All About Streaming Music Services

Started by Wakefield, July 02, 2015, 04:15:10 AM

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Madiel

I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Daverz

Quote from: Madiel on January 27, 2021, 02:06:24 PM
Qobuz isn't available in Australia.

Oops, I forgot to check on availability for our Australian members.

Madiel

Quote from: Daverz on January 27, 2021, 02:16:11 PM
Oops, I forgot to check on availability for our Australian members.

Oh don't be silly. You were replying to an Australian. And as an Australian, I'm simply informing you that the LMS plugin for Qobuz is of no help to me personally.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Daverz

Quote from: Madiel on January 27, 2021, 02:36:54 PM
Oh don't be silly. You were replying to an Australian. And as an Australian, I'm simply informing you that the LMS plugin for Qobuz is of no help to me personally.

NP, I was just being silly.

DavidW

Quote from: Madiel on January 27, 2021, 01:38:07 PM
I ended up subscribing to Primephonic.  Yes, the curation is definitely a plus. They give you a variety of ways of just checking out various things.

They do have mistakes in the cataloguing (partly because they're relying on so much metadata given to them by record companies), but another good thing is that they respond quite quickly if I point any errors out.

I've put 3 of my friends onto it and they're all just as happy as I am to discover that such a service exists.

Nice!  I just wish they had a desktop app.

Holden

I did a free trial of Primephonic. The SQ was, according to their website, at platinum level. In other words 24 bit FLAC.

During the trial, I listened to tracks on Primephonic that I also have on CD (and have ripped to level 5 FLAC). I could hear a very discernible difference between the streamed and ripped tracks and it wasn't Primephonic that won out. The ripped tracks had a greater dynamic range and were tonally more accurate, especially from a clarity point of view. Spaciality and instrument separation were more pronounced. What concerned me was that these were not miniscule differences, they were very noticeable.

Primephonic emailed me after the trial and asked me to complete a survey which I did. I was blunt but polite.

I canceled Tidal in 2019 after it dropped a big number of its MQA tracks, some of which were stunning. What I would like to get is Qobuz but it's not available here in Australia. I'm not sure why.
Cheers

Holden

DavidW

What Qobuz has that Primephonic does not is the dedicated app that allows you to use enabled wasapi exclusive mode and bypass the processing that Windows does.  If you use a Mac not a problem but if you don't, it could have been.  But don't discount the FAR MORE LIKELY explanation that the master of the recording you used for streaming had dynamic range compression.  It is common.  With the same master playing two flacs through the same dac connected to asynchronous usb the results should be the same.  The rest is expectation bias.

Holden

Quote from: DavidW on January 28, 2021, 05:37:23 AM
What Qobuz has that Primephonic does not is the dedicated app that allows you to use enabled wasapi exclusive mode and bypass the processing that Windows does.  If you use a Mac not a problem but if you don't, it could have been.  But don't discount the FAR MORE LIKELY explanation that the master of the recording you used for streaming had dynamic range compression.  It is common.  With the same master playing two flacs through the same dac connected to asynchronous usb the results should be the same.  The rest is expectation bias.

OK that makes sense based on what I heard but why compress the dynamic range?
Cheers

Holden

DavidW

Quote from: Holden on January 28, 2021, 05:55:27 PM
OK that makes sense based on what I heard but why compress the dynamic range?

I wish I knew.  I thought that classical music was immune to the loudness war but it's not 100% true.  I just listened to a recording that should sound dynamic and vibrant but it was as compressed as modern pop music.  And I have a feeling that on cd or vinyl it would have that dynamic range.

aukhawk

IF it's the case (that streamed music is more likely to be audio-compressed) - and I'm not convinced personally - then the simple response is that, outside of dedicated listening environments and situations, compression helps the music sound better.  And the streaming companies probably assume that most listening is done in sub-optimal environments.  Of course we (minority) who prefer to listen to music in the way that we do, are the losers in this.

Papy Oli

I am currently giving a go at Primephonic trial period and Idagio Free to compare availability and usability against my past use of Qobuz.

Under the subscription plans for the former two, can you actually do a search by Label or by composer + Label at all please ?

That doesn't seem to work on the trial/free versions. For instance, if I do a search for "Bax Chandos", Idagio lists nothing and Primephonic lists only one album that has nothing to do with Bax or Chandos. Not an option under "Browse" either by the looks of it. Such search seem to work if you combine Composer + Artist though (e.g. Debussy Rogé).

It's a personal preference but I much prefer the multiple large cover display for searches rather than a long list to scroll down too (and if you click on an album and go back, it takes you back to the top of the albums list - that's annoying - I have not seen any options to change a layout either ? Does that exist within the plans for either ? (In both cases, I am talking about the Web player on the laptop btw).

Not one solution will be absolutely perfect, I agree, but I just wondered on the above as it was something I found efficient and comfortable under Qobuz.

That said, the full listing by works on Idagio for instance has its benefits.   
Olivier

DavidW

I did a search for Bax Chandos on Qobuz and came up with this:

Looks like Qobuz has more robust searching.

Madiel

Quote from: Papy Oli on February 07, 2021, 02:22:19 PM
I am currently giving a go at Primephonic trial period and Idagio Free to compare availability and usability against my past use of Qobuz.

Under the subscription plans for the former two, can you actually do a search by Label or by composer + Label at all please ?

That doesn't seem to work on the trial/free versions. For instance, if I do a search for "Bax Chandos", Idagio lists nothing and Primephonic lists only one album that has nothing to do with Bax or Chandos. Not an option under "Browse" either by the looks of it. Such search seem to work if you combine Composer + Artist though (e.g. Debussy Rogé).

It's a personal preference but I much prefer the multiple large cover display for searches rather than a long list to scroll down too (and if you click on an album and go back, it takes you back to the top of the albums list - that's annoying - I have not seen any options to change a layout either ? Does that exist within the plans for either ? (In both cases, I am talking about the Web player on the laptop btw).

Not one solution will be absolutely perfect, I agree, but I just wondered on the above as it was something I found efficient and comfortable under Qobuz.

That said, the full listing by works on Idagio for instance has its benefits.   

As far as I'm aware record label is not one of the things Primephonic has for searching.

You could ask them though. You'll get a response.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Holden

Quote from: Madiel on January 27, 2021, 02:06:24 PM
Qobuz isn't available in Australia.

Hello Madiel

Qobuz is now available in Australia and I'm listening as I type. Very impressed so far, especially for classical music. You can do a one month free trial which is what I'm on. Choice of three different SQ levels. I stuck with 16bit/44.1 because I don't think I'd really be able to hear the difference from anything higher.
Cheers

Holden

Brahmsian

Quote from: Holden on April 16, 2021, 04:39:30 PM
Hello Madiel

Qobuz is now available in Australia and I'm listening as I type. Very impressed so far, especially for classical music. You can do a one month free trial which is what I'm on. Choice of three different SQ levels. I stuck with 16bit/44.1 because I don't think I'd really be able to hear the difference from anything higher.

Well, that is a great sign. I hope that means that Qobuz availability in Canada is down the road soon.

Madiel

Quote from: Holden on April 16, 2021, 04:39:30 PM
Hello Madiel

Qobuz is now available in Australia and I'm listening as I type. Very impressed so far, especially for classical music. You can do a one month free trial which is what I'm on. Choice of three different SQ levels. I stuck with 16bit/44.1 because I don't think I'd really be able to hear the difference from anything higher.

Good to know, thanks. I'm not currently minded to depart from Primephonic (despite one annoying recent change), but maybe one day if I want to see again whether a single service can combine pop and classical satisfactorily I'll take a look.

The higher price means I wouldn't actually save much if I replaced Primephonic (classical) and Deezer (pop) with Qobuz. A little cheaper, but not a lot.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

flyingdutchman

I bought the yearly subscription to Qobuz and opted for the highest resolution. Really great as I can now listen to pretty much everything without buying another CD.

Mirror Image

Quote from: flyingdutchman on April 18, 2021, 08:54:58 PM
I bought the yearly subscription to Qobuz and opted for the highest resolution. Really great as I can now listen to pretty much everything without buying another CD.

But, as with your own collection, you're limited to what they actually have on their website. If don't have much of a classical collection and you don't want to break the bank, then, yes, ultimately going the Qobuz route will expose you to a lot of music. It seems that I bought the bulk of the classical collection at the right time, but I still find something every now and then that I'd like pick up like, for example, the recent Strauss splurge I made.

flyingdutchman

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 18, 2021, 09:18:47 PM
But, as with your own collection, you're limited to what they actually have on their website. If don't have much of a classical collection and you don't want to break the bank, then, yes, ultimately going the Qobuz route will expose you to a lot of music. It seems that I bought the bulk of the classical collection at the right time, but I still find something every now and then that I'd like pick up like, for example, the recent Strauss splurge I made.

Well, I have well over 10,000 cds now in all my years of collecting, so I'm pretty well set. That said, my physical purchases are moving to vinyl.

Madiel

Currently in the process of discovering that 1 Schubert piano sonata cycle I'm interested in doesn't exist online, and another 1 only about a third of it exists online.

The promise of millions of albums is all very well, but it's a pain in the butt when you actually want particular albums and there's apparently no way to hear even a sample. There are some major record labels that have just never organised themselves to do the work of going back through the collection in a systematic manner.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!