this is a question I’m curious about because I figured if I’m going to pay for a software, I might as well be getting getting the best audio quality
I like Tidal but admittedly haven’t tried Qobuz. The DAC you use is also important, and if you use Bluetooth the codec is probably as important as everything else. LDAC was the best the last time I checked
Depends on what phone you use
usb audio player pro which has integrations with tidal and other lossless/high-res streaming services (and even a paid add on for decoding MQA - which i have *ducks* installed. the cool thing is that it does bit perfect playback (with its highres driver) on many smart phones, without resampling, unlike poweramp - and can drive external DACs as well in bit perfect mode, which is probably the basis of its name
I like Onkyo HF player with HiRes pack. Plays everything including DSD over PCM
Apple Music.
USB Audio Player Pro streaming Qobuz
Amazon Music has lossless.
Darko has a recent video on how to get hires audio out of Apple Music.
Tidal
I use the Neutron Audio Player. It supposely works around the android audio engine and has hires support.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mp
Having the right algorithms (and human editors) to pick good music to play is probably more important for happiness than 44 -> 96kHz or lossless compression which I can’t hear.
I love Youtube Music premium (comes with YT premium). I’ve tried Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz also. This is what I ended up with …
Tidal and Roon ARC are both bit perfect on Android and Apple phones. Qobuz is not yet, as far as I know.
Symfonium + uPnP/DLNA
due to work, primary phone is a secure device. prefer not to have to carry a dedicated dap, so i’d like to use my ipad mini, which i carry everywhere as my source for tunes on the go. it has no headphone port, so i guess i need an external dac/headphone amp. what do you guys/gals recommend. I have a Qobuz account btw.
Plex seems to be the best for me but app isn’t as polished as the others.
Tidal second but is expensive to access the highest quality.
Some would argue Spotify is the best - i just don’t really like them lol
Apples Lossless music also but it’s algorithm is horrible in my opinion
Qobuz, although I don’t really like the app.
Roon, which you can connect to tidal or Qobuz but it’s just another expense.
As soon as YouTube music offers this, they will be by far the best imo…. Best library, best algorithm and layout is nice!
Sonic studios’ s Amarra Play is the best for hifi output to an external DAC, I prefer warm tubey sound and Amarra has always delivered on that front for both ios and desktop. There is no listening fatigue for me, you can log into Qobuz or Tidal and stream from there, play local files, or play your personal DRM free music from apple music(un-tested). There is a parametric equaliser with presets. It also doubles as a remote for the desktop app that supports DIRAC. Amarra has always kept the interface basic but the sound is something I have always returned to despite that. https://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/amarra_play.php