I think I’m gonna try it out. I initially went Audirvana because it was probably the simplest of the better programs to use and I didnt feel like figuring Roon out at the time. I think I got put off by the flash they try to sell you on but enough folks who’s opinions I put some value on seem to deem it acceptable so who am I to spend my life in the backwaters of music apps. Thanks.
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I really want to get Roon, especially for those points.
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I’ve been on the fence for years since Roon came out, but just haven’t jumped off yet. .
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Having had my audio nerdness reinvigorated when I joined this forum I finally decided to see if I could get MQA running on the AK70 so I could stream master goodness into the new Hifiman Ananda I bought last week.
Unfortunately, A&K have not released an AK70 firmware update in three years so there was no chance of having native support introduced. I then discovered the MQS Streaming Server which I installed on my Mac and allowed me to stream audio to the device. A small victory.
Hit the jackpot when I discovered the AK Connect iPhone application that allows me to control the AK70 from the phone, as well as use the Tidal application to decode the MQA and stream across wifi to the AK70. Great solution for around the house, but still need to see if I can get it to work without wifi otherwise it is useless outside the house.
I ended up subscribing yesterday. SQ is better than Audirvana or native Tidal App in my system. The UI takes some getting used to coming from something like Audirvana, which is pretty basic, but I picked it up quick and the metadata really is a nice feature. For what you get the sub fee ain’t too bad.
Still has a couple of quirks but I think that is more based on my lack of familiarity with it than an inherent flaw with the service.
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Current view from the consumer market seats. Qobuz omitted.
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Mmmmm, guess it’s just too good to be included! Lol, and wow this thread is approaching a year old! An yea I still use Qobuz about 80% of the time, and the library has grown SO much!
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Lol, thanks for starting this thread. Maybe we should rename the thread to 2020 since it’s still going strong and more than half the posts are from 2020? I’m looking forward to starting Qobuz soon!
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I am well into my year of comparing Tidal and Qobuz. I am paying attention to which service I choose. When I am in Roon, I don’t pay too much attention to where the stream comes from (one of the beauties of Roon), but on my iPhone when not running Roon, I tend to choose Qobuz about 80% of the time. When I choose Tidal, it is primarily for MQA Masters. I still find having hip-hop music promotion forced on me in the initial Tidal screen to be quite annoying, and this may be the deciding nail in Tidal’s coffin.
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Well here shortly I may revisit this content as I’ve just set up Network play back in my home via a Direct Stream DAC… and moving away from USB, Android and windows brings a different set of challenges to overcome and factors to weigh
Thankfully… Qobuz is still the king!
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It’s exceedingly rare that I use the native clients for any of the streaming services I use. Much of the “library” content I have from them, that shows up in Roon, I have purchased since first adding it from TIDAL or Qobuz.
So, I don’t tend to notice when something is removed from one of those services …
But using the SP2000 while spending time with the Odin, and streaming from TIDAL directly via the client app, I was stunned that about 20% of the (very varied genre) albums in my library were no longer available to stream …
Have to check to see if they are still streamable from my other services … but if they are it might be a bridge too far for keeping TIDAL around.
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Tidal is weird. I’ve had that happen only to have an album reappear the next day. Sometimes it changes from MQA to non MQA.
Are you losing entire albums or just a certain format?
If I had more streaming options for high res tidal would be gone.
Entire albums.
MQA doesn’t seem to be a factor … or at least I’ve never seen an MQA album disappear.
But I don’t use the native client much, and most albums I like enough to play more than a couple of times I just buy (we don’t want to talk about how many albums I’ve bought this year, but I’m pretty confident my local library will breach 1,000,000 tracks* before year-end).
*All legal … rips, needledrops or digital purchases.
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We’re all audiophiles here, it’s ok.
Not sure what’s going on in Tidal. Outside of that format change I haven’t completely lost an album, I don’t think.
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I think I’m over 700, maybe 800, albums bought so far this year (and it’s a slow year).
Part of which comes from having a somewhat “completionist*” idiom. If I’ve gone far enough into one artist to own/enjoy more than maybe 20% of their catalog, I’ll often just go buy the entirety of what I don’t already have.
And then I have “ticklers**” setup to watch for new releases from those artists (even if most of them to which such tendencies apply aren’t even recording anymore), so I can maintain “completeness”.
Sometimes this means going and finding old LP pressings that never made it to CD/downloads, and then doing needledrops on them (about the only time I do that now … today when I buy an LP I buy the best digital version I can find at the same time).
And … no … I haven’t necessarily listened to everything I’ve bought so far …
*I wish this was only a factor for music … sadly it pervades other hobbies.
**Quiet at the back there! This is just an automated search for new material that sends an alert when it finds something.
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I’ve only just started back in to purchasing favourite albums. Streaming services made me feel like it was obsolete but I started noticing SQ issues between purchased material and streaming so I try to buy whatever I find myself listening to a few times.
Plus the download for offline listening feature, especially on Primephonic, has not been working really well as of late so I need something better for a hard copy. Have actually begun searching for CD’s again and surprise surprise they still exist.
Have considered the vinyl rabbit hole but not there yet.
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If you’ve not been there before, and either have no nostalgic/ritualistic attachment to it and/or don’t have a reasonably significant list of vinyl-only albums you want, I’d suggest passing on it.
While vinyl via my speaker rig is my favorite way to enjoy to music at home, that has little to do with fidelity and more to do with nostalgia, music availability, tactility and ritual. And I grew up with vinyl as the predominant high-fidelity source.
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I think I’d only consider it if I had a good 2 channel set up. I don’t see many people talking about vinyl via headphones but I’m sure it’s fine. I’ve done some initial research about it and it seems like it would involve more time to setup and get right than I currently have.
I’m ok with my headphone rig for now. Slowly looking in to a starter 2 channel above my home theatre set up.
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I suspect the popularity of vinyl has been a boon for CD collectors - used CDs are something of a poorly kept secret when it comes to building a library affordably, especially if you have a decent store nearby and you don’t have to pay postage.
There’s a place I love here in NYC, Academy Records, which has a decent selection, with inventory turning over quickly enough (at least before the pandemic) that you could make a worthwhile trip once a fortnight and leave with a towering stack of treats. I hope it survives - with any luck its Amazon and eBay storefronts will help. Its strength lies in classical music - which is why I mention it, @perogie - although it also has a good selection of jazz and no shortage of rock greats.
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Awesome! Thanks for the tip. I’ll try and inspect their inventory when I can. I like to buy “in bulk” to save shipping so hopefully I can find something of interest. Used cds can be really cheap as well so even taking a few fliers isn’t a huge issue. Thanks again.
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