sjay Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 (edited) Looks like we might have some more competition in the lossless streaming market by the looks of this article, good news for all the computer audio lovers http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/spotify-adding-hi-fi-lossless-audio-leaked-premium-streaming-tier-could-challenge-tidal-1609451 I do like their play lists better than Tidal, for me over NBN COAX , drops out with Spotify are FAR FAR less than Tidal. Figured you guys might like to know Edited March 4, 2017 by sjay derped original post 2
powerav Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 Yes big game changer this one, pricing will be interesting. With most mainstream components now with spotify connect you wont need a separate streamer for lossless. 1
sjay Posted March 4, 2017 Author Posted March 4, 2017 (edited) I hope Spotify gets off their high horse and allows roon integration as well, now that would be awesome, lossless plus roon integration. source: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/spotify-or-spotify-hifi-in-roon-spotify-will-not-allow-this/10562/7 Roon is the only streaming app i have found that I can run on wintel, droid, osx and ios :\ Edited March 4, 2017 by sjay
davewantsmoore Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 3 hours ago, proftournesol said: Presumably then Apple Music will follow I'd be very surprised 1
proftournesol Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 2 hours ago, davewantsmoore said: I'd be very surprised They won't want to lose market share
davewantsmoore Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 24 minutes ago, proftournesol said: They won't want to lose market share Perhaps. One big issue is that transmitting ~ 6x more data to customers costs a lot of money .... and one might also generalise that the type of person who is interested in lossless, is also a high volume user (so, one who could be drastically less profitable on lossless). I don't think the apple target market are the market for this. Apple don't even sell lossless audio in their store. 1
Kaynin Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 8 hours ago, sjay said: I do like their play lists better than Tidal, for me over NBN COAX , drops out with Spotify are FAR FAR less than Tidal. Yep, I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it arrives here. The price point will be the kicker for me, but I get much better connectivity with Spotify than Tidal (and I have excellent internet) and I like their user interface. 1
Guest Sime Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 @davewantsmoore agreed, and they don't need to because their consumers do not care.
o2so Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 Do you guys REALLY hear the difference between 320 kbps and lossless? I simply can't. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk 1
proftournesol Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 12 hours ago, davewantsmoore said: Perhaps. One big issue is that transmitting ~ 6x more data to customers costs a lot of money .... and one might also generalise that the type of person who is interested in lossless, is also a high volume user (so, one who could be drastically less profitable on lossless). I don't think the apple target market are the market for this. Apple don't even sell lossless audio in their store. Agree to a point but it's important to keep users in the Apple ecosystem, irrespective of how many people would use it, it makes a case to stop users leaving the Apple ecosystem for Spotify or Tidal. Apple Music was a response to Spotify, I doubt that they'd ignore a lossless option from Spotify, especially as they've flirted with the idea of ALAC sales and streaming in the past.
powerav Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 10 hours ago, o2so said: Do you guys REALLY hear the difference between 320 kbps and lossless? I simply can't. It's very subtle but yes. The way for me to hear the difference is I have been listening to Mp3 320 in my car for years now so you get used to it, just the other day just for fun I put a CD in and thought to myself, that's better.
o2so Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 It's very subtle but yes. The way for me to hear the difference is I have been listening to Mp3 320 in my car for years now so you get used to it, just the other day just for fun I put a CD in and thought to myself, that's better. Hm. What about confirmation bias? ;-)Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
powerav Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 Just now, o2so said: What about confirmation bias Please explain.
davewantsmoore Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 15 minutes ago, proftournesol said: Apple Music was a response to Spotify That's not how I understand the history. (Apple were pushing for it for years and years earlier) 16 minutes ago, proftournesol said: especially as they've flirted with the idea of ALAC sales and streaming in the past. Hmm... I wasn't aware of this.
davewantsmoore Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 7 minutes ago, powerav said: Please explain. You expected the CD would sound better, and so it did. In general, it is quite difficult to tell (well encoded) lossy audio from the original.
powerav Posted March 4, 2017 Posted March 4, 2017 3 minutes ago, davewantsmoore said: You expected the CD would sound better, and so it did. Ok, and yes it did. I don't have anything against MP3 and it has a place, I use it in car, multi room audio and sometimes on phone with Spoitify. Even use it on main system with Spotify when searching for new artist or stuff I don't want to get full album but just one song and it sounds excellent but lossless is always the next level.
o2so Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 Ok, and yes it did. I don't have anything against MP3 and it has a place, I use it in car, multi room audio and sometimes on phone with Spoitify. Even use it on main system with Spotify when searching for new artist or stuff I don't want to get full album but just one song and it sounds excellent but lossless is always the next level. There is a test somewhere in the web which uses the same songs encoded at 128, 320 and lossless and you have to guess which one in what. There was a thread on SNA about this test some time ago. Try that, if you can find it. It's kind of fun. If you can still tell the difference, then you are sure it's not confirmation bias. Some people can, but according to the test results on hundreds of audiophiles, only a bunch could tell the difference, while most people had a 50/50 respons rate. I was one of the 50/50 ones. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
o2so Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 Ok just get your wife or a friend to play the same song on Spotify premium (this is 320 kbps) and on cd without telling you which one is what. Make sure you listen at the same volume. You'd be surprised I think. I was! Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
powerav Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 I fully agree that yes it is hard to tell the difference but if I have the choice when sitting down to listen to an album I will pick lossless every time as I know it hasn't been butchered in any way. This is why MP3 320 Kbps is referred to as "near" cd quality. Nearly but not quite.
Qwertyqaz Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 There is no point arguing, storage is cheap and so is nbn. Just get the best, I usually download just dsd preferably 256 bit.
davewantsmoore Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 16 hours ago, o2so said: Do you guys REALLY hear the difference between 320 kbps and lossless? For the most part no. Poorly encoded lossy material has quite a few "tells" which make it easy to pick vs. lossless. 53 minutes ago, Qwertyqaz said: There is no point arguing, storage is cheap and so is nbn It costs a substantial amount of money to send data to someone over the internet. Everytime you watch a video, look at a web page, or stream a song, the source of this data has to pay your ISP (and potentially multiple ISPs) for them to send the data to you.
SAVI Systems Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 Looks like we might have some more competition in the lossless streaming market by the looks of this article, good news for all the computer audio lovers http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/spotify-adding-hi-fi-lossless-audio-leaked-premium-streaming-tier-could-challenge-tidal-1609451 I do like their play lists better than Tidal, for me over NBN COAX , drops out with Spotify are FAR FAR less than Tidal. Figured you guys might like to know [emoji4] Yes, I have found that Tidal often freezes or skips tracks, that the suggested playlists aren't in the same league and variety that Spotify's are BUT Tidal sounds better.....So yes, this could be interesting.
SAVI Systems Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 Presumably then Apple Music will follow Why would you presume that?iTunes still only sell 256k aac
o2so Posted March 5, 2017 Posted March 5, 2017 I fully agree that yes it is hard to tell the difference but if I have the choice when sitting down to listen to an album I will pick lossless every time as I know it hasn't been butchered in any way. This is why MP3 320 Kbps is referred to as "near" cd quality. Nearly but not quite. I totally see where you are coming from and respect your point of view. There are some very interesting articles online about the reasons why that particular sampling rate (which werefer to as lossless, but it is sampling process and asuch there is always some loss) was picked when inventing CDs and not a lower one. Apparently the CD rate is much more than what the human hear+brain can master. Anyway. As far as I am concerned, after extensive testing and reading, I realised that I can't tell the difference, so ditched Tidal which is expensive, has countless dropouts and a relatively poor interface compared to Spotify. By the way, I have a feeling that if Spotify goes lossless it will experience the same quantity of dropouts as Tidal does. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Recommended Posts