[Mike-WI]

You folks have got me interested in streaming to find new music now!!! Which is the best service? Cheapest? Free-est? I see some opinions above; would like more.

edit: Signed up for Qobuz. Little disappointed in that the free trial consists of 30 second snapshots of each song.....

Spotify Family for ease of use and family plan
Qobuz Sublime - somewhat tweaky, and my checkout cart for purchases hasn't worked in months
Roon

 

[jkpenrose]

If you're willing to spring for Roon, there's a way to cobble together a discovery solution with high-def music services.

Otherwise, then good discovery and high-def listening processes will be different for the time being. If you're into YouTube content and subscribe, it looks like YTM will replicate the discovery mechanism that Google built into its Play Music service way back when. IMHO, it does discovery better than Spotify -- the latter has a tendency to load up its song/artist/genre radio playlists with way too much stuff I've already Liked, which defeats the purpose (unless I unlike a whole bunch of tracks, which defeats a different purpose).

Yeah... I didn't think I would particularly like the 'pick my music for me' process, but turns out to be one of my favorite parts of streaming and I've discovered several new artists I was unfamiliar with.

I believe qobuz can import play lists, but I haven't checked that out enough to see if it is possible with YouTube music or if there is a way to automate it with something like zapier or a custom script...

 

[barondla]

Don 't forget to check out Bandcamp. They only have select artists but some are very obscure. They offer flac in cd quality and some hi res ( depends upon what the band provides). They also sell vinyl, cassettes and downloads. I've downloaded Garcia Peoples, Morcheeba, Mabel Greer's Toy Shop (pre YES) and Case -Lang- Veirs. Certain Fridays they donate the money to struggling artists.

 

[Ableza]

If you like jazz check out Moon June records on Bandcamp. Some very interesting stuff. For alternative rock, Merge Records and Alternative Tentacles are both on Bandcamp. All at reasonable download prices.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

New Stereophile came today. Here's a list of their Class "A" rated solid state amps. Price leader two years running goes to Schiit, surprising nobody.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Average cost is $35,898. Could buy a lot of Schiit for that...

 

[CarlosAudio51]

Average cost is $35,898. Could buy a lot of Schiit for that...

You could buy ALL the Schiit for that money with plenty leftover.

 

[bcowen]

I have no plans on leaving anytime soon.

Good. We like you being here.

 

[Derrick Swart]

New Stereophile came today. Here's a list of their Class "A" rated solid state amps. Price leader two years running goes to Schiit, surprising nobody.

i never understood the sorting of their list

 

[Roy G. Biv]

i never understood the sorting of their list

In the magazine they do it alphabetically. I sorted by price.

 

[bcowen]

Me too. Unfortunately, Qobuz has THE worst purchase interface I've come across. I naively thought that it would tell me what I've liked, added to my Roon library and what I'd favorited and let me buy any of those.
I like the quality of the music, but the rest of the experience is sub-par. And they keep offering upgrades - like the family pack - but not to the sublime tier. All these are really good ways to teach your highest level subscribers to downgrade......

Their user interface is also terrible (IMO), especially after getting used to Tidal. I gave Qobuz a try, and honestly thought the sound quality was better than Tidal. But not substantial enough to overcome the lameness of the interface.

I ignored streaming for a long time, concluding on my own (with no experience) that it would blow chunks sonically compared to a nicely recorded LP on a carefully set up analog rig. I wasn't totally wrong -- just wrong about it blowing chunks. It's not as good ultimately, but it's good enough...and good enough that I don't feel it to be a big step down. Add the enjoyment I've experienced from listening to a ton of things I'd never have heard (or purchased), and then add the non-PITA factor of clicking a mouse versus the ritual of playing even one song on an LP. I'll never get rid of my record collection as it still brings me a lot of enjoyment, but it gets a lot less play now than before.

 

[Derrick Swart]

In the magazine they do it alphabetically. I sorted by price.

i didn’t understand your sorting

 

[bcowen]

i didn’t understand your sorting

It starts with insanity at the top and finally reaches sanity at the very bottom.

 

[yonson]

New Stereophile came today. Here's a list of their Class "A" rated solid state amps. Price leader two years running goes to Schiit, surprising nobody.

Schiit did quite well...
Mani made the C phono pre-amp list
Yggdrasil made the A Digital Processors list
Ragnarok 2 made the B Integrated list
Jotunheim and Jotunheim R made the A Headphone Amp list

The Ape Schiit ad is a few pages later too

 

[AudioGal]

Ah, streaming! Great when you have Internet access. In my rural part of the USA, cell service of any kind, let alone data, is an iffy proposition. And large parts of the state don't have any high speed access options at all! I've only got one option - telco - no cable services within miles of my location. Fortunately at work we have great Internet connectivity. Last time I asked the head IT dude, we were up to twin 500mbps fiber circuits and he was working on gigabit connectivity. Given how much of our staff are now working from home I suspect he got the upgrades. The buildings are blanketed with multiple WiFi networks - thankfully RF isn't opaque. Oh, to have 1/10th that at home!

So most of my streaming is done at work. LG V30 (with a real headphone jack!) into Etymotics ER4XR make the day go a little easier. I have a full Pandora subscription, Spotify family plan (I have kids, so...) and a Qobuz subscription (44/16 Redbook). I had a Tidal 'script for a while, switched to Qobuz when it was available here. For my tastes, Qobuz sounded much better than Tidal. At home, it's CDs - either the actual silver disk or WAV files from the LMS server. Every once in a while streaming from home works without pauses for buffering. I'm surprised how good Pandora sounds (I have whatever their highest bit rate is - it's compressed) with a Modi Multibit DAC.

Almost forgot about the Sirius channels on our Dish satellite TV service! Something like 90 channels of music genres to choose from. We use it for background music around the house and outside (speakers on the deck).