Still evaluating the different streaming possibilities to use on my SP1000 and to integrate in my home setup with the littlest hassle. Every service seems to have pros and cons.
I'm pretty much a 100% classical music listener, thus it looks like there would be 2 obvious possibilities, however:
- IDAGIO is quite good, I could maybe stand its lack of high res content, but the lack of gapless support is totally unacceptable. How can a classical-only streaming service lack such a basic feature? You can't just listen to operas with this thing. No DLNA support, means having to deal with optical/USB cables to send stuff to my home DAC.
- Primephonic is apparently better: perhaps not as much content, but gapless does work, and it offers high res content, although the app doesn't give you an hint about what kind of content you're streaming. No DLNA. Priced quite a bit lower than Tidal or Qobuz. But well, it doesn't work on the SP1000, even after tricking to get it installed. I might consider it in the future should it ever come.
Then the choice has to go elsewhere...
- Spotify, Google, Amazon, ...: not even CD quality, noo way. The lossy nature of 320kbps content is VERY apparent on the SP1000-LCDi4 combo, it can only get worse at home with an SR009.
- Tidal: it's quite good, but can't really stand that MQA thing, it makes everything so complicated. Yeah, no problems in the SP1000 itself, and I could use the very same player to send out digital signals to my home setup, but I'd prefer some simpler way. BubbleUPNP does support Tidal, but correct me if I'm wrong: it doesn't allow the full MQA quality when used to send stuff to a DLNA renderer. Price is outrageously high in Switzerland compared to other countries, just about 9% short of a Qobuz Sublime+ subscription. That brings me to the last candidate...
- Qobuz. Seems to be the best and the easiest to integrate in my home setup. No special formats, just plain FLACs, means I can stream with no problems to my home system without having to think about first or second unfolds and such. Costs quite a lot in its Sublime+ incarnation, but at the end not that much more than Tidal's highest offering here in Switzerland. Discounts on high res downloads are nice, while it's true that the starting prices are higher than some others, discounted prices are lower, often to a certain extend. Search capabilities aren't really much suited for the classical genre, but apart from IDAGIO and Primephonic, which ones are? They seem to be a bit better than Tidal's.
If only they could release a decent Windows app: the current one is a disaster.
Haven't tried Deezer. Doesn't go past CD quality, can't see any mentions of DLNA support, being it built-in or with some third party app, and posts around seem to point at no gapless, which again would mean noo way.
Think I'll go the Qobuz way once I finish my trial period. It's the most expensive of the bunch but seems to be the one which best suits me. Anyone using something else?