iTunes vs Spotify vs the original WAV file

[Vladimir]

Qobuz offers CD quality streaming at 16/44.1 (bandwidth required 1411kbps) in FLAC mode, downloads and even 24bit masters quality. For now this hi-fi streaming is limited to the following countries:

Netherlands

Belgium

Luxembourg

The United Kingdom

Ireland

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

It's only shortcoming is the still small catalog compared to what MOG had or Spotify has today. But it seems they are signing contract more and more and catching up.

 

[davedotco]

I started ripping CDs to Flac using XLD for Mac. This was as an 'archive' copy that could then be used to make mp3s for the ipod or played from a NAS.

I did my research, worked on the set-up which was quite complex, disc offsett and the like. I had just started ripping when I discovered streaming and decided that for my bizzare listening habits, streaming was definitely for me.

Like most on here, direct comparisons of Spotify with identical CDs show very little difference, so small as to be inconsequential. The other side of the coin is that I sometimes find Spotify just a little lacking in the quality of 'engagement', difficult to describe but many of you will know what I mean.

That said it might not be Spotify itself, but the playback equipment, I was genuinely excited by the announcement that Naim were going to give Spotify functionality to their all in one players. I thought that may lift the standard and cause other quality manufacturers (Linn for example) to follow suit.

That nothing has happenned, I find dissapointing.

 

[npoguy]

Qobuz offers CD quality streaming at 16/44.1 (bandwidth required 1411kbps) in FLAC mode, downloads and even 24bit masters quality. For now this hi-fi streaming is limited to the following countries:

Netherlands

Belgium

Luxembourg

The United Kingdom

Ireland

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

It's only shortcoming is the still small catalog compared to what MOG had or Spotify has today. But it seems they are signing contract more and more and catching up.

BTW, you can get it in the US if you send them a nice email

 

[nopiano]

Very interesting, MF, and thanks for the insights. As you say, few of us can have that experience.

I treasure a commercial Decca CD of some sessions I attended at Abbey Road. It was Christopher Hogwood and the AAM with Tony Halstead in the Mozart horn concertos. I was enthraled to be in the studio while these were set down, and hearing the playbacks too. The feed via the B&Ws was definitely a bit subdued compared to the live sound, and that was from digital master tapes, of course.

 

[Broner]

Qobuz offers CD quality streaming at 16/44.1 (bandwidth required 1411kbps) in FLAC mode, downloads and even 24bit masters quality. For now this hi-fi streaming is limited to the following countries:

Netherlands

Belgium

Luxembourg

The United Kingdom

Ireland

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

It's only shortcoming is the still small catalog compared to what MOG had or Spotify has today. But it seems they are signing contract more and more and catching up.

The other shortcoming is that you have to pay 20 euros for high quality streaming: double of the 'ordinary' offer of 320kbps. That's a lot of extra money for something of which I'm not sure I could be bothered with.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

To tied up with Spotify regarding playlists to change to an alternative now.

 

[unsleepable]

My brother has been recently visiting and, just for fun, we did a short test to see how worth it is high-res audio to listen to music. He has worked for many years in a recording studio and now repairs and restores professional audio equipment, so has a trained ear and is used to work with hi-res audio, which is commonly used for mastering.

What I did was taking a couple of 48Khz and 192KHz, 24-bit tracks, and compress them with iTunes into AAC VBR 256 Kbps, the standard for iTunes Plus. So the changes from the originals were downsampling to 44.1Khz, reducing the bit-depth from 24-bit to 16-bit, and lossy compression. When I did this, I didn't pay attention to the order in which iTunes had placed the tracks, so when using the iPad as remote I genuinely did not know which one was the original and which the compressed one.

To his credit, he ended up being able to determine which was the original, but it took a while of going back and forward, constantly changing from one passage to another, and lots of concentration. He looked for specific sounds that would be more susceptible of being affected by the compression. I honestly couldn't tell the difference—even though I noticed a couple of extremelly minor differences, I could have not said that in one case the quality was inferior to the other. And he would not have been able to tell without very close A/B comparison either.

This was with my hi-fi setup, no headphones. And in my living-room, which is far from ideal for a test like this in comparison with a studio. Also, there are tracks that suffer more from compression than others, and I don't think that what I used were difficult ones—Getz/Gilberto, and Sting. But still, I am impressed by the compressed tracks that iTunes produces.

 

[lpv]

Interesting and thanks for the comparison.

I use Spotify Premium and rip my cd's using dbpoweramp lossless Flac with Musicbee as player.

Whilst there is a slight decrease in soundquality I find Spotify easy to listen to, so much so that the issue of SQ never usually enters my head. Ogg Vorbis has a good reputation for Sound quality and I think this manifests itself with Spotify.

Would I pay more for higher quality playback? Perhaps but not to much more. I am not sure if there is a viable alternative to spotify but I love the interface and selection.

regards

Wimp. Very similar to Spotify library ( over 20 million songs and about 80% of it FLAC/ ALAC).. you may think is not available in UK but in fact Wimp is playing in the background right now as I type. It's cheaper then Spotify too.. I pay about £ 8 quid each month.

 

[davedotco]

Interesting and thanks for the comparison.

I use Spotify Premium and rip my cd's using dbpoweramp lossless Flac with Musicbee as player.

Whilst there is a slight decrease in soundquality I find Spotify easy to listen to, so much so that the issue of SQ never usually enters my head. Ogg Vorbis has a good reputation for Sound quality and I think this manifests itself with Spotify.

Would I pay more for higher quality playback? Perhaps but not to much more. I am not sure if there is a viable alternative to spotify but I love the interface and selection.

regards

Wimp. Very similar to Spotify library ( over 20 million songs and about 80% of it FLAC/ ALAC).. you may think is not available in UK but in fact Wimp is playing in the background right now as I type. It's cheaper then Spotify too.. I pay about £ 8 quid each month.

You have, I think, mentioned this before. Care to explain exactly how this works? I tried to sign up but to no avail, help would be appreciated.

 

[namefail]

Interesting and thanks for the comparison.

I use Spotify Premium and rip my cd's using dbpoweramp lossless Flac with Musicbee as player.

Whilst there is a slight decrease in soundquality I find Spotify easy to listen to, so much so that the issue of SQ never usually enters my head. Ogg Vorbis has a good reputation for Sound quality and I think this manifests itself with Spotify.

Would I pay more for higher quality playback? Perhaps but not to much more. I am not sure if there is a viable alternative to spotify but I love the interface and selection.

regards

Wimp. Very similar to Spotify library ( over 20 million songs and about 80% of it FLAC/ ALAC).. you may think is not available in UK but in fact Wimp is playing in the background right now as I type. It's cheaper then Spotify too.. I pay about £ 8 quid each month.

You have, I think, mentioned this before. Care to explain exactly how this works? I tried to sign up but to no avail, help would be appreciated.

There doesn’t seem to be a legit way. Cough, proxy.

 

[lpv]

Wimp is not available in UK but they accept payments from any country, ergo: you can listen in anywhere.. you need to go on Wimp.pl - polish site but I'll try to guide you step by step.

1) https://wimp.pl/wweb/iwannarock/

you need to click on " WYPRÓBUJ ZA DARMO " ( 7 days free trial) in Wimp HiFi section

2) in " E-MAIL TWOJA NAZWA UZYTKOWNIKA" ( E-mail user name) type your email, confirm in window under and password in third window.

then you've got "PŁATNOŚĆ" ( payment), from drop down list choose "ZAPŁAĆ PRZEZ PAYPAL" ( pay with paypal) anyway this is how I pay.. the

other option is Visa/ Mastercard so I presume it works just as good. That we'll direct you to Paypal login.

... and you'e done. Download Wimp on your device from here https://wimp.pl/wweb/download/

Once you've got it - remember Wimp is in Polish - go to settings ( USTAWIENIA) and click on HIFI streaming, that way you listening to FLAC/ ALAC

No hacking involved.

We don't want Wimp to be available in UK bacause once is available it will cost £20.

Any problems with Wimp post back here and I'll try to help.

 

[namefail]

So they don’t have any geographic license restrictions?

 

[lpv]

So they don’t have any geographic license restrictions?

looks like

 

[Broner]

Wimp is not available in UK but they accept payments from any country, ergo: you can listen in anywhere.. you need to go on Wimp.pl - polish site but I'll try to guide you step by step.

1) https://wimp.pl/wweb/iwannarock/

you need to click on " WYPRÓBUJ ZA DARMO " ( 7 days free trial) in Wimp HiFi section

2) in " E-MAIL TWOJA NAZWA UZYTKOWNIKA" ( E-mail user name) type your email, confirm in window under and password in third window.

then you've got "PŁATNOŚĆ" ( payment), from drop down list choose "ZAPŁAĆ PRZEZ PAYPAL" ( pay with paypal) anyway this is how I pay.. the

other option is Visa/ Mastercard so I presume it works just as good. That we'll direct you to Paypal login.

... and you'e done. Download Wimp on your device from here https://wimp.pl/wweb/download/

Once you've got it - remember Wimp is in Polish - go to settings ( USTAWIENIA) and click on HIFI streaming, that way you listening to FLAC/ ALAC

No hacking involved.

We don't want Wimp to be available in UK bacause once is available it will cost £20.

Any problems with Wimp post back here and I'll try to help.

And when someone wants to unsubscribe, will you also be there to guide him through the Polish menu? :twisted:

 

[lpv]

to unsubscribe go to paypal and check ' inactive' next to Wimp Sp. z o.o.

 

[davedotco]

Wimp is not available in UK but they accept payments from any country, ergo: you can listen in anywhere.. you need to go on Wimp.pl - polish site but I'll try to guide you step by step.

1) https://wimp.pl/wweb/iwannarock/

you need to click on " WYPRÓBUJ ZA DARMO " ( 7 days free trial) in Wimp HiFi section

2) in " E-MAIL TWOJA NAZWA UZYTKOWNIKA" ( E-mail user name) type your email, confirm in window under and password in third window.

then you've got "PŁATNOŚĆ" ( payment), from drop down list choose "ZAPŁAĆ PRZEZ PAYPAL" ( pay with paypal) anyway this is how I pay.. the

other option is Visa/ Mastercard so I presume it works just as good. That we'll direct you to Paypal login.

... and you'e done. Download Wimp on your device from here https://wimp.pl/wweb/download/

Once you've got it - remember Wimp is in Polish - go to settings ( USTAWIENIA) and click on HIFI streaming, that way you listening to FLAC/ ALAC

No hacking involved.

We don't want Wimp to be available in UK bacause once is available it will cost £20.

Any problems with Wimp post back here and I'll try to help.

Thanks that's very clear...... :clap:

I shall give it a go.

 

[lpv]

No problem.

One more, email you'll use to create account in Wimp should be same as your paypal email.. but that's obvious I guess.

 

[busb]

To a normal person differences are small. However, to an audiophile they are big as an elephant in a bathroom.

"I have passed the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain busb"

Sometimes, I'm more than happy to be a normal person. :bounce:

A lot of people were disappointed that Apple didn't announce Hi Res downloads at their recent WWDC but nothing was mentioned. Other pundits have speculated that Apple's impending purchase of Beats was cleverer than just buying a particularly naff headphone company - being part of Apple's streaming masterplan.

As a user of both iTunes & free Spotify Premium thanks to Vodafone, I am very happy with both regarding SQ. My ageing ears cannot distinguish between Apple lossless & 320kbps VBR on rips. What's far more more important is the quality of the recordings to start with, IMO than the bit rate or encoding scheme.