Pandora >Tidal>Amazon Unlimited >Spotify, and now Google

[Archguy]

Available in the US this summer sometime.. Hi Rez without the need for yet another DAC.
Qobuz streaming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qobuz

Thanks; I'll keep an eye on it though it looks to be a tad costly. OTOH, for someone like me who listens to music virtually every waking hour I guess the hourly rate doesn't work out to much. I've no desire to DL anything though, and would have to experiment to learn if high-rez will be appreciated/justified around here.

Separately, and going back to the previous topic a bit, this auto-disconnect thing between Pandora and Chromecast is now driving me crazy. It often happens almost immediately after I connect. Then it starts playing whatever it wants, and nothing I can do will stop it. Last night I turned off the tablet and my router, and it kept on playing. How is that possible? I ended up unplugging my router, and still it continued. Where is the signal coming from?* I hate it when impossible stuff happens, and it seems to happen all the time.

I ended up turning my amplifiers off. At least that worked. But of course then I had no music. So I listened through my phone speakers like a teenager. Perhaps I should return to playing CDs.

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*Mind you, I eventually realized it had to be the CCA buffer..

 

[+48V]

It often happens almost immediately after I connect. Then it starts playing whatever it wants, and nothing I can do will stop it.

Aye. See my last bullet point on Pandora Premium here. Pandora's autoplay is evil and obviously still causing a yet to be addressed rookie on-demand streaming party foul.

CCA casting has a bigtime bug. Upon sleep or not being primary window it loses focus/control of the current CCA stream. Waking the app, it starts a 2nd “new” auto-playing instance on the phone. Boo hiss!

 

[Archguy]

Google Home forgot one of my CCA units so I had to reset everything. Now it found the missing unit but the output level is seriously attenuated. I need to have the amp on that channel turned way up, which is a tad unsettling.

Unplug your Router and Chromecast from electrical wall outlets for 5 minutes, and turn your Android device OFF/ON

Seriously, what happens between Minute 4 and Minute 5 that hasn't happened by Minute 2?

Draining some filter caps or something?

 

[audiobliss]

Just go to bluetooth , I tried the CCA and went back to my Audioengine B1. Just as good with no stress .

 

[Archguy]

Thanks but I have 12 CCA zones! Normally four or five playing at once. Try that with BT!

Currently it's doing the dual-instance thing but w/o the shrill interruption. I like to think this is because I complained and their engineering dept gave me a special dispensation, but I don't really believe that. Anyway it's much more pleasant--when I hear the tablet playing (in addition to the stereo systems) I simply close Pandora on the tablet. Music keeps playing and I stay relatively happy.

 

[JumboMumbo]

Personally, for me Spotify is the best. Partially because I started using it early (around 2011), and so I have a lot of playlists and saved albums that I don't want to have to transfer to another app, plus I like the friends activity bar to see what my friends are listening to. I recently tried Tidal, I was not impressed. The sound quality was not a revelation, and the user interface was lacking in my opinion. Not having a MQA compatible DAC, that feature is useless to me. The "master" MQA files sounded worse to me than the "Hi-Fi" lossless files (again, because I don't have an MQA DAC). The sound quality in Spotify is sufficient for me to utilize the convenience and musical exploration of streaming. If I want higher quality I go to my CD collection. Also factor in Tidal wants to charge double the amount, it's a no-brainer.

I used to use Pandora, and had quite a few stations I really liked. I cancelled it, though, just to save money. Pandora is a great discovery tool, and great for when you want to play music but not select music. I could see myself using it again.

Those three are the only ones I've used.

 

[Archguy]

Personally, for me Spotify is the best. Partially because I started using it early (around 2011), and so I have a lot of playlists and saved albums that I don't want to have to transfer to another app, plus I like the friends activity bar to see what my friends are listening to. I recently tried Tidal, I was not impressed. The sound quality was not a revelation, and the user interface was lacking in my opinion. Not having a MQA compatible DAC, that feature is useless to me. The "master" MQA files sounded worse to me than the "Hi-Fi" lossless files (again, because I don't have an MQA DAC). The sound quality in Spotify is sufficient for me to utilize the convenience and musical exploration of streaming. If I want higher quality I go to my CD collection. Also factor in Tidal wants to charge double the amount, it's a no-brainer.

I used to use Pandora, and had quite a few stations I really liked. I cancelled it, though, just to save money. Pandora is a great discovery tool, and great for when you want to play music but not select music. I could see myself using it again.

Those three are the only ones I've used.

Excellent overview. That's about as good a summary of the situation as I've seen.

 

[AlTinkster92]

looks like Pandora is joining with Sirius XM too, just noticed upon log in........

 

[Alobar]

looks like Pandora is joining with Sirius XM too, just noticed upon log in........

Yeah it's probably being seen by xm that it's stream or die..

Me personally I settled on Qobuz sublime because not only can I listen to lossless but can buy most of it in their download site. Great discounts of up to 50 percent off on all their hi rez for sublime..
In no way affiliated with QB either!

 

[grillebilly]

I'm just getting my toes wet with the streaming thing. youtube and Bandcamp have been the best sources for new music, for me, so far. There is a lot of wading through to find those hidden gems, but they are out there.