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Hi Res music
- Thread starter Musichead
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No preference opinions from me. But they all offer CD quality and above streams. So it all comes down to the features and functionality of their music app and their user interface and pricing. Select the one that has the features you want/like at the price you are willing to pay. Anything Cd Quality is pretty much all you need.
I'm not remotely interested in Hi Res given that it offers no audible benefits to Redbook/CD in real world listening.
If it's there I'll take it - but I'll not pay one penny for it. As pointed out by @AdamG choose your streaming service on other criteria.
You're basically told wrong.
CD/redbook was very carefully designed to be transparent to human hearing. Pushing more data in there doesn't make an audible improvement.
Broken record here on Hi Res. I use Qobuz because of the music selections of Jazz, International, Acoustic, Classical are very good. It seems Iike Tidal, which I had for a year, had more contemporary, country, rap and rock stuff. Hi Res takes up more bandwidth and I live where internet providers are few so some buffering will occur on HR sometimes, not often, but annoying when it does .
Have your hearing tested. As we age we lose hearing range. Mostly up high above 12K and up. So all that extra quality goes to waste because we can’t hear that high. Your profile says you are 63. So if you can still hear at 15k and above you are lucky, gifted or both. There are some hearing tests online that are free you just need headphones of relatively good performance. Here is an online hearing test I have used in the recent past:
Mimi Hearing Test
The Mimi Hearing Test is the easiest way to assess your hearing ability. This hearing test will give you understandable results in about 6 minutes. - Modern hearing assessment: Easy-to-use and in-depth testing of a wide range of frequencies. - Get instant results: We turn your auditory data...
apps.apple.com
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Count Arthur
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The Headphone Show recently did some feature comparisons you may find useful:
As others have said, I wouldn't pay extra for resolutions above CD quality, 16bit - 44.1kHz, it's almost certainly inaudible.
As others have said, I wouldn't pay extra for resolutions above CD quality, 16bit - 44.1kHz, it's almost certainly inaudible.
olieb
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I don't care for hi res for the aforementioned reasons. I use Apple for ease of use and the ability to play „albums“ more easily.
Several times I got frustrated too much and checked Spotify only to find it even more obnoxious with its algorithms, GUI and other "intelligent" functions. IRC I tried Tidal once (some years ago), I was not impressed either. So I am still on Apple.
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No one's mentioned Deezer yet. I find their quality to be very good.
Just limited availability afaik....but no advantage in terms of highest resolution offered.
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In quality analysis done here a couple of years ago, they tested better than some other services.
BigFKahuna
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I have been rather happy with Deezer for the past couple of years, and since it streams at Airplay 1 (not 2) it goes at CD quality. I understand that the ability to stream at hi res is not the same as the catalogue being all hi res, in fact maybe 10% or whatever of a streaming service such as Tidal or Qobuz actually is hi res? I do wish Deezer offered a Connect feature to my KEF system, but that is something for another thread.
Matt_Holland
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Amazon Music For me.
I had Tidal’s highest tier for many years courtesy of a work benefit, but when that stopped I switched straight to Amazon because it’s half the price and includes high-res. I stream direct from the Amazon app to my Wiim amp using Alexa Cast.
I had Tidal’s highest tier for many years courtesy of a work benefit, but when that stopped I switched straight to Amazon because it’s half the price and includes high-res. I stream direct from the Amazon app to my Wiim amp using Alexa Cast.
Miguelón
Active Member
Masters Hi-Res are way large a marketing maneuver to make you pay extra money, fortunately the tendency is to pay around 10-15 €/ month in many stream services. Tidal has changed its pricing offers to that interval. CD quality is enough to my ears and as far as I know to almost everybody. I cannot perceive over 15 kHz, 20 to 22 kHz filter band that is often used as passband on 44.1 kHz DAC filters is totally inaudible for me.
Personally I prefer Qobuz or Tidal, and I switch back and forth between them.
Qobuz has a better jazz and classic catalogue and is easier to find a concrete version by interpreter or authors, but playlists and suggestions are worse than Tidal ones (in my opinion).
I don’t know quality tests about MQA files, but at least for me are not good and sometimes I find them unrealistic on acoustic music. I red rumors that Tidal are changing gradually for FLAC files.
Apple music has barely no useful playlists, the app doesn’t let public sharing. Is for you this are important avoid this service. The only playlists you will find are Apple selections, and in my opinion they suck (to my taste). But their catalogue is quite extensive.
Personally I prefer Qobuz or Tidal, and I switch back and forth between them.
Qobuz has a better jazz and classic catalogue and is easier to find a concrete version by interpreter or authors, but playlists and suggestions are worse than Tidal ones (in my opinion).
I don’t know quality tests about MQA files, but at least for me are not good and sometimes I find them unrealistic on acoustic music. I red rumors that Tidal are changing gradually for FLAC files.
Apple music has barely no useful playlists, the app doesn’t let public sharing. Is for you this are important avoid this service. The only playlists you will find are Apple selections, and in my opinion they suck (to my taste). But their catalogue is quite extensive.
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