[ExpatinJapan]

I use Flacplayer app

 

[sheldaze]

@crazydeep if this were the Sound Science thread, I could answer you more fully - but, this conversation would also likely degrade into a thread war 

 
To keep this useful:
 

1. Trust your ears. If it sounds good and is cheap/easy to use - use it! No worries!
2. FLAC and ALAC are the same in that no bits are thrown away. But we're audiophiles, so we'll likely do things the hard way 
   

 
We sometimes take ourselves far too seriously, and then sometimes not seriously enough. I'll be using Tidal, but I'll also be using AIFF straight from my phone's native playback app. I've sent in my shipping fees and picked my color - just waiting for shipping confirmation so I can truly start to post what I hear on the iPhone 6+ version of my Skyn.

 

[tylerchris]

Question - is there any difference between ALAC and FLAC? Since iOS doesn't place FLAC, shouldn't ALAC be sufficient instead of downloading and managing a new FLAC player?

The main difference is that iTunes / iOS music app won't play ALAC above 24bit / 48khz (I used to think it was 16bit / 48khz but have recently read enough articles saying it will do 24/48). So people who have lots of 24/96 or 24/192 files would need to downsample if they want to convert to ALAC and play through the native music app.

For me personally, my iPhone 6 is my main DAP, and I prefer playing through the native music app (through my Centrance HiFi-M8, and not needing a CCK), so any 24/96+ files, I've downsampled (via Foobar2000/SoX Resampler) to ALAC to put on my iphone. When i'm listening on my computer, I play the original high res FLAC via foobar2000.

Everyone has different preferences!

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Hi - very interesting discussion! I'm currently using the Skyn primarily with Spotify (320 [COLOR=222222]kbps[/COLOR]).

I had Tidal previously, but found it quite difficult to differentiate between the 2 (Tidal vs. Spotify) cause of my hearing I suppose :bigsmile_face:

So I'm just using Spotify now. I haven't tried FLAC using Skyn, but had using the Hi-Fi M8. I personally, wasn't able to differentiate and hence reverted back to Spotify due to the ease of use.

Question - is there any difference between ALAC and FLAC? Since iOS doesn't place FLAC, shouldn't ALAC be sufficient instead of downloading and managing a new FLAC player?

I couldn't tell the difference between Spotify and Tidal either, but that was straight out of my iPhone. Now that I'm using a Mojo with my iPhone, I do perceive a difference, so it might depend on the quality of the dac/amp. I'll be curious to see if someone who owns the Skyn notices a difference.

Regarding ALAC vs. FLAC, they will provide the same in sound quality as both are lossless. No need to download another player.

 

[walbum4262]

I couldn't tell the difference between Spotify and Tidal either, but that was straight out of my iPhone. Now that I'm using a Mojo with my iPhone, I do perceive a difference, so it might depend on the quality of the dac/amp. I'll be curious to see if someone who owns the Skyn notices a difference.

Regarding ALAC vs. FLAC, they will provide the same in sound quality as both are lossless. No need to download another player.

When I first tried tidal I was going back and forth between tidal and Spotify and I was not able to hear a difference, then a friend told me to listen exclusively to tidal for a month before i made any judgement between the two.
The first time I put on a number on Spotify I was stunned to hear the huge difference I was hearing tidal is way better sounding. This is not to say that if you played an unknown number for be in a A/B test I would be able to nail it heck even with a number I know to the bone.
I'm just saying there is a difference but you won't notice it going back and forth between the two you need to let is sink into you head before you know what is missing when you go to a lower quality

 

[coastal1]

Tidal sounds better than Spotify to me on some comparisons I've done. It's never sounded worse, sometimes I can't tell a difference. Tidal vs Spotify is also a little bit of a 'shoot for the moon land on a star' thing for me. Even if most people can't tell the difference between FLAC and 320k MP3, it's well documented that a large portion of Spotifys Premium catalog is much lower quality than 320k MP3, and Spotify won't disclose exactly what and how much of the Premium Catalog is low quality MP3. I wouldn't be shocked if Tidals catalog isn't 100% lossless, but it seems that at worst you're more likely to land on a higher quality lossy file using Tidal.

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Tidal sounds better than Spotify to me on some comparisons I've done. It's never sounded worse, sometimes I can't tell a difference. Tidal vs Spotify is also a little bit of a 'shoot for the moon land on a star' thing for me. Even if most people can't tell the difference between FLAC and 320k MP3, it's well documented that a large portion of Spotifys Premium catalog is much lower quality than 320k MP3, and Spotify won't disclose exactly what and how much of the Premium Catalog is low quality MP3. I wouldn't be shocked if Tidals catalog isn't 100% lossless, but it seems that at worst you're more likely to land on a higher quality lossy file using Tidal.

Interesting, didn't know that about Spotify. Anyhow, yeah, I would be interested in hearing from more people who have the Skyn whether they hear a difference between Spotify Premium and lossless.

 

[coastal1]

Interesting, didn't know that about Spotify. Anyhow, yeah, I would be interested in hearing from more people who have the Skyn whether they hear a difference between Spotify Premium and lossless.

Definitely what you and others hear is most important, and either the music you like or your gear or your ears may pair great with Spotify. I still have a Spotify premium account myself, though should pick one at some point. Here's an old article about some Spotify 'tests.' http://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-high-quality-streaming-2011-7

Supposedly the percentage of Spotifys catalog has greatly improved since then, but here's a more recent test: http://www.marcurselli.com/2014/03/03/the-truth-about-music-streaming-services-and-the-ultimate-audio-quality-shootout-test-beats-vs-mog-vs-play-music-by-google-vs-rdio-vs-spotify/

I take these 'tests' with several grains of salt, but on the other hand I haven't seen anything from Spotify verifying how much of its catalog is 320k

 

[crazydeep]

When I first tried tidal I was going back and forth between tidal and Spotify and I was not able to hear a difference, then a friend told me to listen exclusively to tidal for a month before i made any judgement between the two.
The first time I put on a number on Spotify I was stunned to hear the huge difference I was hearing tidal is way better sounding. This is not to say that if you played an unknown number for be in a A/B test I would be able to nail it heck even with a number I know to the bone.
I'm just saying there is a difference but you won't notice it going back and forth between the two you need to let is sink into you head before you know what is missing when you go to a lower quality

 
That is a really great observation / suggestion. That makes sense - maybe it's not about a blind A/B test, but more about listening fatigue which was mentioned by Tyler from Inner Fidelity.
 
I'm going to re-subscribe to Tidal and listen to it for a month ... using the Skyn of course!! ... and will report back in a month

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Its my daily commute rig, usually with DITA-The Truth or Echobox X1 in ears.

In case you missed my earlier link....my Hifi-Skyn review here: http://headpie.blogspot.jp/2016/01/centrance-hifi-skyn-review-expatinjapan.html

 

[Audiowood]

Hey folks, I guess I am late to the game. 
 
I haven't read through the thread and I know I should have but if someone can answer some of my dump questions;
 
1) Can I still get the $199 deal on crowd funding
2) I see there is classic and super amp and super amp is suppose to have the amp of M8. Is this a standard now
3) How much for classic and super amp?
 
I really like this idea of a skin on my iphone. 

 

[walbum4262]

Hey folks, I guess I am late to the game. 

I haven't read through the thread and I know I should have but if someone can answer some of my dump questions;

1) Can I still get the $199 deal on crowd funding
2) I see there is classic and super amp and super amp is suppose to have the amp of M8. Is this a standard now
3) How much for classic and super amp?

I really like this idea of a skin on my iphone. 

Hey audiowood and welcome to the party, unfortunately your late
The campaign is over now so it's full price from CEntrance homepage from now on.
All skyn's will come with the amp extreme that's a better upgrade compared to the super amp there is no longer an option to choose amp.

 

[Audiowood]

Hey audiowood and welcome to the party, unfortunately your late

The campaign is over now so it's full price from CEntrance homepage from now on.
All skyn's will come with the amp extreme that's a better upgrade compared to the super amp there is no longer an option to choose amp.

 
Arhhhh!! I am late this time. 
 
Anyway thanks for quick info... very good info. I appreciate it.

 

[jeliotb]

Hey folks, I guess I am late to the game. 

I haven't read through the thread and I know I should have but if someone can answer some of my dump questions;

1) Can I still get the $199 deal on crowd funding
2) I see there is classic and super amp and super amp is suppose to have the amp of M8. Is this a standard now
3) How much for classic and super amp?

I really like this idea of a skin on my iphone. 

Taking these in order:

1) No. That ended a long time ago. The price now is $399, ordered directly from CEntrance. Only models for iPod Touch and iPhone 6+/6S+ have been approved by Apple. If you have an iPhone 5 or 6 (or their S updates), an order placed today still has to wait for approval.
2) There have actually been 3 amp designs; the two you mentioned and a later "Amp Extreme". While there has been a great deal of controversy over which amps were actually planned for production, the end result is that the highest-spec Amp Extreme is the only one available. It is what you will get for your $399.
3) This question has been rendered moot by later developments. No Skyn will ever ship with the Classic or Super amps.

Because the price is so much higher now than the $199 you were expecting, you should be aware that there is now a viable alternative for £120/$180, the Arcam MusicBOOST. While the specs are somewhat less impressive, it is also less than half the cost. It is already available in Europe, but does not appear to be sold in the US yet.

 

[Audiowood]

Taking these in order:

1) No. That ended a long time ago. The price now is $399, ordered directly from CEntrance. Only models for iPod Touch and iPhone 6+/6S+ have been approved by Apple. If you have an iPhone 5 or 6 (or their S updates), an order placed today still has to wait for approval.
2) There have actually been 3 amp designs; the two you mentioned and a later "Amp Extreme". While there has been a great deal of controversy over which amps were actually planned for production, the end result is that the highest-spec Amp Extreme is the only one available. It is what you will get for your $399.
3) This question has been rendered moot by later developments. No Skyn will ever ship with the Classic or Super amps.

Because the price is so much higher now than the $199 you were expecting, you should be aware that there is now a viable alternative for £120/$180, the Arcam MusicBOOST. While the specs are somewhat less impressive, it is also less than half the cost. It is already available in Europe, but does not appear to be sold in the US yet.

 
Oh wow, the arcam boost looks cool. I wonder how it sound compared to the skyn. Thanks for the info anyway buddy.