Idagio. Good for classical or an irritation?

Barnaby

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Hi all,

I'm after a streaming service for classical. I've given up on Apple Music/Spotify/Amazon for this and although Qobuz seems a good bit better I'm actually coming to the conclusion nothing does everything well and considering mixing two.

I would keep Apple music for general listening but so that I can get fairly good classical streaming I'm looking at some options like Idagio or Primephonic.

I don' t know much about these last two but downloaded a trial of Idagio yesterday and they immediately made me hate them as they put me on a trial period of two weeks and said my subscription would automatically start after that. There was no information easily available as to what that sub would cost or any options I had. So I dug into my Apple subscriptions list to find they were about to automatically charge me nearly £200 at the end of the trial as I'd agreed to it. In addition their app was the buggiest I've used. It hung, wasn unresponsive and generally unreliable. If this is the way they do business well they can forget it!

Does anyone have any good experiences with them or can someone who has used Primephonic or other service comment on how well they found them?

Thanks
 

Barnaby

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Thank you both. I’be downloaded trials of all three now. Qobuz seems like an all rounder which is good and Primephonic has a promising interface.

Not that keen on Idagio’s sluggush performance and I’m not expecting much customer service but I will see how it goes
 

Barnaby

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So far I'm really impressed with Primephonic. It's fast, good interface, and I like the information they give you as well as suggestions for music you might like.
 
So far I'm really impressed with Primephonic. It's fast, good interface, and I like the information they give you as well as suggestions for music you might like.
I think you’re doing the right thing with various trials. I’ve been with Qobuz since their early days because of the higher resolution options, and they are now very competitive on price. But I completely get why others will choose a rival service.
I tried IDAGIO briefly but only seemed to get ‘radio‘ channels, and I mainly value integration with my streamer.
 

Barnaby

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The only thing about Primephonic I don't like is no desktop app and thats my main way of listening. I need to use the webplayer which means I can't download music for listening like I can with Qobuz, the other major contender for me.
 

Barnaby

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i use primephonic. i am impressed.

I like their service levels, and the daily suggestions they offer, too.

I like them too as above but how do you find using only the web player on your main music computer or is this not how you use the service? It's the main way I listen and I wish they had an app for desktop use.
 

Barnaby

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Well my findings to date are as follows.

Idagio.
Awful. App is buggy. Don't like the way they do business re trying to lock you into the highest tier without telling you. Terrible experience and I hated it.

Qobuz
All right at most things. Moderately good to use. Fair for most genres. Good sound quality for sure. It works in a limited way with Apple Carplay which is good for me. It's just "all right" at everything but not great at anything.

Apple Music
Good app. Usual Apple slick interface and usual Apple quirkiness and stupidity from time to time. Still generally the nicest app to use for most functions. Siri is useable when driving etc. Works well with Carplay as you would expect. Sound is all right. Certainly plenty good enough for the car.

Primephonic
In many ways absolutely brilliant for classical. An excellent app for phone but no integration with Carplay and ( totally bafflingly !!) no Desktop App to allow for downloads etc Mind you, it's so good, I'd forgive that if it wasn't restricted to one genre. I listen to lots of styles of music and am loathe to pay that kind of money for just classical. Probably the best combination for me would be to have it and Apple Music but it's too expensive.

As is I'm likely to either go with Qobuz as a jack of all trades master of none, or else Primephonic with Apple, depending on how flush I'm feeling at the time. I'd do an annual subscription to whichever I choose.
 
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Niallivm

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I’m with Qobuz but plan to change from being tied to annual sub to monthly at renewal time as I want to see what happens with Spotify lossless and how Apple respond. Ideally I’ll have just the one service but currently pay for two (Qobuz and an Apple Music sub for the family)
 

Barnaby

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I liked your review above - thanks!

Has anything sounded better than Qobuz to you? That’s the most important thing to me as long as it’s usable. I liked their early days when it was much more quirky and obviously French!

I haven't analysed or compared consciously. As far as I'm concerned Primephonic sounds every bit as good as Qobuz and possibly more. Honestly, none of the lossless options left me feeling shortchanged and, for me, it would certainly not be a reason to choose one over the other, so I would go with the one with the easiest interface including discovering new music options, and best catalogue,. The only thing letting Primephonic down f ( for me ) is the lack of a desktop app and no integration with Carplay.
 

bartrik

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I'm a big classical music fan, and I like the idea Primephonic pays the musicians a fairer share than the other streaming services.
But Roon integration is a must for me. So I go with Qobuz for the moment. Since the last Roon update, classical is spoiled by the way!
I emailed Primephonic, and they answered me they are working on Roon integration. I'll be a subscriber then.
 
I'm a big classical music fan, and I like the idea Primephonic pays the musicians a fairer share than the other streaming services.
But Roon integration is a must for me. So I go with Qobuz for the moment. Since the last Roon update, classical is spoiled by the way!
I emailed Primephonic, and they answered me they are working on Roon integration. I'll be a subscriber then.
It’s a side issue to the title, but I wonder how Primephonic pay more to musicians. When the recent rows blew up about streaming it appeared that revenue goes to the labels, and they’re the ones screwing the artists.
 

bartrik

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It’s a side issue to the title, but I wonder how Primephonic pay more to musicians. When the recent rows blew up about streaming it appeared that revenue goes to the labels, and they’re the ones screwing the artists.

I read a long interview with the people who run Primephonic, and I could feel they are genuine music lovers, aware that without musicans, there will be no music anymore. I tend to believe their promise that they will pay the artists better.
 

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