[Slackaveli]

I used my dev account to file a ticket regarding this issue last year. I expect a fix by 2029.

They must not have found a good way to monetize it...

 

[jonathan c]

You should see George Washington’s bar tab just before the Constitution was signed.

“According to the bill, the soon-to-be first president and 54 other guests did indeed order 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 8 bottles of cider, 12 bottles of beer and seven “large bowls” of punch.”

No wonder it was tea that was thrown into
Boston Harbour!

 

[sixergixer]

Yep. As somebody who's tried spotify, tidal, and amazon, qobuz has been a revelation. 1st streaming service I really clicked with. Their algorithm seems much better than Tidal's.

And, RE: Airplay, I hadn't realized until recently that the newer version (version 2?) of Airplay tends to be lossy, while the older version was lossless cd quality. Apparently there are ways to get around this with Airplay 2, and, truth be told, it was a bit of a toss up for me when a/b'ing version 1 and version 2 in shairport-sync on my raspberry pi, fed by Qobuz.

AirPlay is perplexing. It feels like Apple was so busy standing around in a special kind of circle congratulating themselves on their cool wireless protocol that the rest of the industry caught up and then left them behind. And then they continue to make it worse by insisting on a proprietary closed environment.

 

[adias]

 

[Slackaveli]

No wonder it was tea that was thrown into
Boston Harbour!

aint nobody throwin Madeira overboard!

 

[jonathan c]

Hey, you are burning the posting charts in Slackavellian fashion: Busting your rear for Supremus designation?

 

[sixergixer]

The Qobuz and Tidal apps on MacOS auto-switch the bitrates fine. The problem is in the Apple Music app, not MacOS.


I have some interest but I'm not willing to subscribe until they offer Apple Classical on Mac or web. It's ridiculous that it's only available on mobile devices. In trying out Apple Classical, overall I'm disappointed. For classical listeners, the user experience is certainly an improvement over generic streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc. However, both Roon and Qobuz have a better user interface for classical. With Apple's resources I was expecting something better.

My understanding is that most of the actual product that is offered was already developed as a mobile app by another company that Apple bought. That is probably how they can offer it for free. Because it's free, I'm sure that does not necessarily encourage them to put more development time into it. But my experience with it so far has been pretty positive. I like that I can search a particular work and get search results of many albums that contain that work, and I can click on each of those results and it populates just that work instead of the entire album. Handy for if I just want to listen to the entirety of a work I might have just heard a ten minute snippet of on the radio in my car. And then I can expand to the whole album if I'm really liking the performance and want to hear more from those performers.

There are other reasons I love it, too, but this is good enough for now.

Oh, and good to know about Qobuz and Tidal on MacOS. Thanks.

 

[Slackaveli]

Hey, you are burning the posting charts in Slackavellian fashion: Busting your rear for Supremus designation?

It is a fait accompli

i can only aspire for 50k likes like you though, big fella

 

[Balthazar B]

Thanks! Your comments are exactly the kind of data I’m looking for. And from people whose opinions I trust.

Best of all, you can get free 1-3 month trials of Apple Music, Qobuz, and Tidal. In fact, I'm comparing the current incarnations of all three right now. And if you use a service like Soundiiz for constructing and synching playlists, album collections, etc., you can figure out which service has the best library for you. Hint: they all have gaps, and since the music licensing business is maddening, you can be assured that you can't take anything for granted.

FWIW, all my opinion of course:

• I think Apple might have the largest library, particularly taking into account their Classical service, but as others have noted, they're the most annoying in terms of getting bit-perfect recordings to your speakers without compromises along the way. Even if you're a blue dog Appleholic.
• On my equipment and to my ears, Qobuz has -- marginally -- the best sounding streaming service. My suspicion is that they don't monkey with their content with weird equalization as I think other services might be doing. Their editorial content/approach sets them apart. On the other hand, they're playing catch-up with their competition in some key areas (Connect, radio/discovery functionality, speed of execution), which may be important to you or not.
• Tidal, which I haven't used for quite some time, I'm finding surprisingly good. Their content sounds just slightly less unenhanced than Qobuz's, and thankfully they've toned down the effects of their hip-hop roots to be more appealing to a wider audience. They're actively developing their apps and services, and they just made their service more rational by beginning to deprecate MQA, simplifying their service offerings, and lowering their subscription pricing for most customers.

Bottom line: while none of them are perfect, any of them would be a good choice. But definitely kick the tires on all of them before making a decision. Which you can always change later, especially if you use Soundiiz to help move your collections between services.

Hope this helps!

 

[EricDH]

This will do the job for you. Price shown is in Canadian, so should be ~$15 USD. I have one and it works fine.

Thanks!

 

[EricDH]

And then there's that whole age verification cluster-fork that has certain adult entertainment websites discontinue their offerings in the great state of Texas. Should have invested in VPN stock when I had the chance, they're having a field day right now.

Ironically, and on multiple occasions, I have mail-ordered liquor in this-here mother of all nanny states without even the most basic of age verifications. Not at the time of order, nor at delivery. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. A toddler with access to a credit card could have done it.

Even here in the United Arab Emirates mail ordering liquor is now possible. They have age verification through you ID card at delivery. But when they had to wait too long at my door for me to return home from work, they just left it there and went home.

 

[Slackaveli]

Even here in the United Arab Emirates mail ordering liquor is now possible. They have age verification through you ID card at delivery. But when they had to wait too long at my door for me to return home from work, they just left it there and went home.

Damn. Fine in UAE but not Maryland or Texas.
Oof.

 

[EricDH]

Damn. Fine in UAE but not Maryland or Texas.
Oof.

Since a few months we even have the first beer brewery of the UAE right here in Abu Dhabi. They have a bar/restaurant at the same place. Quite cool to see the stainless steel vessels from where you are eating/drinking (certainly when you realize that you are actually in the UAE). 13 different beers from tap, with new types added regularly.

Craft by Side Hustle

 

[tincanear]

Seriously. I mean how hard is it to find "Yellow Pacer, Target parking lot"? Seems like even UPS could deliver correctly.

 

[Rensek]

Has anyone here used a Gumby, Bifrost, or Yggy as a TV DAC via Optical?

I want to upgrade from the built in Sabre DAC in my Arcam integrated amp. It'll be fed the TV via Optical, Blu-Ray player via Coax, and probably my music server via USB to a 2 channel setup. I thought I had read (on various forums) that some Gumby owners had minor issues on occasion while using it connected to a TV. Just thought I'd ask this group...

Late to the party here, but yeah, I have used all 6 of my schiit dacs that way.

It works great. I am especially loving Taylor Swifts concert via Disney and Helldivers 2 fed through Yggy, Rag 2, Zu speakers, and my ZMFs...

Works great. It really makes for a nice audio visual experience.

Music videos or live concert recordings through youtube are great via Schiit as well.