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HighResAudio announced HiRes streaming service in Europe


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HighResAudio.com, the German store for HiRes downloads, announced to launch a new streaming service in Europe soon on their Facebook page link:

 

"HighResAudio Streaming: we are bound to launch our subscription based streaming service in Europe! Stay tuned for a unique usability, feature-set and of course our pristine and fully tested, verified and native 24bit FLAC audiophile service. Highly recognized and well known German music journalist are on board to make the HRA streaming service the only serious choice. Pssst ..., the subscription price is a real winner!"

 

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Mmm lossless hi-res FLAC streaming, they must think it's 2017. Lossy hi-res bandwidth saving MQA is the real future for 2007 - I'd give it at least 10 years!

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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"... the subscription price is a real winner!"

 

Will be interesting to see how this compares to the Qobuz Sublime+ subscription and whether Qobuz will respond.

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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4 minutes ago, Marcin_gps said:

I wonder if ECM catalogue will be included... 

 

ECM would be a coup de gras ! On Qobuz they have a few available for streaming but even then, some tracks are 'disabled'.

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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21 minutes ago, james45974 said:

This seems to infer that certain competition is "dirty" or "adulterated" from the original. :)

 

Perhaps it is o.O . I wonder how their production differs from Qobuz ... that might be a key differentiator.

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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I'm curious about it. We've seen a several announcements for HiRes or MQA streaming in January this year (HDtracks, XStream, Napster, Pandorra) but nothing happened since then.

 

The niche for high quality audio streaming is very very small and I think it is difficult to develop a profitable business plan and find financially strong investors for a long term engagement.

 

Like me, a lot of HiRes download customers cannot see any need for streaming in HiRes if the prices are superior. I'm using streaming services primarily to evaluate new music that I intend to buy, for this purpose redbook quality is more than sufficient and a service like Qobuz Sublime (without the +) perfect.

 

The disadvantage for the service provider is that Qobuz cannot earn money with me, because they are subsidizing the streaming service with significant discounts on many HiRes download albums. Within a view weeks, I've already compensated a major part of the annual subscription fee with this discounts. If, beside me, the buying behavior of many more subscribers is similar, this cannot be a profitable business model. 

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33 minutes ago, Charente said:

 

Perhaps it is o.O . I wonder how their production differs from Qobuz ... that might be a key differentiator.

 

The difference is that HRA has a strict quality control and Qobuz not. The majority of my upsampled HiRes fakes are Qobuz purchases, because of this I'm doing my own quality control and check each HiRes purchase with MusicScope.

 

When you are streaming HiRes, this monitoring is impossible and you must trust your ears and your streaming service provider that you really get, what you've payed for.

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That's quite an eye-opening statement ! So, presumably, if the Qobuz downloads are not 'true HiRes', little chance that the stream albums will be ... presumably derived from the same thing. I do hear a quality difference between some albums and have just put it down to the recording/production. I guess that's why HRA have focused on this issue on their FB page, quote: "Don't be fooled or sorry, if your supplier cheats on you. You don't want to buy music that sounds horrible or is manipulated. The screenshot shows you a very bad example - that you shouldn't pay for."

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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I suppose a disadvantage for HRA is that their catalogue is not as large (speculating) ... maybe nowhere near. Fortunately, in the Jazz genre that I'm interested in, they have some great offerings. I do pretty much what you do ... evaluate on streaming but I haven't bought a download from Qobuz yet ... always from HRA.

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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1 hour ago, Charente said:

That's quite an eye-opening statement ! So, presumably, if the Qobuz downloads are not 'true HiRes', little chance that the stream albums will be ... presumably derived from the same thing. I do hear a quality difference between some albums and have just put it down to the recording/production. I guess that's why HRA have focused on this issue on their FB page, quote: "Don't be fooled or sorry, if your supplier cheats on you. You don't want to buy music that sounds horrible or is manipulated. The screenshot shows you a very bad example - that you shouldn't pay for."

 

Perhaps my statement was a bit harsh. From my around 200 downloaded HiRes Qobuz albums, 8 has been fakes, to show you the proportion. Primarily older Classic Rock albums that had been reissued in the early years of "high resolution music", 2012 - 2015, but some new issues as well.

Confronted with the charts from MusicScope, Qobuz always offered me new free downloads as compensation. What makes me angry is, that most of the rejected fakes are still in their catalog, you can download the files unlimited times, so it is easy to check and I'm doing this occasionally.

 

By the way, the MusicScope screenshot on the MacBook you can see on the FB page is a bit fuzzy, but as far as I can see, it is from a 16/44.1 PCM/FLAC track, insofar not really a good example for a "bad example" of a HiRes file.

 

58 minutes ago, Charente said:

I suppose a disadvantage for HRA is that their catalogue is not as large (speculating) ... maybe nowhere near. Fortunately, in the Jazz genre that I'm interested in, they have some great offerings. I do pretty much what you do ... evaluate on streaming but I haven't bought a download from Qobuz yet ... always from HRA.

 

I think, the size of their HiRes catalogs is fairly equal at the end, unfortunately blurred by an absurd distribution politics of the labels and regional restrictions for digital rights, even within the EU.

For sure, HRA has a huge advantage in Classical and Jazz music and it seems as they strive for making up leeway at the Pop/Rock related genres. Anyway, competition is always good for us, the customers.

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Yes, 8/200 fakes does put it into perspective... Interesting evidence nonetheless ... You are clearly an assiduous audiophile !! ... Have you done similar checks on HRA material ?

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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11 minutes ago, #Yoda# said:

 

Of course, I'm checking all HiRes downloads: no fake from around 120 HRA downloads, HDtracks 2/40, 7digital 0/10 and one even from an artists own store and the only one without any refund.

 

Thanks for sharing. By "fake", you mean CD quality being sold as 88k or 96k, etc etc?

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1 minute ago, Em2016 said:

 

Thanks for sharing. By "fake", you mean CD quality being sold as 88k or 96k, etc etc?

 

Not necessarily, actual the very most fakes are originally 24/44.1 or /48 upsampled to 24/96. The most extreme one is Eric Clapton - Slowhand, upsampled from 16/44.1 to 24/192, downloaded from Qobuz in Spring 2015.

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Is that the same MusicScope produced by XIVero, who hypothesised in a white paper (announcing a deeper technical analysys of MQA), "MQA is a lossy audio codec … degrading the achievable audio quality"?

https://www.xivero.com/blog/hypothesis-paper-to-support-a-deeper-technical-analysis-of-mqa-by-mqa-limited/

 

Can MQA be classed as 'fake' HiRes too?

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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Indeed it is ... and used by HRA themselves. 

 

Fake HiRes ? ... I'm sure there are many that could/would weigh in on both sides of that argument, so careful how you go :/ !! HRA have 'pulled back' from MQA while they wait for an answer from the organisation concerning how they can verify provenance as part of their quality testing ... their FB page has a short statement to that effect. I believe it's safe to say that their intended HiRes streaming service will be limited to FLAC 24 bit... to start with anyway .... which they can test, qualify and guarantee.

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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4 minutes ago, Charente said:

HRA have 'pulled back' from MQA while they wait for an answer from the organisation concerning how they can verify provenance as part of their quality testing ... their FB page has a short statement to that effect. I believe it's safe to say that their intended HiRes streaming service will be limited to FLAC 24 bit... to start with anyway .... which they can test, qualify and guarantee.

 HRA has not pulled back the complete MQA catalog, they are still offering some MQA albums. A search for MQA shows 258 hits.

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I guess the MQA releases they keep on catalogue are ones they have been able to qualify thru' their process ... I hope !

 

Altho' 258 isn't an awful lot IMO o.O

Main System: NAS or QOBUZ > BlueSound Node 2i > Schiit Gungnir MultiBit > PYST XLR > Schiit Mjolnir 2 or Gilmore Lite MK2

 

Office System: iMac > Audirvana > Schiit EITR + Audiophonics LPS25 > Metrum FLINT NOS DAC (DAC TWO chips) > Schiit Magni 3+ > Aeon Flow Open

 

Loudspeaker System: NAIM Muso Gen 2

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