Spotify

[JoelSim]

Well I am Spotified up now. Nice idea and very handy once the long and tough installation of AE, Spotify, Airtfoil, Updates etc etc has been done. And the fact that on my missis' computer it just won't work.

Can't help feeling that even at 320kbps it's lacking a huge amount of warmth compared to equivalent CDs.

And yes I will try a lossless at some stage, but for now I'm Bill Gates'd out!

Good for finding new music I imagine, and party playlists.

 

[sthomas048]

Try as i might to take to 320kbps audio i cant. Like you say, its simply not as good as cd. Lossless is good though. At the end of the day id rather just buy a cd and know im getting quality audio. Plus the little booklet you get with cds. Its a bit like reading a book versus reading on a mobile or portable device. Im such a luddite sometimes ! Ha.

 

[JoelSim]

sthomas048:Try as i might to take to 320kbps audio i cant. Like you say, its simply not as good as cd. Lossless is good though. At the end of the day id rather just buy a cd and know im getting quality audio. Plus the little booklet you get with cds. Its a bit like reading a book versus reading on a mobile or portable device. Im such a luddite sometimes ! Ha.

I'm playing it through my Unico CDP and it sounds ok, but lacking in involvement. I can live with it for finding new artists but not for critical listening. Where's the bass gone?

 

[JoelSim]

Where can I get TalkSport and other radio stations. I'm on a Mac so Windows Media Players don't work. Is there a site that streams loads of radio stations that I can bookmark?

 

[Anonymous]

I just book mark th estreaming page for the readio sitres i listen to most.

Though you were anti all this digital stuff?!

 

[matthewpiano]

Anti digital? He is a CD fan!!

 

[chebby]

JoelSim:Where can I get TalkSport and other radio stations

For BBC stations look on the BBC where they have always been....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio

And very good it sounds too being AAC. No 'players' like iTunes or WMP required. BBC iPlayer has it's own platform that works on PC or Mac alike.

Talksport is here....

http://www.talksport.net/

Talksport is on Freeview radio too (and Skybox or whatever else you use for TV) so just run an optical cable to a spare input on your DAC if you think it merits it. (Does something called 'TalkSport' actually deserve this degree of effort for audio quality? Why not just play it on your TV?)

For other internet radio stations just open your iTunes and click on 'radio' (on the left hand side under 'library'.)

JoelSim: I'm on a Mac so Windows Media Players don't work.

Here you go....

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx

All free.

Of course a strong FM stereo radio signal through a roof mounted FM aerial - and something like a £10 Denon tuner from ebay - will slay internet radio or DAB or Freeview for quality so long as your favourite stations are provided in your area.

[Edit] Just noticed you have an Arcam T61 so forget the £10 Denon. Hopefully you have a good FM roof aerial and hopefully you signed the No. 10 petition against FM 'switch off'

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:

JoelSim:Where can I get TalkSport and other radio stations

For BBC stations look on the BBC where they have always been....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio

And very good it sounds too being AAC. No 'players' like iTunes or WMP required. BBC iPlayer has it's own platform that works on PC or Mac alike.

Talksport is here....

http://www.talksport.net/

Talksport is on Freeview radio too (and Skybox or whatever else you use for TV) so just run an optical cable to a spare input on your DAC if you think it merits it. (Does something called 'TalkSport' actually deserve this degree of effort for audio quality? Why not just play it on your TV?)

For other internet radio stations just open your iTunes and click on 'radio' (on the left hand side under 'library'.)

JoelSim: I'm on a Mac so Windows Media Players don't work.

Here you go....

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx

All free.

Of course a strong FM stereo radio signal through a roof mounted FM aerial - and something like a £10 Denon tuner from ebay - will slay internet radio or DAB or Freeview for quality so long as your favourite stations are provided in your area.

[Edit] Just noticed you have an Arcam T61 so forget the £10 Denon. Hopefully you have a good FM roof aerial and hopefully you signed the No. 10 petition against FM 'switch off'

Radio reception is rubbish where I live at the moment and it's quite nice to listen to the radio sometimes especially on my second set of speakers in the kitchen on a Sunday, or if football is on. And invariably the TV is being watched, or Peppa Pig on DVD at least! Hence why I'm really interested in decent quality radio.

If we were planning on staying there we would get a roof aerial, but we're not.

I tried streaming off Talksport last night and it said I didn;t have the programme to do this, hence my request.

 

[chebby]

JoelSim:
I tried streaming off Talksport last night and it said I didn;t have the programme to do this, hence my request.

Hence my suggestion (and link) for flip4mac it will work. I guarantee it. I have just successfully played Talksport 'listen live' on my iMac.

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:JoelSim:

I tried streaming off Talksport last night and it said I didn;t have the programme to do this, hence my request.

Hence my suggestion (and link) for flip4mac it will work. I guarantee it. I have just successfully played Talksport 'listen live' on my iMac.

Thanks mate

 

[JoelSim]

Nope, have downloaded it and it says I don't have a MIME application plug in or something

Bloody computers. Took me hours last night to get this far and no matter what I do, I can't get anything to work of the missus' Mac.

 

[chebby]

Weird.

Guess you and your Mac are simply jinxed when it comes to all things digital audio.

 

[Anonymous]

thats because dispite all the macites telling us that they are the way forward and more intuitive to use, they are in reality, a little rubbish.

Had one for 2+ years and am so glad to be back on a pc (with the exception of battery life)

 

[chebby]

Eddie, Talksport worked fine for me on my iMac (with flip4mac) this morning first try.

(Mind you I don't use Safari on the Mac. Safari is pants.)

I will try Talksport with Safari on the Mac later (when the wife has finished with it) and see what happens.

[Edit] Talksport works fine with Safari on the iMac. No 'plugin' messages. (Unlike on firefox however it was riddled with tacky adverts so I got out of there quick and deleted all cookies and cache etc.)

 

[professorhat]

Works fine for me as well on my Mac (10.5.7) - have tried it in both Firefox and Safari and no issues at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Talk sport on the mac is fine,i use it quite often.

I used to have a pc and went to Mac-never crashed on me once and had for over a year now.

On spotify i think its not too bad-but i like to pplay a CD! Much better quality!

I am also testing an old Vinyl record deck and that sound great too-sharper and more depth,plus the turntable i have is very old.

 

[JoelSim]

I can play radio through my Mac, but I can't get it to stream over Airfoil.

 

[survivor]

Reading your thread last night Joel reminded me that I`ve been meaning to sign up myself. There`s a lot of albums around at the moment that I`d like to listen to before deciding on wether to buy or not.

So, there I am last night about to take the plunge. I set up my account creating a user name and password but when I hit the download button it said my current security settings would not allow me to sign up?

Anyone any idea which actual security setting would prevent me from downloading Spotify? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[JoelSim]

survivor:

Reading your thread last night Joel reminded me that I`ve been meaning to sign up myself. There`s a lot of albums around at the moment that I`d like to listen to before deciding on wether to buy or not.

So, there I am last night about to take the plunge. I set up my account creating a user name and password but when I hit the download button it said my current security settings would not allow me to sign up?

Anyone any idea which actual security setting would prevent me from downloading Spotify? Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm not your man on that Stu. Never work with animals, children or computers if you can possibly avoid it.

 

[survivor]

Not to worry Joel. Hopefully a pc wiz will pick up on this later today. Thanks anyway.

 

[chebby]

I downloaded spotify successfully and registered and got the free service running.

But if I log in to work (via our secure VPN from home) then spotify does not function. (Strange because iTunes downloads and everything else will work ok via secure work connection.)

From what I heard of Spotify it was ok but not 'wow' and there are plenty of other options that sound as good. I certainly would not pay a tenner a month for it!

Maybe the relevant corporate firewall bods blocked it after Spotify's major security breach earlier in the year.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Chebby, if you're signed up to the free service, you're not hearing what Spotify is capable of - bit-rate of Premium service is @320kbps, which is the highest-quality streaming service currently available. Free service is, I believe, a mere @160kbps.

Anyhow, i'm off to see Spotify this afternoon....

 

[idc]

Clare, can you ask them about their search functions, and in particular any plans for a good old A-Z of bands and albums. Thanks.

 

[idc]

chebby:

I downloaded spotify successfully and registered and got the free service running.

But if I log in to work (via our secure VPN from home) then spotify does not function. (Strange because iTunes downloads and everything else will work ok via secure work connection.)

From what I heard of Spotify it was ok but not 'wow' and there are plenty of other options that sound as good. I certainly would not pay a tenner a month for it!

Maybe the relevant corporate firewall bods blocked it after Spotify's major security breach earlier in the year.

I have logged onto Spotify at other PCs without a problem, after I have downloaded the player to the PC. I am not sure what a VPN is, but it sounds like you are trying to log on via another PC. Try downloading onto each PC.

The breach of password security has again been sorted and I have read of no other issues.

 

[Clare Newsome]

idc:Clare, can you ask them about their search functions, and in particular any plans for a good old A-Z of bands and albums. Thanks.

Sadly the meeting was under NDA - but there's some VERY exciting stuff coming up. Watch this space as/when we can tell you more!