My Tidal subscription is about to expire, what next?

[eddantes]

Boy - you guys have fantasticaly resolving hearing!

There's no way I could hear a difference between Spotify's 320 vorbis stream and any of the lossless ones. I can sit and focus and maaaaayyybee.... on soooomeee tracks.... if I reaaalllllly focus.... but otherwise, nope. (Who's kidding who - I wont be able to tell)

I'm OK with that. It means that I don't need to "chase sinad" into the stratosphere and all that goes along with it.

 

[Jim Matthews]

I have a question, I heard streaming bit perfect on a windows machine using spotify and jriver or foobar is doable, is this technique also possible on Android devices?

Is that how Volumio operates?

I use their App on my tablet to stream Qobuz or Tidal. I was under the impression all the decoding happens in the DAC.

 

[dmac6419]

I have a question, I heard streaming bit perfect on a windows machine using spotify and jriver or foobar is doable, is this technique also possible on Android devices? Bypassing the windows mixer was possible, i don't know bypassing android mixer could be possible? (just like what uapp does for tidal and qobuz)

I can stream 16/44 and sometimes higher with EOS or Jriver app for andriod, some extensions won't pass through like wv,ape,etc it will transcode to 320kbps or lower depending on app settings, haven't streamed with foobar.

 

[Jet Black]

Is that how Volumio operates?

I use their App on my tablet to stream Qobuz or Tidal. I was under the impression all the decoding happens in the DAC.

I never heard of volumio but for tidal and qobuz streaming, uapp is what I always see on the forum threads that I read and since I'm on spotify, it won't work. I'm looking for a uapp kinda thing that will work on spotify streaming on Android, hoping a tad upgrade in sound quality would be noticeable.

Yes the decoding happens on the DAC however before the info goes to the dac it passes to the Android mixer first (or windows mixer if you are on a windows machine) so the idea of uapp is that it uses its own drivers as Android and windows kinda down samples the bit rates (as per i read on these forums). I don't know about volumio if it does the same thing. Hiby music player and Foo bar and others does bit per bit too and bypasses the operating systems mixer.

 

[Jim Matthews]

Yes the decoding happens on the DAC however before the info goes to the dac it passes to the Android mixer first (or windows mixer if you are on a windows machine) so the idea of uapp is that it uses its own drivers as Android and windows kinda down samples the bit rates (as per i read on these forums). I don't know about volumio if it does the same thing. Hiby music player and Foo bar and others does bit per bit too and bypasses the operating systems mixer.

Volumio supports Spotify. It also claims to be "bit perfect".
There's a free version, too.

I believe that when you select output type, the mixing is done externally.
(But this is above my "pay grade".)

https://volumio.github.io/docs/FAQs/Audio_Output.html

https://community.volumio.org/t/volumio-plugins-collection/38741

 

[Jet Black]

Volumio supports Spotify. It also claims to be "bit perfect".
There's a free version, too.

I believe that when you select output type, the mixing is done externally.
(But this is above my "pay grade".)

https://volumio.github.io/docs/FAQs/Audio_Output.html

https://community.volumio.org/t/volumio-plugins-collection/38741

Is there a big difference steaming on direct spotify on 320kbps as oppose to using volumio? How big the upgrade in sound quality does it present?

 

[Jim Matthews]

Is there a big difference steaming on direct spotify on 320kbps as oppose to using volumio? How big the upgrade in sound quality does it present?

I have yet to use Spotify.

My interest in Volumio is largely based on their free trial and reasonable charge for a yearly subscription. I'll keep it because it works well.

My results with Tidal and Qobuz are encouraging.
These services offer higher resolution streams that are as good (or better) than the same tracks on my NAS. As you already know, a service like Spotify carries more variety than most of us can imagine.

Spotify has promised higher resolution files (FLAC) from their catalog this year.

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-02-22/five-things-to-know-about-spotify-hifi/

 

[Nicolaas]

I have a question, I heard streaming bit perfect on a windows machine using spotify and jriver or foobar is doable, is this technique also possible on Android devices? Bypassing the windows mixer was possible, i don't know bypassing android mixer could be possible? (just like what uapp does for tidal and qobuz)

I installed USB Audioplayer Pro on my Android tablets and phones. Then I connected my D90 via an OTG USB cable. On my Android tablets I do have a few hundred albums in FLAC. And sound quality is great playing flac files from Android tablet via USB OTG cable to Topping D90 USB dac. However I did not test with Spotify.
Hold on: Just tried Spotify (free tier) on my Samsung Android tablet and it also streams perfectly via an USB OTG cable to my Topping D90 DAC. Only 1 strange thing in this case that is: my D90 DAC switches to 192 kHz. USB audio player Pro streams my 44.1 flac files with 44.1 kHz from Android to D90.
Using Spotify from my NUC with Linux also streams with 44.1 kHz.
Maybe a negotiation problem between Spotify/Android and Topping D90 via OTG/USB...

 

[tparm]

This thread is funny. And a manifestation of how opinions of some spoil a perfectly fair question posed.

There are many ways to listen to music. In this case you are asking about streaming, I stream 75% of my music (25% Flac files on USB) in Pure Direct (no Audyssey, no subs) using Tidal with my Node 2 doing the first MQA unfold and passing digital signal to a Gustard X16 then analog to my AVR. If you playback in any mode which engages room correction, your signal is digitized and you are no longer using your fancy external DAC. I get Tidal for a good deal ($10.99/mo or something like that) with a discount I receive. For me, it is a deal as I really like the recommended stations, tracks, playlists it creates and Connect; the user interface suits me. I don't think many (any) of us here can hear a difference between Qobuz, Amazon HD or Tidal. For me it is about the user experience and Tidal is far superior to Amazon in my experience. I am keenly interested to try out Spotify HiFi when its introduced.

Of note, carefully read between the lines with these services. Qobuz just announced Hi-Res with Sonos, however it is only for 24/48 files, any other will be down-sampled to 16/44, its just weird and to me sort of a half truth.

Anyway, I can only speak from my experience so I hope its helpful. Why people on this thread are discussing vinyl and the history of music CDs are beyond me.

 

[sal]

Why people on this thread are discussing vinyl and the history of music CDs are beyond me

Because people feel the overwhelming need to respond to contrary opinions and perceived misstatements .

 

[Racheski]

Aaaaand just discovered you can add your local music into Spotify, and even add them into playlists with streamed music. Very nice feature!