum all the time), I use for probably 4-5 hrs a day of most working days, from my phone (samsung S10e) using a pair of B&W P7 wired headphones. (No doubt a headphone amp/DAC may improve things)

When I'm at home music is usually played through a yamaha music cast speaker in the kitchen and my hifi in the living room which is connected via a musiccast WXAD10.

Recently my dad has signed up to Tidal and is very impressed with it, however he says the back catalogue does have some holes in it and the app is a little fiddly.

Going off this I've just signed up to a free trial of Deezer HiFi and downloaded the normal app, and the Deezer360 app. I'm pretty impressed.

Is it better quality than spotify? Absolutely. Long term - is it worth twice as much as spotify? Not sure...

Also on my try list is Amazon music HD.

What do you use, how do you use it and how do you find it?

[Deranged Rover]

I use Spotify Premium but purely for background music, playlists and checking out new music. No real complaints about sound quality, although it's obviously not CD or vinyl standard.

I also use it on my phone at work through B&O H6 headphones. I've recently changed from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone XR and the sound quality is noticeably better!

[Somebody]

I have Spotify on a family account, and sole Deezer.

I prefer Deezer in the car because of the "free" data on 3 (GoBinge) and the app set up is better than Spotify in the iDrive.

[Daz68]

I use Tidal and its superb. Sound is amazing although the interface is a little awkward.

[Gren]

Spotify either through my Google Home speakers or in the car - bluetooth via phone. Neither really need any better sound quality than Spotify currently provides.

I am though replacing my Chromecast in the back of my hifi with a Teufel Connector so my opinion may change soon.

[geeks]

Daz68 said:

I use Tidal and its superb. Sound is amazing although the interface is a little awkward.

I use Tidal at home and Apple Music on the road, CarPlay is better with Apple Music unsurprisingly, I have found Tidal to be superior sound quality wise on my PC so that's why it gets used there.

[gizlaroc]

I have accounts with the following.

Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal and Amazon HD.

Qobuz is the best sounding, very close to Tidal but does have the slight edge when playing Hi Res, it is just a little bit smoother, you can tell when playing music loud and go between Tidal Masters vs 24/196 Qobuz.
However, I have found that some tracks won't play on the phone app, which I use a lot at night with headphones, and rather than skipping that track it stops playing. This makes it a deal breaker for me. Tidal therefore wins.

Amazon HD could be great, but it is limited to PC app, phones and Alexa devices, however some amps will play it though. Sonos plays it but I think it only plays the MP3 stream, it sounds crap compared to the others through a Sonos connect.
If they open it up more so it can be integrated with more devices/software they could be onto a winner, but what is the point of Hi Res through Sonos and Alexa devices?


Spotify is great, good library, good apps, sharing playlists, and nearly everything is a Spotify Connect device so will play on everything. But, and it is a big but, sound is not all that. Fine for Sonos and Alexa etc. But even in the car lots of albums, especially earlier CDs from the 80s etc. just sound shrill compared to Tidal and Qobuz, and Amazon HD.

I have cancelled Qobuz and Amazon HD and will run with Tidal and Spotify.
The thing that annoys me about Tidal is the music they suggest is all rap and American bling artists that I have no interest in at all. It knows what I listen to, why not suggest that for me?
Spotify gets this spot on.

Oh well, worth it for the sound quality. I have been using it for about 4 or 5 years now, was hoping a cheaper alternative and in all honesty as good as some of the MQA material is, I do find the proper Hi Res stuff smoother, which is what I want sound wise, but they have chosen MQA, hence wanting to get on with Qobuz, but I got no response from them abut the phone app stopping constantly, so gave up on it.

[selym]

I took up the offer on Tidal for four months and am currently running it through my Squeezebox onto a Topping D50 DAC. As said before, it's a little fiddly but that's a worthwhile trade off for the sound quality. Most enjoyable.

[gizlaroc]

Have you tried Volumio?

Well worth a try.

[bristolracer]

Using spotify currently

When my hi fi was set up I had tidal.Tidal was the best for sound quality,Spotify have the edge on the app.

If Spotify ever went hi res they would clean up

[Ambleton]

gizlaroc said:

I have accounts with the following.

Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal and Amazon HD.

(+Interesting insights into each)

A good and fairly comprehensive list of pros and cons. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Not been tempted to try Deezer HiFi yet? You get 3months free trial for new sign ups.

I've mostly been listening to the Deezer360 catalogue today. It's a funny and limited mix. Some really works. It seems especially suited to the classic jazz and experimental jazz stuff, but most of the modern tracks with vocals sound like they're being reproduced in an empty swimming pool. Harsh, shrill, echoey and unbalanced when compared to the hi-res stereo version.

Will test out the integration withmusiccast over the next few days and report back.

[Chrocco]

I’ve got Apple Music and Spotify for both myself and the wife. We normally play both throughout the house on Sonos speakers. For me, I think Apple edges it slightly on quality and it works well also in the cars over car play and Siri. There is very little in it though. I’ve heard good things about Tidal but have yet to try.

[gizlaroc]

Ambleton said:

A good and fairly comprehensive list of pros and cons. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Not been tempted to try Deezer HiFi yet? You get 3months free trial for new sign ups.

The problem is integration.

I want to be able to use it with Volumio, Roon etc. It is only really Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify that allow that.

I want to be able to open my phone or macbook or iPad and see a page and browse my music...

[Deranged Rover]

gizlaroc said:

IThe thing that annoys me about Tidal is the music they suggest is all rap and American bling artists that I have no interest in at all. It knows what I listen to, why not suggest that for me?
Spotify gets this spot on.

This is a very good point. I've discovered a surprising amount of new music thanks to my selection ending and Spotify playing stuff it considers to be similar.

[stevoknevo]

I updated my AV receiver last week and now have HDMI in at last and can now stream direct from the PC instead of being routed via the TV and back to the receiver via optical! I've had a free Spotify account for years but rarely used it, but activated the three months free trial the other day, however just this morning I've activated Tidal on two months free trial to check out the Masters stuff - pretty damn good! But the interface is poor compared to Spotify. Much listening to be done to see if Tidal's sound quality is worth the premium over Spotify's usability in the longer term (and I already have some hi-res files of some stuff that I'd want to listen to on Tidal, but hoping to find new stuff)

[legzr1]

stevoknevo said:

I updated my AV receiver last week and now have HDMI in at last and can now stream direct from the PC instead of being routed via the TV and back to the receiver via optical! I've had a free Spotify account for years but rarely used it, but activated the three months free trial the other day, however just this morning I've activated Tidal on two months free trial to check out the Masters stuff - pretty damn good! But the interface is poor compared to Spotify. Much listening to be done to see if Tidal's sound quality is worth the premium over Spotify's usability in the longer term (and I already have some hi-res files of some stuff that I'd want to listen to on Tidal, but hoping to find new stuff)

Where are you doing the MQA unfold to Get hi-res from Tidal?

[Itsallicanafford]

Tidal and roon signal path for a master quality file playback

[stevoknevo]

legzr1 said:

stevoknevo said:

I updated my AV receiver last week and now have HDMI in at last and can now stream direct from the PC instead of being routed via the TV and back to the receiver via optical! I've had a free Spotify account for years but rarely used it, but activated the three months free trial the other day, however just this morning I've activated Tidal on two months free trial to check out the Masters stuff - pretty damn good! But the interface is poor compared to Spotify. Much listening to be done to see if Tidal's sound quality is worth the premium over Spotify's usability in the longer term (and I already have some hi-res files of some stuff that I'd want to listen to on Tidal, but hoping to find new stuff)

Where are you doing the MQA unfold to Get hi-res from Tidal?

Having looked in to it further from your reply I think I'm getting 96/24 via HDMI via my PC/AVR on the Tidal app - I'm pretty new/naive to this fangled hi-res streaming stuff! I presumed as I had all the settings ticked in Tidal for Masters etc and was being offered them that that's what I was getting, but apparently you need something with an MQA decoder to get the full bhoona res, is that correct?
Just done an A/B with the same track on Spotify/Tidal (masters version) and the latter certainly sounds more fluid.

[legzr1]

The desktop version of Tidal on a PC will do ‘first unfold’ of MQA so you’re probably getting hi-res to your AV receiver.

[stevoknevo]

legzr1 said:

The desktop version of Tidal on a PC will do ‘first unfold’ of MQA so you’re probably getting hi-res to your AV receiver.

Cheers , that's what I'd figured but good to know - I've double checked all the PC settings to make sure it's outputting correctly and it was however my receiver doesn't tell you what it's being fed outside of 2.0 PCM stereo etc. Sounds good enough to me