Lossless Streaming in 2019 - A Comparative Overview & Review

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Honestly as much as I enjoy Q [and I LOVES it] there is still a LOT of content via Amazon HD that is only on else where on Spotify

An Amzn HD is still at least better than Spotify so it holds value for me in that category, so personally I like having both. AmznHD for it’s HUGE library but Q for it’s HIGH QUALITY but limited selection. So I support both, now Tidal and MQA are towards the bottom of my list… as I’m still not “sold” on MQA

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I agree. I’m probably going to stay with Amazon Music HD and Spotify for backup. If and when I get a streamer, if Amazon is still not available for that, I’ll then get Qobuz

I mean I bought a 5G LTE phone specifically to stream Q on the go, and honestly I don’t regret that choice. Even my little Behringer UCA 202 [pre 2012] and EQ’d car stereo make the difference/improvements of Q vs Spotify and even Amazon apparent

Still tho interface wise I like Amazon, it’s faster/more intuitive than USB Android Player Pro which does bit perfect nice but can be a bit slow to navigate

I’m currently subscribed to Qobuz and Tidal. The moment Amazon HD gets Roon integration, I’ll cancel everything else, I have a feeling.

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I´m with you on the slow navigation in USB Audio Player Pro

There is not one single service at the moment, who does it all

at the moment I have all of the subscribtions running
went back to Qobuz studio, because of the sq - i missed it after a few weeks
after over 1 year with Tidal with mqa masters, I switched to Q a few months ago and only added Tidal now again because I missed the magenta led on my DAC and got a promotion with 4 bucks for 4 months. Tidal is the least used service by us.
Amazon HD is going to stay for our audiobooks and Spotify Premium with all it´s strenghts over all others won´t go anywhere

I´d love Qobuz to up their game with ui on pc, so I much, that I finally thought about starting the Roon route yesterday.

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here is a good alternate to ROON if you don’t maintain a large amount of local FLAC files…

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thank you Tyler.
I had the trial running for 2 months :wink: and did not like the look and feel of Audirvana on PC. I also do listen with my eyes, by a unhealthy amount :rofl:

Decided, if I start putting money in the software, I go full Roon with network streaming our own ripped Flac files + Qobuz, etc.

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I like this update.

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I like Audirvana and use it. Dont have a large amount of FLAC files (yet) but I can see that being an issue with how it lays out its catalogue.

Currently stream Tidal at home but Spotify is what most people have going at work. Spotify definitely has better curation while Tidal has the potential to sound better with a good MQA mastering. No matter your feelings around MQA it does generally sound better. I am not one to go to war over audio formats and codecs.

Amazon HD probably has the most potential given who its backer is, they could throw 10 billion at it and not bat an eye. However, it depends upon its implementation. I have amazon prime and occasionally use the video streaming service and it aint all that slick compared to others and its library is average at best. I’ll probably check out Amazon HD and maybe partake in a trial if they are offering one as given the last offer I saw it was a fair bit cheaper than Tidal.

I havent tried Qobuz but it seems like a popular service with this forum.

To be honest Im considering getting back to buying CDs and either getting a decent transport or just ripping them myself, streaming is just easier right now. Vinyl is a door I dont yet want to open.

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I look for the magenta too. I thought I was the only one… :cry:.

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Well MQA doesn’t sound better per say, Lossless Audio & those codecs sound better than Spotify

MQA via Tidal is a lossless streaming option, as is Qobuz and Amazon HD. So in general I think we all feel the lossless streaming services sound better than their lossy counter parts, the main question is which of the Lossless services sounds the best. MQA is a lossless file format as is FLAC.

Amazon HD library [Of HD and Ultra HD mind you] is surprisingly large

I so the same…

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Oh yeah, the Amazon HD/UltraHD is really big, and there are tracks on there I can’t find on Tidal, but rarely the other way around. AMHD just has no bit-perfect (even though Exclusive Mode is starting to roll around) and horrible New Music Discovery system.

It sounds good to me, though. I’ll go Qobuz once I get into Roon streaming

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I believe MQA is actually lossy compression, although if you like how it sounds that probably doesn’t matter.

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I find that the quality of the initial capture and mastering have the greatest impact on the final result. A poor mastering job cannot be salvaged by MQA, and a Red Book presentation of a well recorded and mastered piece will sound better.

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The nice thing about this community is that you are free to believe whatever you want, as long as you score an A or even a B+ in “getting along with others”. :wink:

My understanding is that MQA uses (some say “throws away”) two bits compared to a non-MQA HiRes music file for processing, so it is technically not quite as high-res. The processing is not compression.

Regarding @tmarshl 's comment, I find that if the artists and producers know that it will be MQA, they know that it is supposed to be marketed to people who will pay more for quality, so they take a bit more care with the production and mastering. This, of course, is not universal, and Red Book is just dandy if well done. So for that matter is (RCA Victor) Red Label… . Ultimately it is the music that matters. I still listen to Blind Faith, even if nobody knew how to record the cymbals.

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I will henceforth keep my opinions to myself.

There are two MQA discussion topics - General MQA Discussion and MQA Playback and Support. @Torq and others dissected the technology rather thoroughly. I’m on my iPad now, and I fumble with it sometimes, so I did not link the topics, but if you paste them into search, you’ll find some authoritative information - far more than I knew, which was limited to “magenta light working, magenta off not working”.

I apologize for teasing. We want your opinions.

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isn’t it all we need? A analysis of the chain with some funny colours. Like with in food choices, in the supermarket… Red for too much salt/sugar or heavy use of water. … or imported from far away instead of regional stuff. Yellow for meat. … blue for unhealthy bio stuff and magenta for beer… green for raindrops

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