My impression of the services I've used

Audio Gear Talk Music Services
1

Here goes:

In addition to Tidal, I subscribe to classicsonline.

I primarily listed to classical and jazz.

Tidal is missing the following key labels: ECM, Hyperion, Chandos
(from 2010 to the present), Cam Jazz, Highnote Jazz and Steeplechase.

Tidal’s search function is a nightmare, as is well-documented.

I doubt that Jay-Z will be the owner in two years – Samsung has been rumored to be a suitor.

The biggest problem with classicsonline is that you are forced to use
their app, powered by Orastream. When I compare albums on
classicsonline with the same albums I have flac files on, the sound from
my files is much better (I use Roon with HQ player). You can’t use HQ
player with classicsonline.

The biggest positive is that they have a good number of high
resolution files. The bad news is that some of the key labels have
pulled their files. For example, they used to have almost all of the
Chandos catalog, many in hi resolution.
Now they have virtually no Hi Resolution Chandos albums, and, like Tidal, they have nothing recent.

I tried Qobuz, but didn’t think their classical and jazz selection
was significantly better than Tidal. Tidal has almost all of the same
titles, but it is often difficult to find them. Qobuz search engine is
much better than Tidal.

I tried Spotify, but couldn’t get past the lower sound quality. They
have more labels than Tidal (i.e., Cam Jazz, Sunnyside, Steeplechase)
and their search engine is much better, but the sound quality is a deal
breaker for me.

3 Likes
2

Deezer is pretty good. I have used Deezer Elite with Sonos for a little less than two years. Also using Tidal within Roon. I’m happy with it.

3

I have tried sofar Spotify, Deezer, Google play music, Qobuzz and now Tidal. All of them advertise with having around 30 million tracks online. That looks like a lot of music but considering the average album consists of let’s say 10 song this means that there are ‘only’ 3 million albums. Still a several floors large record store but only a small percentage of all the music ever being recorded. There will always be a difference in streaming services and there ‘focus’ like there where different kind of record stores for classical music and hardrock back in the old days. Offcoarse most of the content is the same but if you are for example more into indie music, contemporary jazz or modern classical works then the difference between these service are becoming very apparent, most mainstream listeners will not notice much of a difference.

4

Though I love (love?) my Tidal subscription and the huge library at my fingertips. I think I could be happy for a long long time with ClassicsOnLine as my only music streaming provider. Loved the hi-res streaming that worked very well after some consulting with my ISP and tweaking my LAN. This, of course, is only after ClassicsOnLine is integrated with Roon.

5

ClassicsOnline has changed for the worst. What was once a very deep catalog is now restricted to only a few labels. I used to subscribe, but from my point of view, it currently offers very little.

6

Good to know. Bad to experience. Thanks for the heads up. I was thinking of re-subscribing, even if outside of Roon.