Who has a HiFi based around online streaming?

[jarvis]

I don't suppose its the best source of music on the net although theres thousands of songs, albums, good and bad covers to listen to. I down load audio only at 256 and the quality is good enough for my old ears.

Not to keen on spotify after signing in and spending the next six months clearing emails out of my spam box.

Can YouTube do better than 256kbps or is that what you choose as the quality when downloading?

256 is the highest quality of audio offered by firefox youtube download add-on I use, there may be a higher rate on other downloaders its high enough quality for me (and my vintage amp and speakers) and if I find the recording poor I just drop the file in the recycle bin and find another.

Would have never heard of some of the artists I listen to if it wasn't for youtube, love it or loathe it, it does have its uses

 

[Anderson]

I don't suppose its the best source of music on the net although theres thousands of songs, albums, good and bad covers to listen to. I down load audio only at 256 and the quality is good enough for my old ears.

Not to keen on spotify after signing in and spending the next six months clearing emails out of my spam box.

Can YouTube do better than 256kbps or is that what you choose as the quality when downloading?

256 is the highest quality of audio offered by firefox youtube download add-on I use, there may be a higher rate on other downloaders its high enough quality for me (and my vintage amp and speakers) and if I find the recording poor I just drop the file in the recycle bin and find another.

Would have never heard of some of the artists I listen to if it wasn't for youtube, love it or loathe it, it does have its uses

We use Youtube sometimes when we want music videos playing in the background, say we're having a few for example. Fire up the YT app on the PS4, cast via phone to the PS4 and use the music category in YT app on phone, works great tbh

 

[cheeseboy]

for those that aren't afraid of computers and like to tinker, you might want to take a look at subsonic - http://www.subsonic.org/

it's basically setting up your own streaming/music server that can be accessed anywhere. Obviously this means you have to have the unit in your home and on all the time, but at least you know it's your music ripped to how you want it. I've been having a play with it and it's very good. At least that way you know tracks will not dissapear or change quality

 

[John Duncan]

To answer your question though, Major, until I got a new turntable last week my sole music sources were Spotify and YouTube.

Since I got the Flexson, I think I've played more music in the house than I did in the prior two months...

 

[chebby]

Since I got the Flexson ...

I wondereded why Rega never made a budget TT with their Fono-Mini pre-amp and USB built-in.

It's because they do, but under a Sonos flag. (I'll bet it's the most RP1s they've ever shifted.)

 

[iQ Speakers]

I listen to Spotify 100% if i could remember Spotify send you a breakdown in December January tell what you listened to. I think i clocked 800 odd hours last year. I could not do with out it I discover and listen to lots of new bands with the help of Macspur lots of American Modern Alt Inde Folk. The other services dont offer a significant improvement in SQ the CXN upsamples everything and they dont have lots of the albums i want to listen to.

 

[Anderson]

for those that aren't afraid of computers and like to tinker, you might want to take a look at subsonic - http://www.subsonic.org/

it's basically setting up your own streaming/music server that can be accessed anywhere. Obviously this means you have to have the unit in your home and on all the time, but at least you know it's your music ripped to how you want it. I've been having a play with it and it's very good. At least that way you know tracks will not dissapear or change quality

Sounds like pled, does subsonic have mobile apps?

 

[cheeseboy]

for those that aren't afraid of computers and like to tinker, you might want to take a look at subsonic - http://www.subsonic.org/

it's basically setting up your own streaming/music server that can be accessed anywhere. Obviously this means you have to have the unit in your home and on all the time, but at least you know it's your music ripped to how you want it. I've been having a play with it and it's very good. At least that way you know tracks will not dissapear or change quality

Sounds like pled, does subsonic have mobile apps?

yup siree. Think it can do internets radio as well Not 100% sure though as I'm just faffing atm. I'm running it as part of an openmediavault installation. (another excellent bit of free software I can highly reccomend if anybody wants to put a nas together)

 

[John Duncan]

Since I got the Flexson ...

I wondereded why Rega never made a budget TT with their Fono-Mini pre-amp and USB built-in.

It's because they do, but under a Sonos flag. (I'll bet it's the most RP1s they've ever shifted.)

I'll bet. Very good value for the combo, has to be said (and a better finish). Just wish they did a red one.

 

[iMark]

With the various topics that have recently been discussed concerning LAN streaming of lossless files, I was wondering if anyone out there has built a HiFi entirely around online streaming, or is perhaps considering doing so with Apple now muscling-in on the act, five years late? I'm sure I've read a few posts on here from people who have built such a system, but possibly they don't post here regularly.

I think it's 6 or 7 years ago I bought an Airport Express. Back then it had 2 purposes:

-Stream music with AirTunes (as Airplay was called) from my Mac to the stereo without using a very long cable. I had started ripping our CD collection to Apple Lossless files back then.

-Using it on holiday to set up a WiFi network if only ethernet was available.

In 2010 we bought a DACMagic to improve the sound of the streaming. We started subscribing to Spotify Premium in May 2010. What I really like about Spotify is the classical music. I can listen to dozens of different interpretations of Beethoven Symphonies or Mozart Piano Concertos without having to leave the house. For classical music lovers Spotify is a tremendous source. And by using an upsampling DAC for listening the sound quality is very enjoyable. It's not CD, but very good indeed. Visitors often can't believe that they're listening to a streaming service.

So basically we have bolted digital streaming onto our analogue system (as you see in the equipment list). We don't have any CDs in the living room anymore. If we want to listen to a CD, we stream it from the iTunes library and we use a 1st generation iPad as the remote control. The iPad is also used for streaming Spotify. And we still listen to FM radio (provided by our cable operator) and sometimes a Minidisc.

All in all we're very happy with the flexibility of our system. I wonder if I were 18 I would bother with collecting physical discs and simply build a system that's great at streaming without any optical discs at all.

But because we have hundreds of CDs, LPs, DVD's and Blurays we want to be able to play them. Digitizing LPs has become another little hobby, simply because it is wonderful to be able to listen to a favourite LP when you're in the car or on a train.

Only streaming is a couple of bridges too far.

 

[Leeps]

I do, well almost!

I've been using Tidal for 6 months or so as my main source, albeit not exclusively. After using Tidal and Spotify side by side for a few months, I decided I couldn't justify both any longer and had to go for one or the other.

I went through my CD collection and starred my albums on Tidal, so 99% of my albums are now online. There are a few noteworthy omissions, particularly for one of my favourite bands, the Unthanks. Although there are a few albums that have now been added to the service in recent months, like Feist's repertoire. I adore Feist's ballads so I was really pleased to see her music appear.

It's not perfect, but suits me. At present I resort to Airplay, which serviceable but not ideal. When funds allow I would like to purchase a Bluesound Node to enable me to use Tidal using a wired connection from router to amp and to take full advantage of my broadband speeds. But I love the freedom of creating playlists. In the past I used tape and subsequently CDR for my own compilations. It's something I've always enjoyed doing, so creating playlists for each genre or mood or artist has been great fun.

Classical is another matter though. Although I guess classical is about 20% of my admittedly very eclectic tastes, the albums available on Tidal are mixed. There are some beautifully produced ones and there are some proper stinkers too. Sifting through them take some time: some albums, artists or composers are tagged in very odd inconsistent ways, so it can take some time to locate what you're looking for. And I tend to listen to classical music in a very different way. Other genres I enjoy musical discovery, trying new things, searching out new artists. And Tidal (like Spotify and the rest) is very good at that. But when I'm in a classical mood, I tend to revert to particular favourites that I like to play over and over again. There are some (like all four Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos) that I've listened to for years and just never tire of. It's a bit like enjoying a favourite whisky.

So with classical, I tend to still use physical discs. Partly to listen to certain versions of my favourite music that sound "the correct productions" whereas other versions of the same music are either too fast, too slow or emphasise certain instruments in the wrong place (wrong purely in my own mind of course).

And its with classical mainly that I've experimented with and thoroughly enjoy SACD and Bluray Audio. Some of the 7.1 mixes I have in DTS Master quality are truly dazzling. So I'm happy to reserve physical media for classical or the odd individual album not represented on Tidal (which is about half a dozen albums).

In addition to Tidal, I use YouTube more and more for music discovery (try Deezer Sessions, Wood & Wires, NPR music, Sunday Sessions etc.) and particularly intimate live recordings of artists I like. There are some beautiful live sets by The Staves, Phox, Benjamin Clementine and Jose Gonzalez for example.

 

[T1mb0]

I've been using streaming playback through Sonos as my only source for a few years now. First Spotify then about 18months ago changed over to Qobuz for FLAC and more 24bit editions (although these get played from my mac). Managed to mentally get over the no ownership of the music issue some time ago and never looked back.

Slightly off topic but I'd be interested to know if anyone has changed from Sonos Connect to Bluesound Node and if they found it worthwhile?

 

[iQ Speakers]

iMark i recently installed some AVI ADM9.1's for my mum running off of a Amazon Fire TV for classical music via Spotify.

However on the TV part of the Fire TV there are 2 channels run by Orchestras one free and one you have to but tickets to watch live concerts, Looked very good.

 

[knaithrover]

Spotify/DNLA/Internet radio from my tablet ipad and phone into my Marantz MC-R510 and Dali Zensor 3's - Cheap, simple to use and sounds fantastic with endless variety.

That said I do have a 'proper' hifi as well with vinyl cd and cassette which I also love very much

 

[iMark]

iMark i recently installed some AVI ADM9.1's for my mum running off of a Amazon Fire TV for classical music via Spotify.

However on the TV part of the Fire TV there are 2 channels run by Orchestras one free and one you have to but tickets to watch live concerts, Looked very good.

I know the Berliner Philharmoniker have a channel through an app on our Sony TV. It's not free but seems pretty good. Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day to watch stuff. But it is amazing that there is so much stuff out there.

We get the French channel Mezzo and the Dutch channel Brava in our cable TV package. Especially Mezzo has some exciting programming, both classical as well as jazz.

http://www.mezzo.tv/en/receive-mezzo-england

Unfortunately not available in the UK (yet).

 

[tino]

The nice thing about hifi today is the wide variety of sources you can access at various price points, so why limit yourself to just one? I am currently enjoying a 1 year free Deezer subscription courtesy of Sonos and, after internet radio, it is the source I most listen to at the moment, more so than my own ripped music collection. I doubt whether I would continue the service and pay £10/month; I consider £5/month is a more acceptable price point to me for a basic on-demand streaming service which is all I need. Any more than that and I'll just listen to the some of the millions of internet radio stations out there, and keep buying CDs.

On another point ... I would be wary of equipment with built in dependency to online services ... what guarantee that is there that it will be able to use those services in say 1, 2, 5 or 10 years time if the manufacturer doesn't keep their device firmware up to date or the service is revoked? I've already been hit by the obsolesence bug twice now in a short space of time.

 

[MajorFubar]

If we differentiate between those services which 'kind of' store your music and stream it back to you (eg Google Music, iTunes Match) and those subscription services which stream their own catalogue for a fee (eg Spotify and Qobuz) I remain distictly wary of the latter considering that music can (and has, for me) disappeared without warning, presumably because the copyright holder / label / whoever holds the strings withdraws the service's rights to stream it in my territory. I think for that reason alone I will never desert purchased music.

 

[Anderson]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

 

[chebby]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

I have been averaging £50 per month in the last 8 months peaking at around £90 (mostly BBC Audio CDs). All ripped. (Finally caught up with them all!).

I envisage about £20 per month until October - January when BBC Physical Audio will be launching a tranche of stuff every month that I will want and the purchasing (and ripping) will accelerate agan. A lot of collections / box-sets too.

 

[tino]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

7 used CDs for under a tenner this month. Same again in 2 or 3 months time.

 

[Anderson]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

I have been averaging £50 per month in the last 8 months peaking at around £90 (mostly BBC Audio CDs). All ripped. (Finally caught up with them all!).

I envisage about £20 per month until October - January when BBC Physical Audio will be launching a tranche of stuff every month that I will want and the purchasing (and ripping) will accelerate agan. A lot of collections / box-sets too.

5 times as much as me then. Going by your interests it would seem the streaming services don't quite cut it for your musical kinks

 

[Anderson]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

7 used CDs for under a tenner this month. Same again in 2 or 3 months time.

Are you buying used? Flip we don't even have a CD player in the house, not even in the computers although I think the PS4 might be able to play CD's.

 

[chebby]

Flip we don't even have a CD player in the house, not even in the computers although I think the PS4 might be able to play CD's.

My Marantz has a built-in CD player but i've only ever played it for a few minutes to make sure it works. My host iTunes machine (Mac Mini) has no optical drive but it doesn't need one.

I just plug in one of these when I get a stack of CDs to rip and pop it back in the drawer when finished.

 

[tino]

Flip we don't even have a CD player in the house, not even in the computers although I think the PS4 might be able to play CD's.

I sold my audio CD player, only have one I occassionally plug into my PC for ripping purposes. As a playing format I don't use CD, but as a medium to transfer 1's and 0's it is still better and cheaper than downloading.

 

[MajorFubar]

How much would you spend on music (owned) a month?

Peaks and wanes, for me. Over a period of a year I'll perhaps buy a dozen CDs, 20 max, but rarely will more than 3 of them be new. Unlike records, where I've learned that some people's idea of "near mint" is my idea of "fcuked", used CDs are generally a safe bet, and I've bought a duffer maybe once in a hundred purchases. Though the jewel cases are usually buggered. What TF do people do with them?!