Will be having a go at streaming in early 2020. It’s time I tried it even if slightly reluctantly.
First thing. Which of the services is best in your opinion? Particularly based on sound quality.
We have a family subscription on Spotify that Jack and Kate use more than me. I’ve only used it on my phone on holidays.
So suggestions and advice is welcome.
I have a family subscription to TIDAL. Decent sound quality through the Hi-Fi and surprisingly good via the phone. All have free trial periods and TIDAL are offering 5 months for £5 at the moment. Fill yer boots.
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Tidal hifi is pretty decent imo.
Dammit, no special offers for Tidal available over here, otherwise I’d have been tempted to try it again.
Tidal is very good. Spotify has a larger catalogue but not as good SQ.
The best of the best is Qobuz. I had to do a test of six of the fuckers earlier in the year. Qobuz has the same USB management as Tidal, no MQA, more high res and a library that- for me anyway- doesn’t have too many serious omissions. Tidal is still good though and there are some screaming deals at the moment.
I’d also give a nod to Amazon Music HD which is brilliant value if you don’t need embedded support for Roon etc.
I’ve ended up with a single Spotify Premium account that everyone uses, including most days at work for me.
Tidal for proper listening/main system, as unfortunately once you get used to the uplift in sound quality it’s difficult to go back.
£30 a month total, reluctantly spent but considering the amount of hours it’s used, and the price of new vinyl I’m just about ok with it…
I use Qobuz, and really like it. Discovery of music is excellent, plus all the stuff Ed mentioned.
For me, the main issue with Tidal was all the Jay-Z and Beyonce promotion. It was just awful. Maybe if you use Roon for it that’s not a problem, but I used their web interface and just hated it.
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I use Qobuz through Roon. There are more gaps in back catalogues compared to Tidal but catching up quickly.
I run it through the dac of my sacd player and sq is excellent. I rarely play cd or even sacd these days.
This. I fucked TIDAL off for a while in favour of Qobuz. Using Roon sorted the Jay-Z FUBAR. In the end I cannot distinguish between the two on SQ grounds and TIDAL suits me and mine better via phones when on the go.
No idea what any of this means
The high rez streaming on Qobuz… It says on their site that there are 170,000 high rez tracks across all genres. Do the Qobuz users think this is worthwhile, does it feel like a substantial amount when you are using it?
Just the usual whining.
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This hugely depends on genre and the like but if you are still actively seeking out new music, Qobuz has worked hard to ensure that most new releases are 24 bit. If you’re big into older material that isn’t from the ‘endless remaster’ proponents, you won’t be as well served.
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I just use CD quality, even though my setup supports up to 24/192. It sounds great.
No.
I am unconvinced by much of the nonsense about hi-rez. TIDAL and Qobuz sound a bit better than Spotify, but I can’t really distinguish between 16/44 and 24/192 whether streamed in from TIDAL or Qobuz or played via my Inuos Zen (all using Roon and all via my Aesthetix Pandora DAC).
I didn’t really find much missing on Qobuz. The playlisting etc on TIDAL is better though.
Possibly. Alternatively, feck off out of it. 
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I have heard of people joining in other countries for massive discounts (Turkey?).
If you can use a vpn and sign up “abroad” you can then just log in anywhere. Not sure it has any jurisdiction issues.
Can’t find any working link to the 5 months offer…
There is a lot of high res, a surprising amount of new stuff. The older high res can be variable, Natalie Merchant’s Tiger Lilly sounded like she was singing in a cupboard.
I use Roon radio and some tracks will really make me sit up. A track from Beggar’s Banquet came on yesterday and blew me away, turned out to be at 192, then listened to Sympathy for the Devil and best I have heard it.
The 5 months offer ran out yesterday.
As the hifi is busy for a while so don’t need Room, I’m just trying Amazon instead of Tidal. Much better UI on the phone and catalogue is similar.