Don’t think we’ll get any info until it’s released. Manufacturers signed NDA and can’t talk. Surprised Linn even said what little they did. Probably getting impatient like the rest of us.
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I was speaking to Naim support the other day and he thought that lossless hi-res Spotify was on the way, although he wasn’t sure when it would land.
I’ve been a Spotify Premium subscriber for a good few years now and it caters very well to my wide-ranging musical tastes. But recently I got an NDX 2 and am currently on a free trial of Qobuz. I have to say that I am very impressed with the sound quality.
The Qobuz catalogue isn’t as wide ranging as Spotify (yet), but even so I’ve been able to find some pretty obscure classical stuff. And the hi-res Pink Floyds sound pretty impressive.
Thought about Tidal, but it turns out that you can’t get it in the Channel Islands.
I just canceled Spotify, it was set to renew tomorrow. I’m giving Deezer hifi a trial. So far it works pretty good with Chromecast to my Naim HE. Essential almost the same as Spotify Connect in that it plays nativity on the Naim HE and the mobile device just works as a controller for easy handoff. I like Deezer’s layout with Album in chronological order, broken out by album, ep, singles, compilations, and live albums. The only drawback is can only favorite 2000 albums but work around is go to my favorite artists instead. Can set alerts for new albums.
I’d say Spotify interface is a little better and can see going back to them if they actually do release hifi. I’m more upset they didn’t bother to provide any updates than the delay itself. Why not communicate with their customers.
I also like Apple Music’s layout but still no word if they’ll actually deliver lossless over Airplay 2. I’m also not a fan of having it streaming vs the handoff.
And for Qobuz, I hardly ever use their native amp, since go thru roon, but their app is not great. Albums are all mixed with no years shown, eps, singles, and even other bands all shown on artist page. Would have never used it if not for roon. I plan to drop once Spotify hifi comes out or if I can live with just Deezer.
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So Spotify has slight changed their response on their Community site. 1st, it hasn’t been canceled. 2nd, said it will be included in their premium package.
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I can’t see just lossless being extra. That’s now become the industry standard. Even hires and Dolby Atmos, if offered, probably shouldn’t cost more either. With Tidal’s new pricing structure, more people downgraded to the hifi level vs new members they’ll get for their Master level at twice the price.
I’m still waiting for Spotify. I’m on a Deezer trial and while I like their interface and features, it has some drawbacks. Main one being doesn’t have a Connect feature like Spotify. Chromecast works pretty good but I only have on my Naim HE and not other streamer. Other one has Airplay 1 and has network issues. Both have Spotify Connect with no issues, so Spotify would be best option. I still have roon but not happy with Qobuz limited library. It also doesn’t have an Alex skill so can’t use with that.
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I quite like the Spotify Connect technology, and I think it is one of the main Spotify selling points.
So I’ve tried Tidal as well. They had a few bug fixes updates since I last tried it but fired it up again and still crashed twice on ipad after only 5 minutes of playing around. Tidal Connect works great on Naim HE but other streamer doesn’t have it. I’m also not a fan of MQA. In the end it’s a minor difference in sound but still think non MQA sound better with Naim HE. Even with first unfold thru roon.
I tried Tidal Hi-fi for a short, free trial period. Tidal Connect worked well on my Azur 851n on both my Android devices.
I did not find the supposed uplift in sound quality over Spotify Premium to warrant either running Tidal exclusively, or in tandem with Spotify.
As @anon23425299 has said, Spotify Connect is very handy. I can use it on other “Connect” devices such as our Alexa, and it works well with my streamer.
Perhaps I have become accustomed to Spotify, but most of the time I find the sound quality quite acceptable, suffering only from rather indistinct lower frequencies at times. Tidal HiFi I initially found OK, but then a bit wearing.
Competitor pricing has probably put a spanner in the works for Spotify: my guess would be that they were going to pitch Spotify lossless or whatever at maybe £14.99 to UK customers. That would now be expensive in the current environment.
The biggest advantage of moving to cd quality is the soundstage and separation. For more part lossy sounds almost the same but you get a better sense of space with lossless. I’m using Naim HE with Focal Utopia and differences are noticeable enough for me to stay away from lossy except for most casual listening. Just sucks that there is still no timeline for Spotify hifi except that it’s still coming. I have a feeling if it doesn’t come soon I’ll probably be back with Qobuz/roon. Was hoping Deezer would work as short term solution.
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Yeah I get that Apple and Amazon can use their services to help sell products. Qobuz and Tidal aren’t aimed at mass market. Spotify probably does get some additional money from hardware partners and Spotify Connect. But most of their money has to come directly from streaming. I just see them having a hard time trying to charge more for something that comes free with other companies. And can see they clarified their language to say it be delivered to premium customer at some point. Nothing about an extra tier.
I’m with you, cancelled both Tidal and Qobuz during the trial periods. Maybe it’s my system, maybe it’s my ears (and those of my family and friends) but I find the sound quality of Spotify Premium to be really good.
Sound quality actually is really quite decent. The only parallel I can draw (which, I suspect, will be of little relevance to anyone else) is that Tidal is like the Naim CDS, and Spotify like the Linn LP12 played into Naim systems at a musical evening event I attended many years ago.
I have had Spotify Premium for years: I do wonder sometimes if they have increased the sound quality without any fanfare.
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Sorry for slight thread departure but been meaning to ask you @CrystalGipsy a question re: Tidal usage and Roon. You mentioned Tidal using your usage history through Roon to guide recommendation. Is that the case? I ask because I do not see that behaviour with Qobuz and Roon (Qobuz only seeing activity that is direct in their apps). Thanks.
@iamoneagwin, do you use HQPlayer/NAA on your Mac, right? If so, you can always re-direct Spotify to NAA via BlackHole, You don’t need automatic rate switching on MacOS, Spotify is always 44.1k
Yes it feeds directly back. It comes up and shows albums I have played all the time and it’s affected My Mixes as a result. Qobuz doesn’t really have the same level of curation as the others it only recently added the Weekly curated playlists and those are restricted to it’s own app. I never use it as I never really use the app, but it doesn’t look like it takes Roon into account, although it’s related to stuff that’s in my favourites.
Part of the reason I got the Naim HE was to get away from all the playing around. At one point on my old streamer I used roon with HQPlayer running on a separate device and then into the streamer with NAA. I also tried using the blackhole setup as well thinking I could use it for Apple or Amazon music.
With Spotify it would have still been lossy using it this way and both Naim and my other streamer have Spotify Connect, so there was no point. Just because it shows output at 44.1k doesn’t mean the stream is not originally lossy. Anyway, even with the other streamer, I just use roon with no upsampling into Focal Arche. If and when Spotify hifi come out, I will give it another shot. I’m still not a fan of Tidal using MQA even on their hifi tier.
Yes, I totally agree with you except that the HQPlayer is a nice up-sampling tool and it can make the music sound much nicer even with the lossy streaming.
Yes, that’s true. I just found it a pain when it didn’t work. With the Naim HE, I plug it in and it working within 30 seconds with no playing around. I hated troubleshooting HQPlayer. Also didn’t like the delay startup. But with the right settings, it was somewhat close to the Chord Mscaler. I still found the Mscaler sounded better, no noticeable delay, and no playing around. But even my Chord setup was too many boxes. I like the Naim He one box solution. Plan to sell off my other setup if I ever return to the office. That’s a Stack Audio Link II with linear power supply and Focal Arche. That’s still 3 boxes. At least the Focal Arche has built in stand.
And as far as simplicity, that’s why wanted to just use Spotify. Qobuz has a terrible app and roon only works at the house. I wanted to just use one app for everything. At least Tidal’s app is pretty good. I needed to bring it back around to Spotify so I wasn’t completely off topic.
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All of your reasonings sound fine, I could not disagree any point.
Right now, we just wait for the SPOTIFY HIFI.