Too bad Roon has no support for Deezer. I’ve signed up with them for a year which came with a 25% discount. So it makes the 4th streaming service I’m subscribed to, next to Apple Music (through Apple One), Qobuz and Tidal HiFi+.
Deezer only does 16 bit/44.1 kHz FLAC. But their whole library, as far as I can tell, is available in this format. They have an excellent catalogue and wonderful playlists and mixes. The latter I have stored several from on my CXNv2’s presets.
If Deezer would get on board with Roon, I’d happily drop Tidal.
Yes, I’ve tried both the Google and Cloudflare DNS which didn’t solve it. I’m not 100% sure, but I’m thinking it may be happening only on 24/96 and above streams (I need to pay more attention). It could very well be a bandwidth issue on my local network.
If Deezer would get on board with Roon, I’d happily drop Tidal.
Deezer would be great in combination with Roon. I was hopeful the new service coming to Roon this year is Deezer, but I was told they won’t be moving forward with the integration after all. We’ll see…
I’ve been reading this thread with interest and have hesitated in posting yet.
Based on null tests, based on those in the linked YouTube video showed the lossless track to be the same on all streaming services.
To my ears I find it difficult to differentiate (in my normal listening room) lossless 44.1/16 to 320kbps or 256kbps AAC in Apples case. Headphones, yes I can hear a difference on occasion.
Go with your ears is my stance. I’m happy with 44.1/16 and also 256kbps AAC.
Now, if Apple Music was added to Roon supported services, it’d be based on cost that I unsubscribe from Tidal. I subscribe to some of Apples services already, but a family pack with Music etc is cheaper than Tidal’s highest tier. Just my thoughts.
Apple Music does sound good with 44.1/16, but wouldn’t go as far to say better than, just about the same.
IMHO File quality is better with Tidal, but audio quality is sometimes better for popular albums because they are “Remastered to Apple Music” which gets rid of original master issues like range compression due to”loudness wars”
PS: I listen to Apple Music via Apple TV HDMI cable to my Denon AVR-X4400 on Martin Logan slim speakers & sub
Apple sometimes uses Apple Masters to remaster albums to improve audio quality. This improves the audio, but IS different from original released track on vinyl or CD.
I know what you mean re: AirPlay. My setup is about as close to an “Apple Music Connect” equivalent as you can get.
Apple TV 4K > Blustream 4 way 4K HDMI Switch - HDCP2.2 > Audioquest Digital Coax > DAC > Amp.
The Bluestream is a high quality HDMI audio splitter and sends the digital audio to the DAC. My video feed goes to a projector, but it could be any TV or display. I most often just use it for the audio.
The advantage of this setup is you can use the iPhone/iPad “Control other speakers & TV” option to control the Apple TV’s Apple Music stream so it’s not coming via your iPhone (from within the Apple Music App on your iPhone).
That does work quite well, I’ve just tried a slight variation, ATV 4K playing to Sonos Beam, grouped to Sonos Connect into DAC with sound turned down on TV.
Will have to do further testing as I have playlist that Apple refresh weekly that I like.
Also Apple Music offline works better than Tidal for downloaded content when I’m out on the bike and don’t want streaming cutoffs.