[xeizo]

Quote:

ok . . after more comparison between MOG and spotify premium, I think on a track by track basis , sometimes Spotify seem to sound better and sometimes its MOG.

 
It points to it not being the program itself but rather the source material, or the "master", being used for the actual album.
 
There are big differences between different masters, if you haven't heard about "loudness wars" you should Google it up but generally so does CD:s from the 80:s sound much better than todays "remastered" or new CD:s if you're considering HiFi-qualities. The vinyl-versions, masters, are often better as well.
 
So, what is wrong with todays masters of albums? They are compressed, normalized and brickwalled to 0dB! Why, because it's sounds louder on transistor radios, car stereos or Ipods. So what is bad with that? Well, it creates distorsions and removes dynamic information from the record which is essential information for creating a natural sound.
 
Also, these programs you're comparing, I assume you have unchecked the volume levelling in both programs? If you haven't, one of them will sound considerably louder than the other, which by inexperienced listeners is perceived as "better" sound. Hence the "loudness wars" mentioned above.

 

[CybDev]

ok . . after more comparison between MOG and spotify premium, I think on a track by track basis , sometimes Spotify seem to sound better and sometimes its MOG.

Yeah well, to re-iterate: Spotify "extreme" quality will give you decent quality only if they have a decent quality source.
It will still play any track, just fall back to lower quality without any notification to the user.

I find a substantial amount of tracks that sound worse on Spotify, probably due to bad source and/or watermarking, compared to what I have in FLAC/CD format in my personal collection.

(and I don't have particularly good hearing, no golden ears, I fail every blind test out there on anything 192kbps average mp3 and better...)

 

[xeizo]

Yes, that is the most irritating aspect of the currently available streaming services: the lack of quality source material. We've been moving backwards quality-wise, as any normal CD is still better than anything streaming. That's because noone streams ie FLAC as of yet. Not speaking of the lack of HD-material as DSD or 24/96 to 24/192 PCM!
 
HD-material can be downloaded from a few sites though, which is a small step in the right direction, but no subscription based streaming.
 
The most interesting service right now should be the Norwegian Spotify-clone "WIMP", they're experimenting with FLAC-streaming in a few countries but only on the mobile client.
 
But, regardless of format, if the master is fubar no high-definition format can save it ....

 

[CybDev]

Yes, that is the most irritating aspect of the currently available streaming services: the lack of quality source material. We've been moving backwards quality-wise, as any normal CD is still better than anything streaming. That's because noone streams ie FLAC as of yet. Not speaking of the lack of HD-material as DSD or 24/96 to 24/192 PCM!

HD-material can be downloaded from a few sites though, which is a small step in the right direction, but no subscription based streaming.

The most interesting service right now should be the Norwegian Spotify-clone "WIMP", they're experimenting with FLAC-streaming in a few countries but only on the mobile client.

 
But, regardless of format, if the master is fubar no high-definition format can save it ....

You should check out Qobuz, they do flac 16/44.1 streaming...

 

[hchanrn]

Used MOG before and loved the slightly higher quality.  I switched to  spotify because of the availability of a linux interface.  The web based MOG was frustrating because of the random hicups during play back.  Was a real turn off...  I rather go with slightly lower quality that dropping out.  The problem with MOG was apparently with the Flash interface.  Streaming from my ipod touch docked into my hifi setup works out nicely.  Another plus for both services is the extensive chinese pop music available.

 

[xeizo]

Quote:

You should check out Qobuz, they do flac 16/44.1 streaming...

Thanks! I will do that 

 

[Leslie Dorner]

The Ubuntu Linux cllient for Spotify is very stable and mature. I am using it right now with Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit Raring Ringtail GNU/Linux. Naturally, I have high quality streaming checked on. I find that Spotify sounds excellent on my high end audio system and my large private MP3 library sounds slightly less inferior to Vorbis 320 Kbps bit rate. I chose Spotify because they at least have a Linux desktop client available in beta preview whereas others do not. Music is very important to me as it is for most of us in this community and I was getting tired of my large 20,000+ MP3 library. I wanted new music recommendations from friends that I follow and who follow me back and I also wanted a streaming radio service built-in without paying a separate subscription monthly fee for the privilege. Spotify continues to impress me with their large and deep and expansive music catalog. Everything that I want to listen to is available from Spotify.
 
The classical and opera selection is particularly good among the other music streaming services that I've tried in the past including Sirius XM Satellite Radio and Pandora and Slacker Radio. I have a Hewlett Packard EliteBook 8770w series with Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64 bit for my job at work. I've been playing around with Rdio and Vdio along with Netflix and Hulu Plus and other music and video streaming services and I settled upon Spotify for music streaming and Netflix and Hulu Plus for tv shows and movies. Spotify is a clear leader in the industry with a much larger music catalog which makes it feel more complete. It also permits friends to follow one another and share or recommend songs with one another which is a bonus. The streaming radio feature is not quite up to par with Pandora, but it's sufficient for background music when working on a PC for a couple of hours.
 
To my ears, I find Spotify to be the highest fidelity but not necessarily full spectrum fidelity. It's the least worst sounding music streaming service. The others sound noticeably more compressed or the continuousness of the music stream is intermittent. Spotify with Vorbis 320 Kbps sounds closest to the original loss less music format to my ears. I use the Etymotic ER-4PT/S combination so I know I'm getting dead neutral accurate sound. I also have the Meridian 800v5 and HeadRoom Desktop Ultra with DPS and Monster AV UPS power station.
 
I find that purchasing and downloading music to be passe just like buying music CDs at the record store. Streaming music and video content over the Internet is the way to go. It costs much less money over the long run compared to building up a private media library and the content is always refreshed every day or week with new content. I find myself less inclined to keep purchasing music and tv shows and movies or e-books a la carte which can be quite expensive.
 
Spotify is the way to go. I shared my Spotify Premium account with my father and my best friend and we can listen to Spotify and receive personalized music recommendations while logged in simultaneously on our desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phones across Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh OS X, Google Android, iOS, and GNU/Linux. This has been a real savings in terms of cost as I pay a flat $9.99 bucks monthly and I get to share Spotify Premium with family and friends.
 

 

[CybDev]

... I shared my Spotify Premium account with my father and my best friend and we can listen to Spotify and receive personalized music recommendations while logged in simultaneously on our desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phones across Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh OS X, Google Android, iOS, and GNU/Linux. ...

Nice to know, but perhaps that only works in certain regions; when I play music on one location the others will stop with an error that "Spotify is in use in another location".

Nice review tho! And even if we are not in the audio industry I think our marketing people could learn something here...

Edit: Clarification

 

[kenyirsh]

I used Spotify years for i can find some awesome music from it. Usually i listen to Spotify at night before sleep. But there is a not-good place that i cannot download it if i met some wonderful music. So i find out a way to download music form Spotify with some apps helping me.

 

[Jet Black]

Until now 2021 spotify is still the best

 

[JES]

Until now 2021 spotify is still the best

For catalog size, recommendations, and app interface, I agree. But for sound quality, not so much. I have a Spotify Duo sub because if I got rid of it, I'd lose my SO (lol). But my main listening is via Qobuz.

 

[jamess71]

For catalog size, recommendations, and app interface, I agree. But for sound quality, not so much. I have a Spotify Duo sub because if I got rid of it, I'd lose my SO (lol). But my main listening is via Qobuz.

So is it a noticeable difference in audio quality with Qobuz? how about their selection of music? thanks

 

[JES]

So is it a noticeable difference in audio quality with Qobuz? how about their selection of music? thanks

Yes, noticeable. Even with my Earfun Free Pro TWS earbuds when working out. Definitely through my Jotunheim 2/LCD-2 Classics. Everything on Qobuz is lossless at a minimum (aka CD-quality) compared to Spotify's lossy compression. The higher-resolution files are better yet.

Selection? Out of about 280 favorite songs I wanted from Spotify, I found all except four Bob Seger, one Sonic Youth track, and one Weezer track. So it was six tracks. Since I still have Spotify I can listen to those if I want.

I strongly suggest trying the free trial and judge sound quality, song selection, and app interface for yourself. I tried Amazon HD and found their catalog to be great. But their app on the phone was literally unusable and per their terms, they reserve the right to throttle down your streaming when they want for their own reasons. It happened in every session. I didn't try Tidal, as I found I liked Qobuz.

 

[iamoneagain]

So is it a noticeable difference in audio quality with Qobuz? how about their selection of music? thanks

Well at some point this year there will be Spotify hifi with lossless audio. I’ve found too many holes in Qobuz library, so switched back to Tidal while I wait for Spotify hifi to come out.

The difference between hires and lossless is very small on most recording. Qobuz has no personalized playlists or recommendations but you can combine with roon for that. But Spotify is still better. It’s just sound quality doesn’t compare at the moment.

 

[JES]

Well at some point this year there will be Spotify hifi with lossless audio...

I'll switch back if/when they do ... I miss their interface and recommendations. And I hate paying for two music streaming services at once.