Music streaming services

It's true. I can enjoy music in lesser quality so long as I'm not thinking about it. Had a great night on Friday listening to Ian Creaghan of Three Amigos on Mixcloud but it was pure nostalgia and the fun of the live chat. My hi-fi is more top drawer than I care to admit, from better days, but my goodness it sounds amazing and like you say Jimmy, you hear stuff in tracks you've never noticed before and experience music on a completely different way under those conditions. However in fairness it can expose bad recordings which leads to disappointment due to the higher expectations and distraction. The worst case is when you start choosing music for the quality of the recordings rather than because it rocks or takes you places. Just go to a hi-fi show and watch half the punters missing the point in expert fashion! I don't think I could give up my system though.
 
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I only used to buy casette tapes and CDs, because there were no streaming services.
Then I tried Spotify, and it was good, but Premium seemed expensive to me at the time.
Then I subscribed to Amazon Prime Music and later upgraded to Prime Music HD.
Then I realised then I mostly listened to music on the go or while doing something, but I couldn't really tell the difference most of the time, amusingly enough perhaps the most when using a Bluetooth device. That, together with bugs in synchronisation between devices and more music being available on Spotify at basically the same quality as the standard Amazon Music service made me switch over.

Reconsidered buying CDs again, but I'd have have to spend a few thousand quid on CDs and didn't have nearly enough room for them, so sticking with streaming services was the better option for me.
The encode quality is really good, particularly if you choose to use the high quality file streams.

Bandcamp can be interesting, but not nearly enough of what I wanted from a service.
Quobuz and Tidal were decent, but the selection was too limited as well..
I haven't tried YouTube Music, but I'm mostly covered by Spotify, so not too tempted at the moment.

I know some people complain that streaming services generally pay only a small fraction to the artists, but, AFAIK, that was the case with tapes and CDs if the artist would use any larger record label, too.

As far as being offline is concerned, most of these services allow their users to download music for offline listening if you use one of their non-free services, and with both Amazon Prime Music and Spotify Premium, it worked just fine.
 
My Innuos contains all the CDs I ever bought, ripped to the internal disc, and I can (and mostly do) use it for Internet radio so it does get used more than any other source. Getting the vinyl out has somehow become a special occasion, because it's more effort, but also more rewarding, although I don't do it as much as I should. Convenience does make you lazy. I find myself listening to podcasts and reggae or blues playlists on Spotify a lot, just with my ipad.
 
I have a copy of my music collection on a 128GB microSD in my cheapo tablet. I think most people would notice a remarkable improvement if they bypassed the DAC in their phone/tablet/PC.

At the moment the tablet is streaming FLAC tracks to my HiFi using the Yamaha MusicCast app but for my Grado 325E headphones I plug in a USB DAC which also bypasses the Android hardware - Cyrus SoundKey (Dragonfly Black is a current equivalent). I'd highly recommend paying a few quid for the USB Audio Pro app.

I did ABX tests and concluded HiRes audio was wasted on me. CD quality is fine. Yamaha receiver has Qobuz and Tidal etc built in but after trialling I wasn't convinced they were worth it. I'd pay a fiver/month for Qobuz. Bandcamp has some gems, I've paid for a few things from there.
 
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Sounds like a good way forward with quality cans and a USB DAC. For headphone listeners that's a good place to concentrate the spend. The Android thing is then just the carrier.

If I used headphones I would like a Tron-Electric Antares amp but it's an expensive luxury.
 
vacant said:
I have a copy of my music collection on a 128GB microSD in my cheapo tablet. I think most people would notice a remarkable improvement if they bypassed the DAC in their phone/tablet/PC.

At the moment the tablet is streaming FLAC tracks to my HiFi using the Yamaha MusicCast app but for my Grado 325E headphones I plug in a USB DAC which also bypasses the Android hardware - Cyrus SoundKey (Dragonfly Black is a current equivalent). I'd highly recommend paying a few quid for the USB Audio Pro app.

I did ABX tests and concluded HiRes audio was wasted on me. CD quality is fine. Yamaha receiver has Qobuz and Tidal etc built in but after trialling I wasn't convinced they were worth it. I'd pay a fiver/month for Qobuz. Bandcamp has some gems, I've paid for a few things from there.
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Sexy cans those! Always fancied a pair of Grados but it’d be the 80s as I couldn’t justify (or afford) those gorgeous 325s.
 
Gairdner said:
Sexy cans those! Always fancied a pair of Grados but it’d be the 80s as I couldn’t justify (or afford) those gorgeous 325s.
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I used to plug AKG 72 headphones into my old amp. Then I worked out I could have a music collection on a tablet. Even with those relatively cheap cans I immediately noticed a drop in quality when I plugged them in. Bit of research lead me to a USB DAC .... then a pair of SR80E - they were my first pair of open-back headphones and impressed me. Later I got the chance to get a pair of 325E secondhand.
 
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If the device's output is of poor quality, something like Apple's USB/Lightning "adapter" is actually a pretty clean and inexpensive DAC/AMP, although it doesn't provide much power.
Usually enough power for in-ears, though.
Then there's TempoTec Sonata HD PRO, which has more power and is even cleaner.

Having said that, the headphones themselves will generally make a lot more of a difference than new output device (assuming no funny business with output impedance or frequency response of it).
 
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