Roon or Audirvana and why

I see it very difficult to see Spotify supported by Roon.
Spotify is a closed system that doesn’t welcome others integration.
That said I’m not a fan of their system and of they way they pay artists.

It’s one of those things I now require lol, I have become a serious Roon convert. If Spotify doesn’t implement with Roon I will still use it for basic streaming on the go, but won’t upgrade or pay more for it’s higher resolution service. This is the same reason I dropped Amazon Music HD, kept Qobuz and added Tidal, even though I really don’t love Tidal.

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Yeah, I remember you being one of the early adopters for Amazon HD. It doesn’t seem to have caught on yet.

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I chatted with Stephan Mathieu (musician and mastering engineer) and he told me that Amazon Music HD is about sound the most faithful to mastering original.
The issue with this service is in their metadata which are the worst on the market.
Check Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” as reference and the cover tagged.

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Is the Kind of Blue reference for sound quality or poor meta data. Not clear to me. I’m very familiar with that album so I’d be curious about a “better” master.

Ok. I guess I have to try Qobuz. Are there any “refer a pal get a free month” deals floating around?

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Both.
Great sound quality, metadata in proper.
Kind of Blue is a milestone in music.

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I purchased a lifetime from Roon in April 2016 for $499. I’m past the breakeven point.

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They don’t pay them as other streaming services?

I just moved over to Deezer, as Qobuz is not available here (they state it will be later this year) right now and I need a streaming service that support lossless.
I am actually suprised over the catalogue Deezer has, they have several albums that I can’t find on Spotify, so kind of okay so far.

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As far as I know Spotify is the society that pays less the musicians for the stream of their music.
I had the opportunity to chat with Stephan Mathieu, François J. Bonnet, Stephan O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi and Crys Cole.
They are planning to retire their music from all streaming platform.
While I understand the convenience of streaming music instead of buying it I have to admit that from an artist’s point of view streaming’s income aren’t sufficient in order to pay bills.
I’ve unsubscribed all personal streaming plans and the only I still have are the ones of my job.
I buy my music on Bandcamp.
In this moment of pandemic crisis I find this solution can help artists to survive.
It is only my point of view, I’m not judging anyone’s behaviour or choices.

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Deezer is a good service. I had Deezer Elite with Sonos a few years ago. Quality was very good for me.

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I’m reading about an iBasso. The 300x. Something new.

It can stream Tidal? Netflix? Huh?

I took the following from the article:
“ With that type of screen, decent refresh rate, and CPU, Netflix addicts and casual gamers might appreciate it also. ”

Thanks for the screenshot. Never seen one in person.

It has its own DAC, but still has S/PDIF.
Runs Android, but it’s not a phone. It runs $1200. RechargAble, but what do you when it can’t be recharged any longer? Toss it?
Thanks,
Vac

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That might be true but on Windows at least you have to manually set your dac to your desired format (sample size / sample rate) before starting Amazon Music since Amazon Music won’t set the dac to the track you select.

I have done the same thing.

Requires more effort maybe for music discovery but I feel better about supporting the artists.

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Sorry, I was talking purely about the files Amazon HD provides not about what happens in their reproduction.

I know most of the musicians I listen to.
Especially given the moment I feel they need to be supported.
Bandcamp allows you to discover new music, often for reasonable prices if not for free.
I can buy the vinyl I love and at the same time have the files to play my music when I’m away form home.
Music suggestions from the Bandcamp app are focused on what I decide and what I’ve bought and not on heavily influenced commercial setting.
A fair way to deal the actual crisis to me.

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I am also a Roon user and went lifetime about 6-7 months ago. I use Qobuz love the sound quality. A few days ago I though to myself “Animal, if Spotify ever went lossless, every other service would be F’ed” They have the best UI out of any of the streaming services and their algorithms are also the best I think. But hopefully this will just cause Qobuz, Tidal and Apple to step up their game. Roon too. I am hoping that Qobuz and Tidal expand their libraries, even if just in CD quality for the moment. If Qobuz could put out a decent app and caught up to the rest of the streaming apps, then it could even be a better service than Spotify I think as long as you don’t care about no Facebook integration :laughing: This could end up being really good for all of the services and all of us customers. I do think Roon could use UI and usability help from Spotify and Spotify could benefit from Roon’s sound engine and DSP…fingers crossed

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Qobuz is the best streaming service I’ve personally listened to. I have heard and subscribed to Tidal, Spotify, Apple and Amazon HD. Spotify is the only one I’ve had as a constant subscription though. It’s great catalogue and familiar controls suit my usage. Qobuz just doesn’t seem to have that big a catalogue or perhaps the music I wish to hear. Sound quality is excellent though.

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Interesting I felt the same way when I first trialed it, but when I came back maybe 6 months later, they’d filled most of the holes I identified the first time.

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I doubt Spotify going lossless will have a very big impact on other services. Some, maybe, but most of Spotify’s users aren’t paying subscribers in the first place, so they’re a not quality-focused (they’re already limited to 160 kbp/s streams vs. the 320 kbp/s available to premium subscribers and that difference is clearly audible).

I am in the minority, I think, that is not a fan of Spotify’s UX. I think it’s just a shitty as Qobuz and Tidal. Shitty in different ways, sure, but still quite poor. If Roon had a more Spotify-like UX, I’d never have bought it in the first place! 1.8 is a mixed-bag UX wise, some improvements, some giant steps backwards (unless you’re ONLY a streamer, I have a huge local catalog as well). I’m well over desktop applications acting like half-assed web-clients/pages.

Not sure what the Facebook thing references … I’ve got no Facebook integration with any of them, so that’s clearly optional anyway.

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