Streaming services. Can you actually hear a difference? What do you listen for?

[Sal1950]

Spotify appears to be highly incentivised NOT to go lossless... they own the largest market share. I'm sure they probably look at it as "if it ain't broke, don't rush to fix it!"

Naw, what they're doing is lying to everyone asking for lossless, saying that it's "just around the corner, any day now" for over 3 years now. They're trying to hang onto their old customer base without spending anything to keep them, but if you think about it, it's not working too well. Just a few years ago they dominated the market but millions and millions of new customers have come online and gone with the newer services like Tidal, Quboz, Amazon, Apple, more, offering not only lossless but multich and Atmos, etc. These are numbers they "might" have had if they had got off their butts and produced what they promised. A pox on Spotify for lying and deceiving the good people who have waited for them, I was one for years. That is until Apple brought me Atmos, and for less money even. Bye Bye, Spotify.

 

[ddude003]

I have done some comparisons between Tidal and Idagio, both nominally at CD quality. Tidal sounds slightly better to me, maybe because
it streams directly to my Yamaha receiver, while Idagio goes through my laptop and streams to the Yamaha receiver through Airplay. Perhaps there
are buffering issues with the multi-hop route.

I bet Airplay is your bandwidth bottleneck...

 

[AustinJerry]

This has been an interesting thread. I spent some time this evening trying to see if I can hear differences in the streaming services that I subscribe to. I currently subscribe to Pandora Premium, Deezer HiFi, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime Music. My streamer is a Sonos Port (with the Wyred4Sound Mod https://wyred4sound.com/products/sonos-port-modified). The rest of the audio chain is reasonably good—a Monoprice HTP-1 with Dirac Live room correction driving PSB Synchrony One speakers.

The Sonos app allows my to select the same song from each of the streaming services, place them in the music queue, and then click back and forth among the song versions to get an almost immediate comparison. To be honest, it is difficult for me to hear any obvious differences among the services. Perhaps my ears are not well trained, or perhaps something in my playback system is masking any differences, but I would be hard pressed to choose one service over the other. On the positive side, all sound very good to me and continue to provide listening pleasure.

 

[ddude003]

This has been an interesting thread. I spent some time this evening trying to see if I can hear differences in the streaming services that I subscribe to. I currently subscribe to Pandora Premium, Deezer HiFi, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime Music. My streamer is a Sonos Port (with the Wyred4Sound Mod https://wyred4sound.com/products/sonos-port-modified). The rest of the audio chain is reasonably good—a Monoprice HTP-1 with Dirac Live room correction driving PSB Synchrony One speakers.

The Sonos app allows my to select the same song from each of the streaming services, place them in the music queue, and then click back and forth among the song versions to get an almost immediate comparison. To be honest, it is difficult for me to hear any obvious differences among the services. Perhaps my ears are not well trained, or perhaps something in my playback system is masking any differences, but I would be hard pressed to choose one service over the other. On the positive side, all sound very good to me and continue to provide listening pleasure.

Wondering if the Sonos app does level matching of each streaming platform as each streaming platform masters to a different Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS)...

 

[jschwender]

The quality of the sound is not only related to transmission parameters. On Spotify, the soundquality is extremely different: from telephone sound to good. Even my (pretty old) ears can tell the difference!

 

[AustinJerry]

Sorry, no disrespect meant, but what does this discussion have to do with “Streaming services—can you actually hear a difference?” That was a far more interesting discussion.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Sorry, no disrespect meant, but what does this discussion have to do with “Streaming services—can you actually hear a difference?” That was a far more interesting discussion.

Yeah... I was just thinking we have gotten a bit off-topic. We need a separate thread about what artists are paid for streaming services.

I have moved those posts to a separate thread: What artists are paid for streaming services.

 

[greg90]

Here’s a little update for me. I got a hiby r6III dap and pair of focal bathys last week. I’ve gone back through and tried out Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, and Qobuz. I just got Qobuz a day ago so it’s still new. Amazon isn’t bad but harder for me to navigate, Apple I’m used to and I like how it sounds still, Qobuz is hard for me to navigate as well but I really do like how it sounds, and I got rid of Tidal because I just wasn’t impressed or thought it stood out to me at least. It’s hard because they all have songs that will sound good and songs that won’t sound as good. I was listening to some Pink Floyd on Qobuz that was 24/192 I think? or close to that and it was much quieter and wasn’t anything spectacular to me. I’ve heard the same song in a lower resolution on Apple Music that sounded fine. My biggest issue is volume differences within the same app, that is my number one pet peeve. I know someone had mentioned volume differences between different apps and I understand that and I can adjust accordingly. I’ll go Qobuz for sound, then Apple, followed by Amazon.

 

[AustinJerry]

*

Here’s a little update for me. I got a hiby r6III dap and pair of focal bathys last week. I’ve gone back through and tried out Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, and Qobuz. I just got Qobuz a day ago so it’s still new. Amazon isn’t bad but harder for me to navigate, Apple I’m used to and I like how it sounds still, Qobuz is hard for me to navigate as well but I really do like how it sounds, and I got rid of Tidal because I just wasn’t impressed or thought it stood out to me at least. It’s hard because they all have songs that will sound good and songs that won’t sound as good. I was listening to some Pink Floyd on Qobuz that was 24/192 I think? or close to that and it was much quieter and wasn’t anything spectacular to me. I’ve heard the same song in a lower resolution on Apple Music that sounded fine. My biggest issue is volume differences within the same app, that is my number one pet peeve. I know someone had mentioned volume differences between different apps and I understand that and I can adjust accordingly. I’ll go Qobuz for sound, then Apple, followed by Amazon.

Another service you may enjoy trying is Deezer. I have evaluated Tidal and Qobuz as well, and while I found their sound quality on a par with Deezer (which streams exclusively in FLAC), I ended up choosing Deezer because of the interface and ease of navigation.

While I agree that volume differences make comparing services more difficult, what bothers me most is the inconsistent quality of the audio engineering. Listen to one of the more respected audio engineers, like John Leventhal, and the audio engineering quality will be obvious. If you are comparing music services, try and choose a well-engineered track when making the comparison.

 

[Adubs]

I definitely notice one thing about XM radio: When it runs off of the satellite, it sounds horrible. However, in my 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie, if the satellite signal gets blocked long enough (like a car wash or at a drive-through), It gives me the option to switch to cellular data, and the sound quality doubles. It's a night and day difference.

 

[JStewart]

I definitely notice one thing about XM radio: When it runs off of the satellite, it sounds horrible. However, in my 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie, if the satellite signal gets blocked long enough (like a car wash or at a drive-through), It gives me the option to switch to cellular data, and the sound quality doubles. It's a night and day difference.

I’ve noticed that too. i can use the app on my iPhone with CarPlay and it sounds much better. I should look to see if it’s possible to dump the satellite and keep the app to save a buck or two.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I’ve noticed that too. i can use the app on my iPhone with CarPlay and it sounds much better. I should look to see if it’s possible to dump the satellite and keep the app to save a buck or two.

Pretty sure you can.

 

[AustinJerry]

While you may have options to make XM sound better, its quality is nowhere near as good as the high-res streamers like Tidal, Qubuz or Deezer. IMHO, of course.

 

[greg90]

*

Another service you may enjoy trying is Deezer. I have evaluated Tidal and Qobuz as well, and while I found their sound quality on a par with Deezer (which streams exclusively in FLAC), I ended up choosing Deezer because of the interface and ease of navigation.

While I agree that volume differences make comparing services more difficult, what bothers me most is the inconsistent quality of the audio engineering. Listen to one of the more respected audio engineers, like John Leventhal, and the audio engineering quality will be obvious. If you are comparing music services, try and choose a well-engineered track when making the comparison.

I’ll give Deezer a try when I get some time. I didn’t even think of looking at who engineered the music. Good call. Will look into that

 

[Todd Anderson]

I definitely notice one thing about XM radio: When it runs off of the satellite, it sounds horrible. However, in my 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie, if the satellite signal gets blocked long enough (like a car wash or at a drive-through), It gives me the option to switch to cellular data, and the sound quality doubles. It's a night and day difference.

It would seem to me that the direct satellite signal should be rich with audio data - but we can all clearly hear that it’s not.

Anyone have an understanding as to why?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

It would seem to me that the direct satellite signal should be rich with audio data - but we can all clearly hear that it’s not.

Anyone have an understanding as to why?

They don’t own their own satellite, they simply lease space and then cram as many channels into that space as they can. Ultra-compressed.

 

[JStewart]

While you may have options to make XM sound better, its quality is nowhere near as good as the high-res streamers like Tidal, Qubuz or Deezer. IMHO, of course.

I absolutely agree! XM is actually my better half’s thing for specific programming. I’d be very happy without it, but if I’ve got to listen, it may as well be a little better and a little less expensive.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I absolutely agree! XM is actually my better half’s thing for specific programming. I’d be very happy without it, but if I’ve got to listen, it may as well be a little better and a little less expensive.

If I could somehow monetize the ability to name every single song played on Hair Nation before the vocals begin (usually in the first few measures), the band and add the album it was on, as well as a random fact about the band or the song, I could have retired a decade ago.