computer music novice advice needed

[admin_exported]

hi

i have reciently subscribed to spotify premium, and i am amazed at
the sound quality at 320 kbs direct from my laptop via usb to my dacs,
i have a musical fidelity v3 dac and the cambridge dacmagic,
i dont want to get into downloading yet just stream direct to my hifi,
what i would like to know is there any higher bit rates you can stream
direct to your hifi, on any other music streaming sites and use them just like a jukebox straight to you hifi at highest
lossless quality,, please bear in mind i am a computer novice and slowly trying to get to grips with computer music..

 

[idc]

Good question, Spotify's premium is higher than Napster, We7, Sky Songs and Facebooks music service. I am not sure about Grooveshark as I cannot find any information. Bear in mind as well Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis and I am sure, from what I have read and my own experience, the codec used also makes a difference. I am going to go and find out more.

EDIT -there is a lot of conflicting info out there, so I cannot confirm Sky Songs or Napster, but so far the list is;

Spotify, Ogg Vorbis, 160kbps standard, 320 kbps premium.

Sky Songs, AAC, 46kbps

Napster. WMA?, 128kbps or 32kbps.

We7, MP3?, 192kbps

So Sky Songs and Napster appear to stream at a very low bit rate, but AAC is higher quality that MP3 and it would seem the list is not really comparing like for like. I found a compariosn of Spotify standard vs Sky Songs where 16 people were asked to chose and 11 prefered Spotify. However, the test did point out that the codec used could have as big an influence on sound as the actual bit rate.

This may well be a case of specifications do not necessarily reveal ultimate sound quality, just as is the case with all hifi componenets.

As for a jukebox, do you mean a random playlist/play facility?

 

[Anonymous]

hi
idc thanks for the reply,- with the jukebox part what i mean is to search the streaming sites for the music i
want to hear and just play the music back as i wish direct to dac and hifi.at highest bit rate possible.

 

[idc]

To find music I know of no other way that to manually search each site and then create playlists to make future access simpler. I find Spotify is the simplest to way to make playlists. It also has the advantage with the premium service of allowing playlists to be downloaded and accessed off line. I have a number of playlists of favourite albums and the various genres covering my love of all prog rock music.

After Spotfiy I use Grooveshark, but without playlist as it needs joining and there are 'licensing' issues. Then we7, but its SQ is the poorest I find.

For search simplicity, ability to make playlists and listen off line, to act as your jukebox and get the best sound quality, I would stay with Spotify.