Love Pandora's easy and logical interface and "good enough" sound. Spotify? Perhaps the worst interface I've ever encountered. Just my 2Cents worth. |
Think about it, if you could download the music you'd just sign up for a month once year and binge-download. I-tunes is a download service where you pay for each download, Spotify, Pandora and, Tidal are streaming services where you pay for access to content on a monthly basis. You are basically "renting" and get no equity or ability to keep the content.
I've never used Spotify but I agree that Pandora is much better as a radio-like service to just turn on and listen to. I think the SQ of their pay per month service is quite acceptable and I use it pretty regularly. |
I had great sound running Tidal through iPod touch. I read that you cannot download from any of the three sites. |
Two questions. Is there a way to download music from streaming service to hard disc? Does Tidal stream its highest SQ just running the Tidal app on IPad? |
There is more to this that just the sound quality. Pandora's real strength is its algorithms for picking tracks for it's stations. That it what is was designed to do and many people feel it is the best out there at that. Spotify can have better sound quality seems to be better if you are mostly looking to play whole albums or one particular artist. No experience with Tidal but my impression is that it was more for albums than mixing a la Pandora, but I could be wrong. |
I think that the web-based player only provides redbook quality data stream when used with Chrome. |
btw, do I have to use Google Chrome? Seems like when I do, I get more pop ups. |
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Bif- To get "redbook" quality stream from Tidal you need to run Google Chrome on your pc and then from Chrome go to Tidal's site and register/pay. interface, search function and library are not as good as Pandora but the SQ is better. |
what is the significance of 1411 bps?? CD resolution is: 44,100 samples per second x 16 bits x 2 channels = 1,411,200 or 1411 Kb per second. |
supposedly 1411 is what redbook CD is, contrasted to the 320 and 192 of
Spotify and Pandora. Though I also enjoy both of those, I much prefer Tidal
on main system. |
Thanks guys. So what's the best way to stream it from WIFI into my system? I have a PC and also my DEQX PreMATE has a DAC function.
JL35 .. what is the significance of 1411 bps?? Does it relate to CD resolution, e.g., 16 bit/44.1 kHZ? |
I second Tidal I had Spotify and was unhappy with the sound quality, Tidal made a night and day difference. Pandora I just use occasionally for background music not serious listening. |
Sound quality on Tidal is much better than Spotify or Pandora. Tidal offers 1411 bps for $20/month and lesser quality for less money. I read they are working with Meridian to offer HiRez later this year... |
Bif,
Neither are hi-rez. Spotify is 320K Ogg-Vorbis and Pandora is 192K if you pay for premium, 128K if you don't. I find Spotify just fine for exploring new music but I can tell the difference on well-recorded selections that I am familiar with. I wouldn't decide based on one selection though. Find something that YOU know and is well-recorded and try that.
Tidal supposedly streams in CD-quality but, with the recent controversy after Jay Z bought them out, I'm waiting to see how it all shakes out.
Dick |
