Which streaming / Download service to use

Beyond you

Tuesday Music Night’s Est:1978
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Matt
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I use Tidal and I've had no issues with the interface. It's a bit annoying not all albums are available for some artists, possibly more to do with the labels? I brought downloads from Qobuz and Tidal.

https://store.tidal.com/gb/checkout/
 

StingRay

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Ray
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What's two channels got to do with it, all the topics are for two channels except maybe Home Cinema.
Just read read up on your streamer and find out how much processing power it has, same as a computer, what's a Mac Air Duvet is using?
Anyway it doesn't bother me under which topics members refer to as long as they keep posting :)
A lot of members will miss it if its under computers.

I never look there. I went away from a PC for streaming.
 

Cable Monkey

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Most streaming services have a trial period where you can try them out. The one you choose needs to work well with your platform and provide you with access to your preferred genres. Pretty much everything else is secondary, dependent on how you do things. One small detail is a five year old streamer is quite elderly. It might take some time to find a combination of software and hardware to control it to a standard that makes it pleasing to use.
 
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Man in a van

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One small detail is a five year old streamer is quite elderly. It might take some time to find a combination of software and hardware to control it to a standard that makes it pleasing to use.

I think the software is based on Logitech Media Server, so should :unsure:, be updatable :cautious:

ronnie
 

Nearly bewildered

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Hi

I bought a Musical Fidelity Encore 225 because of its ability to stream and download music , to date (in 5 years) I have not used this facility , I play CDs and have burnt most of my CDs to the hard disk ( 870 using less than 20% of my 2TB hard disk) , i do use its internet radio facility , and have a vinyl front end , but I think its time to dip my toe in the "pure digital"water.

I tried spotify in its early days , was not particularly impressed , so more likely to go the Qobuz/Tidal/Deezer or similar route - I would be grateful of any advice particularly pitfalls to avoid.

Thanks

Alby
I use Qobuz and am very happy with it..
 
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maddog_007

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Hi

I bought a Musical Fidelity Encore 225 because of its ability to stream and download music , to date (in 5 years) I have not used this facility , I play CDs and have burnt most of my CDs to the hard disk ( 870 using less than 20% of my 2TB hard disk) , i do use its internet radio facility , and have a vinyl front end , but I think its time to dip my toe in the "pure digital"water.

I tried spotify in its early days , was not particularly impressed , so more likely to go the Qobuz/Tidal/Deezer or similar route - I would be grateful of any advice particularly pitfalls to avoid.

Thanks

Alby
What bitrate can your streamer handle?.
 

Paulssurround

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HiFi Trade?
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I live in North America and I use Tidal. Unfortunately, we don’t have Qobuz in Canada

Sound quality on Tidal in the past was not consistent,and definitely not as good as my music on my NAS. However, Tidal is now significantly better in the last year or so. It has been a great way to hear new music that I never would have heard of otherwise.

That said, most of my music listening is from my own collection of ripped music
 
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AndyCC72

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Spotify is far superior when It comes comes to UX and catalogue IMO but as many have mentioned the EQ is inferior.

I pay for both Tidal and Spotify but will bin Tidal when/if Spotify goes Hi res,
 
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t1no

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Deezer for me ... it's the service that's been most consistently supported across all my devices ... Good catalogue and premium subscription audio quality meets my needs ... edges Spotify on quality. Just wish they had a way to stream to DLNA devices from the app in a similar vein to Spotify Connect
 
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ziggy

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HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Qobuz for me. Changed from Tidal some years ago. A slight edge on SQ to these ears and you know what you are getting, no MQA mystique.
 

StingRay

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Ray
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Gone back to Tidal from Qobuz because having problems with Qobuz streaming. I prefer Qobuz but too much hassle trying sort out problems its not worth it. Deezer is also fine.
 
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MVJ

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I started out with Tidal then went to Qobuz after 6 months or so. I heard a tonal difference between them; Tidal being a bit brighter and more forward, Qobuz more neutral.
Or Qobuz more laidback and Tidal neutral. It all depends which one you listen to first.
Deezer is about the same as Qobuz.
Spotify is the most laidback, or the others are bright.

I think you need to tweak your system to match the tonality of the service you choose. Or choose the one that best suits your system or preferences.

Tidal is now permanently barred for me as quite a number of albums have the track order muddled up. For classical music that is a definite no-no.

As already suggested, you should sign up for a free trial on them and see what you think.

Spotify for me has the best catalogue, and it almost never has missing tracks. The other services do seem to suffer from blanked out tracks on a significant proportion of albums. For me those considerations get in the way of the music, which defeats the whole purpose of the thing, so I have chosen to optimise my system for Spotify. I think it sounds fine.
I have tried all the mentioned providers with their free trials & to be quite honest could'nt tell the difference sound quality wise.

I agree with what Jerry says above about Spotify I have used it for years to discover new music & listen to music I don't have on hard copy.

I would say there is an element of if it is lossless it must sound better which I did'nt hear myself But then I am a half deaf old git fully licenced to be grumpy😠 so what do I know😲
 
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