How bad is pandora?
- Thread starter Dustyballz
- Start date
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olson_jr
Lunatic Member
Bab, bad bad!
Pandora, who was created to be curious, couldn’t stay away from that box and the urge to open the box overcame her.
Horrible things flew out of the box including greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. All of life’s miseries had been let out into the world.
Pandora slammed the lid of the box back down.
The last thing remaining inside of the box was hope.
Ever since, humans have been able to hold onto this hope in order to survive the wickedness that Pandora had let out.
Pandora, who was created to be curious, couldn’t stay away from that box and the urge to open the box overcame her.
Horrible things flew out of the box including greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. All of life’s miseries had been let out into the world.
Pandora slammed the lid of the box back down.
The last thing remaining inside of the box was hope.
Ever since, humans have been able to hold onto this hope in order to survive the wickedness that Pandora had let out.
Grenadeslio
Lunatic Member
Used it for background music until purchasing one of these for $63, now at least my background music is what I want to hear.
Hey Pandora, since when has rap music become classic rock?
Hey Pandora, since when has rap music become classic rock?
Oregonian
Active Member
I'm a Pandora Plus user (grandfathered in at the original $3.99 per month cost) and have been for about 5 years. Their Genome project is not just marketing crap - it is legit and I've found so many great artists/music because of listening to Pandora that I think they should get a commission from iTunes for all the music I've bought because of this. Quality is good but my 56 year old ears probably couldn't tell 320 from 128 in any case...............I also use Spotify and like it but prefer Pandora. When I want playlists I use iTunes.
Champco
Super Member
Since gen xers started running things.. I pay for Sirius and happily listen to what I want.
Archguy
Official Roiurama Factory Rep
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....nlimited-spotify-and-now-google.801777/page-2
I can't tolerate Sirius/XM because of their incessant chatter and their nasty (and well-earned) corporate image.
I can't tolerate Sirius/XM because of their incessant chatter and their nasty (and well-earned) corporate image.
Champco
Super Member
I guess we listed to different channels. On a two day trip I may need to channel surf but for the most part it's been three to five selections I listen to in th truck and at home on Dish it far exceeds anything else musically offered. I guess i do not get the corporate image stuff...
My sentiments exactly. $5 for something I use almost daily for 2-3 hours is a bargain. (I actually pay $3.99 as I'm grandfathered in under an older deal.) The subscription brings with it somewhat improved sound, and since it's primarily background music for me, I don't pay much attention like I would on my big system.
I have stations I've been building for several years. My oldest dates to 12/14/2007. Another we play during dinner dates to 2010. Through a combination of seed artists, thumbs up and thumbs down votes, I have them fairly well trained. Every so often (every few months or so), they either add more music or change their algorithms, as I'll get a flood of music I don't want, and I have to give a thumbs down to several in a row to get the station back to where it was. (I call it a "Pandora smackdown."
)
I loved XM. (R.I.P. XM Radio.) When Sirius took it over, canned all of the good DJs and PDs, dumbed down the music selection (and put some Cousin Brucie sh*t on 50s on 5), dumped some favorite channels, and killed off the feature shows I liked on 50s on 5, I cancelled. I was a longtime subscriber prior to that, even having a unit I used at home. I got a two-month trial when I picked up a car back in 2016 just to keep me company on the four hour ride home, and it sounded horrible, much worse than it ever did under XM's control. Worse than 128k MP3. Nothing like listening to a Rachmaninoff piano concerto and having it sound like it's underwater...
It's my understanding that with a paid Pandora subscription that the streaming bit rate is 192 kbps... both the Pandora Plus and Premium stream at 192 kbps.
It's the free version that streams at 128 kbps.
$4.99/month is awesome since you don't have to listen to those OBNOXIOUS commercials. I emphasize "obnoxious" because I think they purposely make them so to get people to purchase either Plus or Premium.
I had Pandora Plus for several years and then when they came out with the Premium, I went for it at $9.99. The Premium I think is to compete with Spotify... which I also have. But a paid Spotify account gets you up to a 320 kbps max bitstream.
I have since rolled back from Pandora Premium to Plus and am keeping my Spotify account.
Why do I have both? I think Pandora does a better job at curating my stations than Spotify does... but I am finding that Spotify is doing a better job lately. Plus, you can dial up any song, album, artist and listen with Spotify. Pandora Premium says I can do the same, but in my experience I haven't been able to.
I certainly do not think that Pandora... at whatever level of service... is BAD... NOT!!
99% of my listening is done via audio streaming.
It's the free version that streams at 128 kbps.
$4.99/month is awesome since you don't have to listen to those OBNOXIOUS commercials. I emphasize "obnoxious" because I think they purposely make them so to get people to purchase either Plus or Premium.
I had Pandora Plus for several years and then when they came out with the Premium, I went for it at $9.99. The Premium I think is to compete with Spotify... which I also have. But a paid Spotify account gets you up to a 320 kbps max bitstream.
I have since rolled back from Pandora Premium to Plus and am keeping my Spotify account.
Why do I have both? I think Pandora does a better job at curating my stations than Spotify does... but I am finding that Spotify is doing a better job lately. Plus, you can dial up any song, album, artist and listen with Spotify. Pandora Premium says I can do the same, but in my experience I haven't been able to.
I certainly do not think that Pandora... at whatever level of service... is BAD... NOT!!
99% of my listening is done via audio streaming.
Bill S
Thread Killer
Ditto. I like XMU but the stupid shows where some hipster feels the need to turn everyone on to his off-beat music along with his incessant banter turned me off.
That's our local public radio's jazz programming in a nutshell...that sh!t they played turned me off years ago.
Route 66
Super Member
What makes you think it's bad?
Bill S
Thread Killer
Jason Schwartzman of Coconut Records is the main reason I've dropped my subscription. I didn't mind the station and variety of music but I can't stand his nasaly delivery and endless banter along with the bad hipster music that Im apparently too square to appreciate.
I did an A/B test of Spotify vs. my properly set up Pioneer PL-41 w/ Denon DL110. Same track, same system (Yamaha C2a/M2). Chrome cast Audio through optical to Topping D30. The vinyl had a slightly more analog, realistic or full sensation but not enough to be worth the hassle of maintenance, cost & storage of physical media. I enjoyed vinyl for the first 5 years of my audio journey but decided I preferred the ease of streaming.
That said, I’ve mostly used Spotify in the past, thinking that the higher subscription meant better SQ, but I think Pandora sounds better and seems to have far better variety (larger library? Better algorithms? ) within a Station. I mean, on saxophone jazz songs, I can hear the most minute details of the air, valves, reed & spit. It has the “in the room” sensation and great spatial cues. It’s good enough to differentiate between good and bad recordings. What more can you ask for $5 a month (half the cost of Spotify)?
Besides, Spotify has been hiccuping lately so I cancelled it.
That said, I’ve mostly used Spotify in the past, thinking that the higher subscription meant better SQ, but I think Pandora sounds better and seems to have far better variety (larger library? Better algorithms? ) within a Station. I mean, on saxophone jazz songs, I can hear the most minute details of the air, valves, reed & spit. It has the “in the room” sensation and great spatial cues. It’s good enough to differentiate between good and bad recordings. What more can you ask for $5 a month (half the cost of Spotify)?
Besides, Spotify has been hiccuping lately so I cancelled it.
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I stream Pandora through an older Samsung blue ray player upstairs. It feeds into a topping d50s then into a 1990 Pioneer receiver. Sounds great. Yeah I'm 58 and having tinnitus so i don't sweat the nitty gritty stuff. It never misses a beat and has turned me on to music that I would have never heard otherwise. Different artists. Live recorded performances. Really neat stuff. Better than listening to Lee Roth brag his brother up on Sirius.
Downstairs my Onkyo RZ710 home theater receiver gets hung up on Pandora commercials. Internet ready is cool if it works.
Downstairs my Onkyo RZ710 home theater receiver gets hung up on Pandora commercials. Internet ready is cool if it works.
