I’ve had an HD 6XX with a Schitt Magni + Modi for quite some time. I just wanted better sounding audio. Eventually I fell out of being into good sounds and I’m not even sure what’s what anymore because I barely had a clue then. So, I’ve been listening to music on Youtube for free and just now realized wtf am I doing…there must be a better quality place to listen to music. So, I’m here asking for your assistance. Also, maybe my setup isn’t good so I’d be curious to see what anyone has to say about that if you have input on it as well.
There ya go my friend, first result on Google compares all the main streaming services:
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-music-streaming-service/
My TL;DR is that Spotify is amazing for music discovery but doesn’t offer lossless files, the max quality is 320kbps mp3. Other services are not as good for music discovery or have much smaller libraries (Tidal and Qobuz) but offer lossless.
I do believe most people can tell the difference between lossless and 320 kbps. Maybe not on every track, but on familiar music it’s easy to tell. You might get the free trial of a music service offering lossless (they all have one month free trials) and set quality at various levels to compare for yourself.
Except that Spotify uses 320kbps Ogg Vorbis (Very High quality preset for Premium users) which is way better and more transparent than MP3.
Except that Spotify uses 320kbps Ogg Vorbis (Very High quality preset for Premium users) which is way better and more transparent than MP3.
piratebay (top 100 -> flac), nyya (audio - lossless), any cd
Just pick the cheaper one. Really, the only advantage is practicality and some exclusive track version that there is not on youtube. You will not find a better sound quality unless you expect it to be better.
Don’t trust me. Just use foobar2000 abx plugin lossless vs lossy
For best experience cds man. Rip and load to your phone. For streaming Apple Music, Amazon, dezeer, qobuz, tidal offer lossless and that’s closest to cd quality. YouTube, Spotify, crap quality.
Huh? Tidals 24bit, CDs are 16bit 44.1khz. How can u compare the 2? Lossless is better then CDs or rips any day of the week. U get studio quality on tidal with no imperfections. CDs have been processed and u can even say cut down
Thanks for the observation my friend! To be clear, I wasn’t being technically specific about the subject, I was generalizing the idea that if OP wanted to listen to better quality audio, should completely avoid YouTube and Spotify.
I know that tidal, Apple Music and the rest offer what they call “high res” which is higher than cd quality, notice I only said lossless (flac cd quality), I did not say high res lossless (higher than cd) which if we’re being technical are two different things. However in order to listen to that kind of audio OP would need the proper setup that involves better and more equipment than simply plugging in a set of headphones and an amp or even worse, over bluetooth earbuds.
So if OP just wanted better quality music, every platform aside from YTM and Spotify offer better quality music, in particular lossless which is CD quality and the majority of all the platforms’ quality. Granted they use wired headphones/earbuds, not bluetooth, and probably even to the extent of downloading the files because we all know streaming does degrade the quality for the purpose of connectivity. So local download or rip cd will yield them best quality overall.
In any case tidal is the worst example to use about high res because up until recent, they were on something Called QMA, which was discussed by experts to be even worse than just cd quality. Though tidal won’t admit it, is one of the reasons why they are completely moving to FLAC. But that’s a discussion for another time.
- what devices are you going to be streaming from? Android, iPhone, Mac, Windows?
- What’s your budget for a streaming service? they range from $0-20/mo
It amazes me you even know about the existence of Schiit before knowing about lossless music or hifi music streaming. I really don’t mean that in a derogatory way. Regardless, look into qobuz, it offers by far the best audio quality in streaming. I would recommend going even a bit further and making sure you’re dac drivers are up to date and running qobuz as exclusive and at the highest quality it offers. Running the music app as exclusive is a real game changer. Good luck!
I started with the equipment and never went any further. I wish I knew earlier but now I do thanks to you guys.
It looks like I don’t need drivers for my Magni + Modi setup.
Sennheiser 600 series with magni/modi is a fine set up. Find some music you like and enjoy.
A lot of artists have their music on Bandcamp. I have purchased lots of digital + CDs, and you can pick multiple download formats (lossless FLAC or ALAC and lossy OGG and AAC). Not to mention, they support the artists better, I think.
It’s nice having a locally stored music library. Regardless of what streaming service you might use, I would get digital and physical CD/ vinyl copies of your favorite music.
A cheap DVD player with a digital output can connect to your Modi DAC (SPDIF coax) and should come with a remote, too.
My personal DVD player is an open-box Sony I got for <$20.00US and sounds fine, though it does feel cheap.
I honestly didn’t even think that CDs were still sold anymore for bands lol. I probably sound stupid thinking that but I figured everything was digital now. I think I prefer digital mainly because I can store it easier but if I risk quality I’d rather not.
Best sound quality: Qobuz
Best algorithm for new music: Spotify
Best social sharing features: Spotify
Biggest barrel of snake oil: Tidal (because of MQA)
Huh? Just turn off mqa playback lol tidal is like 80% better then anything else. Just use hiby music player, cause tidal app is rubbish
LOL, indeed. Have you even tried Qobuz? And how did you devise the “80 percent better” figure other than pulling it straight from your rectum?
You say Tidal’s app sucks yet the service still is 80 percent better than anything else. The contradictory comedy is divine …
Your setup is fine, better than what 95% of people have.
As far as where to listen to music, literally any streaming service. (Free) YouTube has some pretty noticeable compression on everything but the differences between Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, whatever other platform are so minute that you will never hear them unless you are meticulously A/B testing them together, and even then a lot of that could be placebo.
I personally went with Tidal back when I was chasing audio fidelity a year and a half or so ago and I ditched Spotify for it since they’re the same price (I’m on Tidal’s HiFi tier, not the Max one) and I wanted to reset my discovery algorithm. Spotify was recommending me the same albums for years on end even when my tastes were broadening out past just prog metal, so I wanted to reset. I also didn’t want podcasts clogging up my feed because I use a separate app for that. In general Tidal and Spotify are 90% similar to each other, with Spotify having more social features (which I don’t care about at all) and Tidal having more in terms of information about the artists, which is pretty cool. Tidal’s a little buggier but it rarely has an impact that lasts more than, say, 10 seconds. I don’t think you can truly go wrong with any of the big streaming platforms though, so do whatever your budget allows.
It seems the consensus is Tidal so I’m gonna probably start with them.
Getting back into my CD collection after using streaming services for years. If you have CDs , definitely do this!
Spotify is the best and with the largest collection, but definitely has audible compression if you’re using really resolving headphones. I didn’t like Tidal because the catalog is small and the high quality music is even smaller.
All that said, if you want the highest quality, just use lossless files. But remember that even the best Bluetooth streaming is lossy and new compression algorithms are very good with psychoacoustics… For most purposes Spotify set to Very High over BT is more than acceptable.
Tidal - premium subscription. Otherwise, download your music in high quality formats from places like bandcamp.
Go tidal, can get 6 months cheap on Etsy ma bro, best quality from what I’ve tried
Why am I able to purchase it on Etsy? Seems a little scammy.
Well that’s up to u. No problems here, I can’t bring myself to pay £10 a month for music. I already have 3 kids and too many bills lol, do u really think that with all the shit going on in the world your gonna get done for a cheap subscription? Maybe if your really unlucky, but I doubt it.