how many streaming spotify? Streaming Spotify?

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Hi Computer Audiophile,

Do you use Spotify anymore since TIDAL and other Hi-Res music streaming service, have received?

Entreq does use Spotify as reference, when they make a new cable as the new Apollo RG45 Ethernet cable who I recently wrote about!

I was myself a little bit confused about this, I mean why use Spotify as reference! 

Especially since we have Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer......what all playing 44.1 kHz-16 bit and of course MQA 44.1/48/96 kHz-24 bit or DSD music files.

But, I can say after hard struggling against my own personal opinion! So did I took a special offer from Spotify for 3 months of Premium, downloaded it on my computer. Well I have had it before  and I'm not the only one, so all my playlists was still on place.

And with the knowledge that this will sound bad, I pushed play! Well first did I looked true the menu so everything stood right and when I pushed play on one playlist we're it stood Favorite Playlist! But to my surprise  so did I survive, I clicked on my DAC a B.M.C PURE DAC who stood for the sound "source" of the music from Spotify and changed it to 44.1-16 so "no up-sampling", well you get what I mean!

 

After a few days of listening on my "Favorite Playlist" on Spotify, I can only say that it's sounds totally okay!

 But if change the Entreq Apollo RG45 Ethernet cable and Entreq's USB Challenger, that both are connected to a earth box Silver Minimus except there's other connections! When it's sounds like Spotify, something I can't listen on anymore because it's Ogg.... and not 44.1-16 or 44.1/48/96-24 or DSD music files formats what we Computer Audiophile's prefers to listen on "I do it".

When I change back to Entreq Apollo RG45 and the USB Challenger series II who are connected, to the beautiful Silver Minimus earth box in Swedish oak wood! The music I streaming from Spotify also becomes beautiful, so Entreq and it's earth cables different cables like Apollo RG45, USB Challenger series II and the earth box Silver Minimus what I have used, to hear why Entreq use Spotify when they take/makes a new cable like the Apollo RG45 and other of there products. If you don't believe me, contact Entreq and try/test these products and listening to Spotify, I have noticed that many people prefer Spotify before they other music streaming companies and now can you use it, like a Computer Audiophile thanks to Entreq.

 

www.entreq.com

 

Apollo RG45

 

                                              

USB Challenger Series II

Silver Minimus 

[brw]

I stream Spotify daily, and love it. Sound quality is wonderful; Spotify Connect functionality (using iPhone for remote control) is fantastic. Best of all, it cost only $200 to enable my trusty Playback Designs DAC, by front-ending it with a Volumio Mini86. Highly recommended, especially if budget is a concern.

[DarwinOSX]

I never liked the Spotify interface and moved to Apple Music shortly after it came out. Apple Music uses a better codec, AAC instead of Ogg, has iTunes Match, and a single interface for streaming and my many years of iTunes music. It's pretty much a no brainer to buy it for a year at a time at $100. 

I also pay for Tidal and Pandora. 

I can't tell the difference between Tidal and Mstered for iTunes albums and so I've bought a lot of those. 

Pandora still has the best radio stations and is cheap at $4 something a month. 

 

[bobbmd]

agree with above but Apple Music SUCKS I use Spotify and Pandora with AQ DragonFly RED in my car and both sound great but TIDAL sound even better

[DarwinOSX]

8 minutes ago, bobbmd said:

agree with above but Apple Music SUCKS I use Spotify and Pandora with AQ DragonFly RED in my car and both sound great but TIDAL sound even better

That's not a comment worth taking seriously

[The Computer Audiophile]

I use Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora Premium, and Tidal. 

 

I love Tidal for its lossless music and it's what I use when listening to my main system.

 

I love Spotify because it has everything and the interface isn't too bad. Plus, Spotify connect is awesome for me and my family on many devices around the house. 

 

I love Pandora for its radio and gnome project. Still getting used to the Premium on demand part of it. 

 

I can't stand Apple Music and its interface. not my cup of tea, but I use it because I have to know it for my job.

[bobbmd]

55 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I use Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora Premium, and Tidal. 

 

I love Tidal for its lossless music and it's what I use when listening to my main system.

 

I love Spotify because it has everything and the interface isn't too bad. Plus, Spotify connect is awesome for me and my family on many devices around the house. 

 

I love Pandora for its radio and gnome project. Still getting used to the Premium on demand part of it. 

 

I can't stand Apple Music and its interface. not my cup of tea, but I use it because I have to kno

56 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I use Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora Premium, and Tidal. 

 

I love Tidal for its lossless music and it's what I use when listening to my main system.

 

I love Spotify because it has everything and the interface isn't too bad. Plus, Spotify connect is awesome for me and my family on many devices around the house. 

 

I love Pandora for its radio and gnome project. Still getting used to the Premium on demand part of it. 

 

I can't stand Apple Music and its interface. not my cup of tea, but I use it because I have to know it for my job.

Thanks Chris his comments are exactly why I have not written anything in quite awhile and i agree with you wholeheartedly and i use all the same ones you do plus Qobuz and love them all except for Apple music and itunes

[The Computer Audiophile]

I really should sign up again for Qobuz. 

[DarwinOSX]

1 hour ago, bobbmd said:

@DarwinOSX Typical millennial response but my comment was just what it was an opinion didn't deserve being trashed pandeho

 

You are very incorrect about me being a millennial but that is amusing. 

Putting sucks in all caps with no rationale is one  thing. Using the term pandeho, which you spelled incorrectly, is even more childish. Interesting that sort of thing is allowed here.  . 

But some people feel free to say thing on forums they would never say in person. It's called trolling. 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Back on topic guys. 

[bobbmd]

14 hours ago, DarwinOSX said:

 

You are very incorrect about me being a millennial but that is amusing. 

Putting sucks in all caps with no rationale is one  thing. Using the term pandeho, which you spelled incorrectly, is even more childish. Interesting that sort of thing is allowed here.  . 

But some people feel free to say thing on forums they would never say in person. It's called trolling. 

 

same goes for you and disrespecting/depreciating me/making fun of  me if what you said wasn't trolling what was it? you just didn't use capitals will say no more per Chris's advice

[photonman]

I too use Tidal for my main system, for the lossless BUT I love Spotify's Connect for its convenience and their  curated playlists which IMO are much better than Tidal's and I love the suggestions based on my listening habits (Daily Mix 1, 2 etc).

 

If Spotify offers lossless (which it sounds like they will) and Auralic enables Spotify Connect on their devices, I think I will say bye bye to Tidal.  Even without lossless I might just become a one show horse with Spotify only as it sounds good on a good system.

[master]

I've always listened via a CDP and then when I moved to digital audio I ripped everything in FLAC and streamed off a Synology. MP3 just had too much data loss so it was never my cup of tea.

 

Then about a year ago Alexa came home, and then Google Home. Since then Spotify is probably the number one way I listen to music... it's just so easy to say Alexa play Jeff Beck/play Shape of You/play Global/Viral Top 50. Since then I've also rediscovered Pandora and also iHeart.

 

I'm still not a fan of lossy formats and still for critical listening I'll either fire up the Daphile rig or BubbleUPnP on my mobile, but Alexa is what I use about 60% (and increasing) of the time now... and the wife has gone 100% that way.

 

If Spotify goes lossless, that'd be the perfect icing on the cake. Or if Alexa worked with the likes of BubbleUPnP, MinimServer, Plex, etc. Nothing on that front yet though... so yeah Spotify is winning this round.

[DarwinOSX]

If Spotify goes lossless AND MQA then so much for Tidal for me.  I do get Tidal for $11 something per month though with a veterans discount.  

I imagine Spotify will up their price to go lossless.  You have to wonder if the economics and demographics of CD quality will work for Spotify.  They have yet to make a profit and show no signs of making one any time soon.  A huge percentage of their users are on the free tier which they also make next to no money from but hope will get people to subscribe.  

I have a lot of Mastered for iTunes music that sounds as good as Tidal to me though and have seen quite a few other people say the same thing.

But I'm pretty in love with MQA and have high hopes for it especially since all three major studios have signed on to it. We will see if it pans out though.

When you say Alexa I assume you mean one of the Echo devices?  Alexa is the software interface Echo and some other non-amazon devices use. None of the  Echo's sound very good even the $179 one but a lot of people feel the convenience of voice automation over rule that. There are some pretty strong rumors out there that Amazon is working on a new version of the Echo with better sound quality plus multi-room partly as a reaction to Apple's Homepod coming in December.  

 I have a couple Echo dots I use for various things but not music.  One was plugged in to my bedroom Vanatoo One's via RCA but was pretty low quality so I went back to airplaying via an Apple TV connected to the optical port instead.

I would check for Alexa "skills" for UPNP/etc as I'm pretty sure there are some.  There is one for Plex.

Do a search here.  You install this in your Alexa app that controls Echo devices.

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=13727921011

 

 

 

 

[master]

6 hours ago, DarwinOSX said:

When you say Alexa I assume you mean one of the Echo devices?  Alexa is the software interface Echo and some other non-amazon devices use. None of the  Echo's sound very good even the $179 one but a lot of people feel the convenience of voice automation over rule that. There are some pretty strong rumors out there that Amazon is working on a new version of the Echo with better sound quality plus multi-room partly as a reaction to Apple's Homepod coming in December.  

 I have a couple Echo dots I use for various things but not music.  One was plugged in to my bedroom Vanatoo One's via RCA but was pretty low quality so I went back to airplaying via an Apple TV connected to the optical port instead.

I would check for Alexa "skills" for UPNP/etc as I'm pretty sure there are some.  There is one for Plex.

Do a search here.  You install this in your Alexa app that controls Echo devices.

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=13727921011

 

Yes, the very same one, I've multiple Echo devices strewn around the house... use them a lot for the likes of home automation apart from music, movies, podcasts, etc.

 

I use the Echo devices as DACs as well as source + streamer via the 3.5 mm audio jack plugged into amps. I don't use Bluetooth. FWIW, it's better than Chromecast Audio as a DAC. Of course it would be even better with a digital output like Toslink, the same as Chromecast Audio.

 

Of course the SQ apart, the convenience wins - I just stumbled out of bed and said Alexa play Allman Brothers and it started with The Allman Brothers Band.

 

I've tried all the Alexa skills, even the Plex one - it's very patchy. Most of the time it's a miss as of now and they (the Plex guys) hope that one day Alexa will natively play the music instead of looking for a renderer as it does now.

 

However, the issue is only with local content - all streaming services work great with Alexa - even the likes of Amazon Prime Video.

 

And yes if Tidal had Alexa support, that would be excellent too.

[glider]

1 hour ago, master said:

I've tried all the Alexa skills, even the Plex one - it's very patchy. Most of the time it's a miss as of now and they (the Plex guys) hope that one day Alexa will natively play the music instead of looking for a renderer as it does now.

 

I've been looking into adding some Alexa functionality to the Glider app, and I believe native rendering of long-form audio has been available to Alexa developers for some time now: 

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/Tx1DSINBM8LUNHY/New-Alexa-Skills-Kit-ASK-Feature-Audio-Streaming-in-Alexa-Skills