Streamer and subscriptions: How are you streaming music?

[TSTstudios]

I use G-dis CM4/wl Internet streamer with Tidal and Qobuz
and an iPhone Xs as controller.

 

[oneartist]

After many streaming attempts I've settled on Tidal Connect using my iPad directly to Lyngdorf MP60 2.1. I also turn on the entire system with "hey Google turn on Family Room". This works using four smart duplex receptacles. If I want all 7 Magnepan speakers and four subs going at once I choose "Party mode" on the MP60 2.1. I gave up on Adirvana and Wiim.

 

[Willyspu]

I have 7 WiiM units linked together to create a whole whole house and outdoor sound system. I have Tidal, Prime and Spotify accounts and have a large hard drive of music that I run a Plex server on. The WiiM units (mainly Prop Plus) are affordable and have a easy to use app to control music by room, by group or individually. They are powered by Buckeye amps into KEF speakers.

 

[Sal1950]

I was a Spotify sub for a bunch of years until others started doing lossless for the same money.
I tried just about all the alternatives but to be honest I wasn't hearing any big differences and the Spotify
GUI had the others beat hands down. So I stayed with them.

UNTIL, Apple started streaming 5.1, and Atmos files for the same or less money, For me that was a no-brainer.
Still I admit the Spotify GUI leads the pack but without lossless 2ch & multich they might as well be streaming
Morse Code for all I care. LOL
Dot Dash, Dot Dot Dash.

 

[greg90]

I don’t have a device solely dedicated to streaming music. I added an Apple TV 4K as a source for my av receiver and just stream Apple Music content and it works for now. It seems like there are more and more remastered tracks coming out to.

 

[Suleyman Gokoglu]

While I enjoy listening to vinyl, I also stream music in various ways. We have HEOS for our whole-house background music, but we use Roon (Nucleus One) with subs to Tidal and Qobuz for more serious listening. The main listening and theater room uses a StormAudio MK3 processor. Other listening rooms have a WiiM Ultra and Eversolo DMP-A6 to access Roon. We have Amazon Music Unlimited, but we rarely use it. I've tried iTunes, but I've stuck mostly with Tidal and Qobuz due to my Roon lifetime subscription and how well it organizes and integrates our local music with the streaming music library. Now that I'm retired, discovering new music and rediscovering old music has never been more fun.

How about you... if you stream music, what streamers and subscriptions do you use?

Hi,
I have a Hi-End system at home, which I think is good for me, and a CD collection. Unfortunately, due to the busy work schedule, I can only listen to music either in the car or through a simple Bluetooth speaker and Spotify.

 

[BASaudio]

I use Prime for the little streaming that I do. I have too many LP's , Several thousand CD's, a few hundred SACD's to be bothered with much else. I use Prime to sample stuff before I buy the real thing. At some point it will be a hellacious hoarder cleanout when I have to downsize. Until then - most everything in physical media sounds better than streaming.

 

[VMAT4]

I use WiiM hardware and subscribe to Spotify & nugs. I really miss Primephonic! Idagio and Apple Classical just don't work for me.

 

[curbfeeler]

Here, an Innuos ZENith Mk3 configured as a Roon core streams from Qobuz, Tidal, internet radio, or a QNAP NAS. An Ansuz PowerSwitch X-TC switch sits ahead of the Innuos. A Holo Audio May DAC is connected by a Light Harmonic USB cable to the Innuos.

 

[irvose]

I use a Roon Nucleus feeding via a SOtM switch into a Vivaldi Upsampler or directly into my Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers. Stream Tidal or Qobuz and have c 3000 CD’s ripped and stored on a Naim Uniticore. Sonos around the house Also through Roon for which I took out a lifetime membership years back.

 

[rangaro]

I got a Raumfeld system so I could rip all my CDs to FLAC and play them in multiple rooms. But Raumfeld was laggy and instable, so I switched to Roon. Later I subscribed to Qobuz because I like it slightly more than Tidal, and I find having both too expensive regarding what they cost in Germany. I use a Melco N100 in the main room and Hifiberries in the other two rooms. I might get the Symfonisk picture frame from Ikea sooner or later for less important rooms like the bath room because it works with Roon, too, and is quite cheap.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I have 7 WiiM units linked together to create a whole whole house and outdoor sound system. I have Tidal, Prime and Spotify accounts and have a large hard drive of music that I run a Plex server on. The WiiM units (mainly Prop Plus) are affordable and have a easy to use app to control music by room, by group or individually. They are powered by Buckeye amps into KEF speakers.

Can you elaborate a little more on the seven WiiM units? Do you have seven Buckeye amps powering KEF speakers in seven areas?

 

[Bengt Nilsson]

I use BubbleUPnP/DLNA for Android on a Samsung tablet, taking music from Qobuz or my local MinimServer.
I have a Qobuz Sublime+ account with streaming up to 192k, costing me 175€/year. The account also offers me discounts on download if I wish to do so.
Sounds great, simply HD music, no MQA or anything like that. I have assigned an intermediate BubbleServer that is taking the feed from Qobuz, removing the WAN transfer hiccups if any. The rendering is done by HQPlayer connected via USB to a homebuilt DSP crossover feeding an again homebuilt active speaker system.
My DSP has also a digital input, where I have connected a low cost ADC and a vacuum tube preamp for vinyl, 78rpm shellac and other analog sources

 

[Lavocat]

I too have a Qobuz Sublime+ account with streaming up to 192k, costing me 175€/year. The account also offers me discounts on download if I wish to do so.

Previously I used the french software Audirvana to stream on my full tweaked Oppo 203 and used hmdi output. Then go in my Emotiva XMC-2 using the Emo very good DAC's. But I was not sure of audio benefits of Audirvana, and it's a little buggy on my Mac...

I now use directly Qobuz software to stream either on my AppleTV (not user friendly on screen, you sometimes have the playing disc, or the screen saver...) or...
My TV / cable operator has now turn all their TV-Box on Android. The best user friendly solution is to stream from Qobuz on my tv-box. Perfect OSD, black, etc.

Is the sound quality on ATV as good as on my tv-box? I hope so. Which benefits would I have with (f. e.) a Wiim ? None?

 

[IngeB]

Hi!
I have a new Denon X4800H, use with Heos, Spotify and Tidal. Also have a Squeezebox Touch to play my cd rip.
On the other stereo i use Wiim pro as streamer. With same Spotify and Tidal.

 

[dgrippin]

I only use Prime HD Unlimited.

I've tried the others. They don't have the selection of artists and genes that Prime does. I listen to a lot of Prog, Djent, and EDM artists that just aren't available on other platforms. As soon as I can't find an artist that I normally listen to, I unsubscribe and delete the app.

Plus, we already have Amazon Prime membership, so it's really cheap. The interface is simpler and just better. The sound quality is identical or better in many instances. And I can stream it to all my devices just as easily as any other app.

 

[dintymoore2003]

Good morning,

I too have a lifetime subscription to Roon and subscribe to Tidal in addition to music housed on a NAS. I'm using SGC's sonicTransporter i5 for the server. Main zone utilizes a Sonore Optical Rendu....Denafrips Aires 12th.....Classe CA-150.....and Falcon Acoustics Gold Badge LS3/5As. This dedicated, 2-channel listening room is fully treated with a GIK Acoustics design. Living Room makes use of an Oppo UDP-203. An ongoing whole-house audio project uses RPs running RoPieee, an NAD CI 980 8-CH amp and B&W ceiling mounted speakers.

I had JRiver years ago and have since migrated to Roon + Plex for audio and video respectively both running on the sonicTransporter.

 

[Gerry Iaria]

Well, reading all of these posts, makes me think that I should get a good streamer, I'm only using Spotify on my receiver Marantz cinema 50 when by my self, otherwise when we have friends round, we use Tunein radio for music, and occasionally youtube

 

[frangle]

I have my CD/SACD collection ripped to a Synology NAS running a Minimserver container. My main listening endpoint is a pair of D&D 8C speakers fed 24bit/48kHz over AES from a RPI running RopieeeXL, so digital all the way to the speaker driver amps. All hi-res (FLAC, DSD) is transcoded to 24/48 PCM by MinimStreamer on the Synology. I also have a mirrored ripping to AAC on the Synology served to Sonos endpoints and for copying to the car. All content is comprehensively tagged using MP3Tag so I can navigate the large collection easily using phone or PC UPnP-AV controllers like fidata / upplay / Linn.

I've tried and abandoned online streaming services, either due to internet connection issues or the way they index content. If I want to stream from a service, I listen to the radio...

 

[Asere]

I still love and listen to vinyl and to me it is nostalgic also. I am streaming more recently because the streamer is a recent purchase but I will eventually go back and forth.

 

[Kevin G]

Streaming via PC and Apple TV4K. Amazon Music UHD and so music from Youtube. Tried several others services including Apple Music, but found Amazon the easiest for me to navigate. Some of the music selections posted on Youtube has nice variety of songs that I haven't heard before. But, finding the titles of the music played on Youtube is often difficult to find and put into my Amazon playlist.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I have digitized (ALAC lossless) all my CDs and some cassette tapes to an Asustor NAS (12 TB). I use Plex (lifetime membership) to stream the music wherever I am. As a backup, I subscribe to Apple Music Match, from which I can stream to any Apple app (albeit at a lower quality). I started to buy digital music files a few years ago at up to 192kHz. To listen in my living room, I presently use my Apple TV to connect to the NAS and stream (Plex) to my Denon Amp; using the built-in DAC. I plan in the near future to change the Amp for a better one with an improved DAC or get a separate one. I do not subscribe to any music service, but I do listen to free public radio streams.

I'm curious - are you able to discern a notable difference between lower hi-res and higher hi-res (192kHz, for example)? Or do you buy those higher res purely for the sake of having the best possible quality?

Not judging - just curious. I know for me, when it comes to movies, I want to opt for the best possible version even if I know the difference between it and, say, a Blu-ray version are minimal.

 

[Robert Petersson]

I have ripped all my CD’s; roughly 6,000. Used the ”eat an elephant” strategi. Some meat every day. Eventually it was gone. It took about 2,5 year. They are stored on a NAS and I stream them to my Lumïn U2 Mini using the Lumïn app as a controll and a library. I use the same app for streaming Qobuz (the only one I use). The best album I buy and download from Qobuz.

So for me it is more or less the same if I stream, play downloaded hires files or ripped files. I have no need for Roon. I do not like external program intefering in my privat life based on my behaviour on the net. Social media like Facebook, X, Tic-Toc and Instagram are deleated on my phone and iPad. The integration I make in the Lumïn app with the help of added metadata that I make in Mp3Tag to my albums gives me full controll, overview and search options.

 

[TBL]

Hi when I it your email for my response, I first thought I was gonna say I’m not using music streaming service. But I digressed.

I’m using YouTube Music free simply coz I’ve been using YT Premium for several years now. YTM is on par in rendition quality even to Spotify, meaning “mediocre”.

Other than that, I now use my Android phone with a 1 TB memory card to store my 200+ CD and SACD, and an ever growing storage from my 1000 LP transcribed to 24/192 FLAC files as I use my turntable and tube preamps (now mainly Lafayette KT600). Maybe it’s not the primary aim of your discussion thread, I’m answering to let you know that there’s someone out there taking the trouble to digitize their whole LP collection nowadays just like in the old days of cassette Walkman players when people listen to their vinyls on their own mix tapes. But this time round, a 1 TB Micro SD card can hold a lot of 24/192 FLAC music considering a 45-minute vinyl album will take less than 1 GB. So a cheap $80 1 TB will suffice for the whole 1000 LP bunch.

 

[Lee Bairnsfather]

This is a great conversation...thanks for starting it. Like many of you, I have an extensive CD and vinyl collection (with 2 turntables), but I rarely listen to them these days. I chose Tidal many years ago because they have the entire ECM collection. I have Amazon Music for the Family Plan. I stream multiple ways, but I prefer the native Tidal interface, so in my primary media room, I use a laptop and Tidal Connect, and stream through an NAD box connected to my Trinnov Altitude 32. I use the Trinnov DAC for all my applications. For a while, TIdal was available on ROKU, and I could use ROKU for multichannel Atmos recordings. There still aren't many well-done Atmos recordings, so I haven't searched for other ways to stream these. At present, I can play Atmos streams through a laptop connected via HDMI to the Trinnov.
I do miss the liner notes and the feel of the physical media, but the quality of streaming is quite good so I rarely go back to the CDs and vinyl. I do try to stream at the highest quality, although I'm at an age that prevents me from detecting most subtle differences in bit rate or media type. I did try Roon, but as yet haven't found the need for it.