I can’t believe I’m writing this but I am considering having a streamer and a monthly subscription to a streaming service.
I have a spotify subscription but I’m thinking something with substantially better sound quality.
What the best option and best value ?
You can’t really go wrong with either Qobuz or Tidal and both offer free trial periods, then about £10 a month.
I have tried Qobuz numerous times (currently have a 2 month free trial thanks to browellm) but for whatever reason I seem to prefer the user experience / interface with Tidal - and that’s been the case whether using the apps for Auralic, Lumin, Wiim or Cambridge Audio,
As for sound quality I can’t say I notice a great deal of difference between them despite all the hi-res claims for Qobuz.
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None have the depth of catalogue that Spotify have.
Some would argue that Spotify HD (not lossless) is close enough to not hear a difference
Not all streamers will stream all services
Tidal has MQA (or did) depends on your view of that.
Qobuz or Deezer are both fine, try them and see if the catalogue suits your tastes.
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Sonically, I still give Qobuz the nod and it draws far fewer blanks than it used to. It also has by far the best spread of new releases on a Friday. However it’s worth pointing out that it doesn’t have any form of ‘connect’ functionality so the user experience will only be as good as whatever control app you choose. Tidal took a leaf out of Spotify’s playbook and developed a Connect function that allows you to control it via their app (including the desktop one) which is potentially very useful.
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I use TIDAL via Roon. I pay £19 a month and all five of us have unlimited access via our phones and I and my youngest also access it using streamers. I’ve no quibbles about the sound quality and have yet to come across anything I searched for that wasn’t available. I used to also subscribe to Qobuz but cancelled as it was effectively doubling up on my services without real benefit (MQA notwithstanding).
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Also what fully featured streamer would you recommend under £1k. High level of sound quality is essential? More than happy to buy a secondhand one.
DMP-A6 probably.
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I’ve been using QOBUZ (courtesy of Marks free trail) and I like it a lot, works well in the car too.
Spotify has the better GUI.
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Qobuz here, after Spotify.
Very happy.
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The user experience is all down to the app and I prefer the Auralic app over all the others I have used, mainly because it seems to be the only one* that seems to ignore the ‘The’ in band names when listing them alphabetically- i.e. The Cure is listed under C, The Smiths under S etc, rather than them all coming under T.
*Maybe I am missing something in the settings/options with the other apps?
If I could afford it I’d buy this.
I’m sure Chris will do it for a grand for you.
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SNAP:+1:
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I’ve been really impressed with the sound from a Cambridge CXN I bought recently.
Mines an older V1 but a current V2 can be had for about £500 used.
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I’m using a LUMIN D1, which I’ve had for about six years now. There is a D2 for sale on PFM for about £1K. The app is great but I use it with Roon via an Aesthetix Pandora DAC.
I bought my youngest a Wiim Mini Pro for about £150 on Amacuntz about six months ago. Its app is superb, it sounds great, and it is upgradable with an external DAC.
I would worry more about the app, usability and future proofing as the streamers all seem to sound pretty good these days. Digital output allows you to upgrade with the DAC of your choice.
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I use Qobuz via Roon, very happy with it. I pay an annual sub for Qobuz, I think it is 150 euros.
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Tidal here. Been using it for a few years now with no issues.
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try a free trial and have a play is the best option.
I’ve had Google Play/Youtube Music for 8 years and I’ve always kept it as the catalogue always filled the gaps the hi-res services missed and I watch a lot of Youtube so a Youtube premium subscription pulls that and the music service altogether under one roof and I don’t get adverts on the video side.
I’ve been running that with a hi-res service for about 5 years, Amazon first then Tidal then Qobuz.
I would dismiss Amazon, both the other services are far better. I could never hear much of a difference between Qobuz and Tidal and I actually found Tidal’s recs much better than Qobuz which seem to me generic by genre and only updated weekly. This doesn’t matter if you run under Roon as I think that does it for you.
I ditched Qobuz recently due to financial reasons and I didn’t need to run two music services and Youtube won because of the video side. My biggest gripe with Qobuz was the gaps in the catalogue and even though some still exist it is much better than when I started the subscription.
Another service I tried for a month was Presto Classical, which is hires and if you only listen to classical and jazz has by far the best search engine, recommendations and how to store your library. None of the main services do classical that well when it comes to searching or storing it in an obvious way and the recs were very good but again I couldn’t justify the cost. Presto also allows you in many cases to read the actual booklet that comes with the physical release which I found very useful for classical.
If I had to choose a hires service and classical wasn’t my first interest then I would be happy with either Tidal or Qobuz.
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Apple Music has both a standard music app and a dedicated classical one. You get both under the one subscription and high res up to 192 on a fair bit of material. My main gripe is the lack of a connect app which means you can only get CD quality out of it unless you faff about with an adapter.
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Yes Apple bought Primephonic which was a classical specialist service. It was an excellent service and I’m sure with Apple’s clout it’ll get better.
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Streamer or dac/streamer. I have a rather nice auralic streamer for sale that supports all the usual services 
you can also just strap a usb HD to it for local listening
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