AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
260
I agree 1000% that it does indeed depend on the definition of quality.
My definition is strictly the actual music SQ, all else is irrelevant to myself.
All of your points are indeed good ones, but for myself they are of no concern as I do not use playlists, radio etc.
I have zero issues streaming Qobuz via bluetooth to my car stereos, likewise same to my poolside bluetooth speakers.
Which is why I said “for myself”
I fully understand not too many will or do share that viewpoint but I felt the urge to share MY view regardless.
Lossless means the master copies, can be CD or HiRes files from the recording studios, e.g. Sony, Universal etc. to the streaming platforms, e.g. Qobuz, Amazon without any form of modification. You get bit perfect copies. This is definitely unambiguous
On the other hand master copies like CD and HiRes files go to MQA Ltd for conversion. It is known to be ‘audibly lossless’ which is definitely ambiguous to me .
Seems to me that @Danny is prepping us for a no go, So it will be up to the user to see if Spotify HiFi via Sonos etc is better that Roon sans Spotify.
Spotify Connect is compatible with every hardware streaming device I own. I don’t use Spotify so I even thought Spotify Connect was streaming the music from your phone. Come to find out your phone is just a remote to the Spotify servers . Very clever.
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
268
I have a Lumin T2 on the way which supports Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify amongst others.
My Roon membership is due for renewal in April.
I may have to make hard decision depending on how well the Lumin app works.
I know I can still stream to my 3 aux endpoints, all Chromecast Audio pucks using Google Home and Bubble UPnP and obviously the T2 goes direct into my main rig.
Yes I will lose some of the bio and album art that Roon provides but again for myself it is mostly about the SQ, as long as basic functionality is rock solid and stable I can live without some frills.
This would allow me to evaluate Spotify SQ vs Qobuz etc.
This. You should pin this and close the thread. Mind boggling that you explain why not (which many of us could parse as it is without your explanation) and then literally three posts later somebody asks about Roon adopting Spotify.
That post was moved from a separate thread and was posted before Danny’s reply (You can tell from the timestamp). It’s a quirk of Discourse (the forum software) that such posts are appended and not merged.
Again, pin it - Spotify is a no go in Roon because of Spotify not opening up their database and/or API’s. Now it’s up to users whether they want to throw Roon, Qobuz and/or Tidal under the bus.
Personally, I wish I had time to listen to even a scratch of the millions of tracks Tidal and/or Qobuz offers me already, let alone needing more from Spotify. In fact, with a library of currently 70,000 tracks, I could easily press shuffle and discover new things I already have in my library for the next several years…
Spotify’s strategy and positioning is much more complex than this one decision/announcement. they have made several strategic acquisitions. they are pushing hard into Podcasts (which will be interesting if Clubhouse takes away from Podcast popularity). They are pushing in-stream advertising for podcasts.
They are setting up a market where artists can “bid” to be on playlists in return for less royalties. This gives artists more visibility but less percentage of revenue, an interesting trade off.
My point in posting is that Spotify is much more than a music streamer.
This paid blog/newsletter goes in depth on Aggregator strategy. Note: there is no free content available on Spotify on this link, it is behind a firewall, but is really good content on market analysis of google, facebook, amazon, and other tech.
For me the point is, given the overwhelming crush of content, are the tools/platforms helping us pick the content that is most relevant and liked by us individually. It seems easy, but is so so hard.
Recommendations have to be “similar” to what we like, but yet offer “newness” to be outside of the obviously similar. Most people have many genres of music they like, including evolving tastes over the course of time.
Many people think Spotify does this really well, especially at the track level. I think they have much more data to work with and I think they have some “special sauce” at the micro-niche-genre level. I don’t think anyone is even close if you are looking for recommendations (which not everyone is).
Roon is about streaming high resolution music from your music files, Tidal, and/or Qobuz. In view of what @Danny has posted, Spotify is not relevant here. Maybe they have a forum of their own.
Its hard, the LUMIN app is OK but it takes a bit of getting used to, if you only want to select what you want to listen to its fine.
Tidal you can set the order of artists etc, Qobuz you seem stuck with the order it was added.
I may end up with Spotify to discover and mobile/car and maybe Qobuz via the LUMIN app.
I think I’ve excluded Roon.
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
277
I think it is really going to depend on just how good the SQ is from Spotify lossless compared to say Qobuz, and then the pricing.
If both the SQ and the pricing are very competitive I would not be against giving Spofify a whirl.
Of course that would mean sans Roon, but it will be what it will be.
Should get my T2 Saturday so will start to get a handle on its sonic signature impact in my system and then worry about streaming services…
