[All Platforms][Music] HiFi Quality - Lossless Streaming 16bit 44.1khz

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

** please don't lump this suggestion with the main one on lossless downloads, that's a different idea entirely guys!

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

[timiambeing]

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

[Sal1950]

I had Qobuz and it was very good but Apple offers so much spatial immersive music in lossless quality it's incredible. If you have a good multich, specially one with Atmos system you have to try it, Awesome!

[El0h1m]

I don't trust Dolby Atmos and all the spatial sound thing as this is not how artist intended and it's a lossy encoding.
Stereo is all I need 🙂

Same with MQA, I despise this technology. It's a BIG scam.

[paulove]

Then you don't need to use Dolby Atmos. You can listen to the music in Lossless or if you have the right equipment some albums are in High-Res Lossless.

Artists didn't make the music to only be listened to with a pair of stereo headphones or two speakers, but live in concert. 

[El0h1m]

Sure, I got your point. It's all personal preference. 🙂

In the last 5 months I have tested Deezer, Amazon HD, Apple, Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz.

1. Tidal and every song which have "Master" label is no longer lossless. Even with HiFi trier. MQA is lossy and if you choose to stream CD Quality they will serve you FOLDED MQA coded music anyways. Lossless are tracks without their "Master" label. I don't buy the MQA **bleep**.
2. Deezer is CD Quality. It's fine when you change your sample late manually to 16bit 44,1 khz. That's all.
3. Amazon's HD Wasapi in Exclusive mode is not working so there's no point of having HiRes if you can't use your DAC to listen with bit-perfect mode. You have to change the sample rate (manually) of your DAC every time you listen different song that have different sample rate.
4. Apple Music, sounds good but their Windows App is a disaster. Outdated **bleep** with very limited options, also their ALAC don't speak to me as it is no longer FLAC (OpenSource).
5. Qobuz - Their golden standard is brilliant CD Quality and LOTS of HiRes music with very good support of Wasapi in Exclusive mode. So DAC is changing its sample rate every time song needs it. I have an impression that Qobuz sounds the best and most premium of all. Their customer support is also brilliant.
6. Spotify - laughable ;))

[PCorreia]

As a matter of fact, spatial audio is exactly how music is intended to be
heard. It’s exactly the same as being at a live performance, where you are
involved by the music.

[paulove]

For me Apple Music is perfect as I only use Apple products when I listen to music. I got 6 months free Apple Music with Airpods Pro purchase, and that got me to finally ditch Spotify, after using it since 2008. 

I have not tried any other services. I did read a bit about Tidal and MQA, and it looks like a scam. 

Unless Apple really mess up, and Spotify change dramatically I will never return. And I don't see any of those things happening. 

[Faintandfuzzy]

The problem with Apple is that connectivity to most audio systems is via Airplay 2. Despite them showing high Rez, Airplay 2 changes the files to 256 AAC, and puts you right back in the same quality arena as Spotify.

[Celf]

Apple has developed its own lossless audio compression technology called Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalog is now also encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD Quality) up to 24-bit/192 kHz.

(copy & paste from Apple)

using airplay 2 it say’s 16-bit/44.1 kHz in the  display of my DAC

[mctesterson]

While the central message of this thread continues to be "we're not getting what we want from Spotify, so we're going elsewhere," and I do appreciate that many who are more tied-into the Apple ecosystem would find that the natural alternative (and cheers to Apple for continuing to provide innovative improvements in sound quality and surround formats), I would like to state the following:

I will never switch to Apple until/unless I can play it with full feature capability on my Amazon Fire TV Cube, my Roku, my SmartTV, my Raspberry Pi (with moode OS), my Android Samsung phones, etc.

I can play Spotify on all of the above.  I can play Qobuz on enough of the above (though sometimes in more roundabout ways than Spotify) to make it worth switching, since I value high-resolution stereo so much.

I think I can only play Apple Music on my Macbook laptops, and possibly my Windows Desktop PC via iTunes(??).

I value a diversity of ecosystems.  I resist investing more fully in Google and Apple and Amazon because they resist enabling their content outside of their ecosystems.  Qobuz for the win!

P.S. - I typed this response on a Mac.  🙂  And I enjoy surround sound, but my Denon/Oppo/Polk 5.1 surround system doesn't hold a candle to my stereo-only equipment; thus 2-channel stereo quality in my household blows away the surround-sound experience (even room-optimized with Audyssey DSP).

[LawLee]

These are ranked in my order of preference. I rank Apple Music just above Spotify because of it's poor operability on anything other than Apple gear. It doesn't matter if it has HiRes or Spatial Audio if it can't work on the majority of customer's existing systems. A limiting, but predicable move on Apple's part.