Small correction re TIDAL ownership: On March 2, 2021, it was announced that financial technology company Square, Inc. had reached an agreement to acquire majority ownership of Tidal. Square will pay $297 million in cash and stock for Tidal, and Jay-Z will have a board position. Jay-Z and other artists who own stocks in Tidal will remain stakeholders.[
thanks for a great video comparing the streaming Services! I have tried to stream Amazon and found it to be OK. Some other reviewers have mentioned that Amazon streaming doesn't seem to be as bright sounding as the others, and I found that as well. I do predominantly use Apple Music and I have to admit it's very good especially their Hi-Res streaming, the clarity is simply amazing.
I really want to live Amazon. But for Pete's sake Amazon get some decent developers to create your apps. The player app is loyst and does not give any information on the file being streamed. HD or ultra HD tells me nothing. We will are willing to pay more want to know if a selection is the high res version. Amazon, get with the program!
I compared Dezzer Hi-fi with Tidal MQA, I was shocked, how superior sounding was Dezzer. Not even mentioning Tidal without MQA. Using Bluesound node 2i and Yamaha AS1200. Dezzer interface maybe not the best, for me enough, but for sound quality is very good. Don't know the rest of the services, except Spotify, but is not hi-res.
Awesome test! Deezer is great. We simply omitted from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the other. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching, Miguel.
@@AudioAdvice Updated info. With a system upgrade, tidal got advantage over Deezer with higher resolution files(not MQA), but better stil is Qobuz. Could recommend Al this platforms. Qobuz with a smaller library, to my taste better was dezzer.
MQA is LOSSY and all smoke & mirrors. 😏 More of a marketing hype. I'd rather get CD quality or hi-res straight in FLAC than any other marketing jargon.
Really excellent review of the current options for streaming. The summary chart on your website is also very helpful in sorting out the differences between them, to help decide what would be best for any one person. Thanks!
I find RU-vid music has the best algorithm by far, Spotify has my favourite interface, but Apple Music has the best sound so I spend the most time there and the Shazam integration is unbeatable. I tried Amazon music only briefly.
I love how Shazam takes you straight to the album in Apple Music. You can then explore all other albums by that artist. Shazam is one of the new world wonders, got no idea how it works out the song within just a few seconds.
We don’t have qobuz in Canada. But I have compared Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal (non MQA) and Amazon Music. With a MacBook Pro, Aune S8 DAC, Atoll IN200 signature amp. and Dali speaker or earphone. And for my ears Apple Music is better, also for my wallet !
Deezer is a great option for some. We simply omitted from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching.
Best bang for the buck, Spotify. Best for audiophiles, Qobuz. Best if you want MQA voodoo or hip hop, Tidal. Best at removing competition, Amazon HD. Best a human rights violations, Apple. As a note and you already know this but chose not to say it... if you are using a Bluetooth connection to speakers or headphone you will not get lossless playback no matter what service you use (this means there is no need to pay for a CD quality (redbook) or above because you will not get the reproduction at your listening point. Bluetooth is lossy so it cannot do HiRes.
Brilliant.. but that bandwidth limitation is also an Apple thing.. Most high-end Android devices are LDAC compatible at over 900kbps. Which only limitation according to Sony are DSD files.
I been debating on either tidal or apple music, i been using youtube free music but heard apple music or tidal sounds better. I dont have a apple phone or anything apple. I love listening to music in my truck sound system so which would you think is best to go with either?
MQA is a highly debatable subject. There are well respected people in the industry we know who are neutral from an economic benefit on MQA who love it and an equal number who don’t like it. Our advice is to trust your own ears. Thanks for watching
I like Apple Music and Spotify I’m usually between both but when Spotify get hi-fi they will be king as they still lead all the competition as of premium subscribers I think Apple Music is second but Spotify has more. Wonder if it will take a while for Spotify to bring hi-fi lossless Dolby. And how much it will be for premium subscribers. Love the video !
Glad you enjoyed the video. We have to agree, if Spotify decided to get into hi res and Atmos, they would rule. Rumor has it hi res is coming soon. Thanks for watching and commenting
I have a headache after listening to this! It seems that currently there is no one service that will cover all your needs- most likely that Tidal & Qobuz will take care of the Uber audiophile end and combined with either Apple or Amazon will provide fuller coverage. Am I right in thinking this to be the case? I'm new to this! 20 years happily using an i-pod and mp3 files it's time to catch up!
Hi Moutton Noir. Apple Music with it's new hi-res service could be a great choice for your needs! But, we might need a little more information about your setup and what you hope to get out of a hi-res streaming platform. So we can have a better understanding about your listening style, please come have a chat with one of our chat experts at www.audioadvice.com/ We love helping people new to this hobby learn how to get the most out of their music!
Here's my take for 99% plus .. a sampling rate of "9216 kbps" is simply whacko and even someone with a $65K Sennheiser Headphone will have trouble discerning it from "1411 kbps" or for that matter lower bitrates. I do constant A/B switching between Amazon Music Ultra HD and RU-vid Music (high) and I really can't tell the vast majority of the time using my HIFIMAN XS Edition headphones and Schitt DAC. I can still hear ultrasonic alarms even at my age. Here's another twist, in a lot of cases by the time you can actually afford ultra high-end gear you're middle-aged. Same can be said about super cars. Don't get me wrong there's always exceptions to everything.
.. BTW I'm aware that these plans have changed. I'm just debating about switching from Amazon HD music to something else .. That being either Spotify or Apple music. Currently I'm an Android user but I'm debating the possibility of getting an Apple iphone 15 or whatever they're going to call it. Had an Apple iPhone 4 but then Android came around. Apple suits the extremists.
Which service allows you to stream on more than one device at the same time... As in I listen at work (PC) and my wife listens at home (JBL Charge 3 speaker).
After 7 months since watching this I ditched Spotify as they are more focused on podcast and not better quality music like hi res Dolby. I switch to Apple Music for good after my 6 months free trial! I’m happy with Apple Music. Tidal is prob the second best if you’re on android but Apple Music with Shazam and the quality sound does the job for me. Goodbye Spotify
No!! streaming device does better than CD quality,that is Red Book,44.1 /16 bit.The next generation Bluetooth may stream higher,but that is still in development.And if you believe the MQA hype-train you have lost any hope of a purchase from you by me.It is lossy and almost as autocratic as Apple. Doc BC
You are completely 100% correct about how awful MQA files are as well as the autocratic (well said) stranglehold the Tidal brand puts on subscribers for no reason except…? Money money money, control, control, control.
I have both Apple music and Tidal . Tidal is miles ahead of Apple music im terms of sound quality. Tidal makes even Skullcandy crusher anc2 sound like sennheisers. I used deezer once and i thought even that sounded better than Apple music. The source is a Samsung Note 20 ultra
The Arc is a good choice although you may want a sub for a better music experience. Make sure your tv has eARC for the best experience. Thanks for watching
For many, Deezer is a great option. We simply omitted from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching.
I just joined Tidal HiFi and I keep hearing that a DAC is needed to be able to get the true HiFi definition to reach your speakers. However, what happens in case I have the app installed in my Smart TV and it goes directly from there through eARC to my Marantz AV Receiver? I think that this way, or via Bluetooth into the AV receiver, are the options people would most likely be streaming the music to a Home Theater device. Am I taking full advantage of the HiFi data? Or should I implement something like an AppleTV 4k device or NVidia Shield TV Pro and stream the Tidal app from there to get true HiFi data? Or perhaps a DAC before going into the AV Receiver (this sounds kind of weird)? Your advice is appreciated! Cheers
eARC will pass full bandwidth so you are ok there. However one big deal about Tidal is MQA. There is a lot of debate as to whether it is better or not, but to take advantage of MQA you need a DAC that can unpack it. If you wanted to use it to it's fullest potential, you would connect something like this to your Marantz via analog audio. www.audioadvice.com/bluesound-node-wireless-music-streamer
""Also, if you like purchasing and owning your high-res audio, there's a plan for that." If I have to pay a subscription, then I don't own it, right? RIGHT?
Basically my music listening is a combination between RU-vid most importantly Deezer and spotify I like spotify because I can listen to over a million songs and not have to worry about a limit I basically have a modified version of spotify and Deezer so I basically get both of their premium services for free Is modified version of RU-vid music
So since im moving away from youtube music but I don't have a dac and maybe 2 high end bluetooth headphones. Would it be best to move to Spotify or should I give Tidal a try since they are around the same price.
hey man dont fotgett dezzer 16/44.1 in consistant 1411 kbs, hifi quality, now that how it should sound/studiorecording, not a lot of lossy mastering that other companys privides just to make a lot’s of money on cunsumers
Greetings! We certainly see your point and Deezer is a great option for some people. We simply omitted it from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps, as you mentioned, things are changing! We will revisit Deezer and the others at some point in the near future to determine where it stands against all the fierce competition coming from Apple, Spotify, Qobuz, and more. So, stay tuned for that, and thanks for watching!
one question, going to up grade streaming service from Pandora to one of these you mention in this video. My question is we really like the My Station on pandora , I have a Robert Cray Station and you get to hear different music and artist with similar music. Does any of them have a similar option...
Frank, that is a feature Pandora sorta pioneered, but everyone has copied it, so yes. With most of them you can even just choose any artist and have it play what is called artist radio, and with all of them, unlike Pandora, you can created your own custom playlists. Most also have the ability to offload around 3,000 songs to your phone to playback when there is no network connection, which is great for travel and camping. Thanks for watching
On My iPhone with my cirrus logic 32bit 384 kHz dac music sounds great. Only problem storage. Got around a thousand songs in Lossless and hi res Lossless, that take up 40 gb of storage. Still think it worth it
Greetings! Deezer is a great option for many people. We simply omitted from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching.
I like the Idea of CD quality sound but wonder if CD quality also includes that you can listen to your music (on any of these apps) without an internet connection or with poor internet connection. For example, My gym has terrible service and I am never able to listen to youtube without extreme interruption. Does anyone know how I can fix this?
Great question. Yes, Tidal will allow you to download songs for offline listening. There is a setting you will need to choose to make sure they are CD quality, but we think it is around 3000 songs you can download. We use this ourselves when traveling. Thanks for watching and we hope this helps.
Does anyone know which service has the most customisation options for their playlists? It's annoying how for some services you can't change the order to most played, or in alphabetical order etc...
Hi Michael. In our experience, Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz have some pretty extensive playlist customization options. Spotify is good too if you pay for the service. Thanks for watching!
Spotify is still not delivering hi-if with no predicted release date 🤣 I’m still subscribed only because my family members are too lazy to switch their playlists to Apple Music.
MQA is a ridiculous, proprietary stranglehold on the streaming track that is an additional unnecessary resampling. And they made it worse in that you need a DAC that is corporately in cahoots with MQA to decide it. It’s a dollar bill enterprise that never helps and can only deteriorate quality.
Doesn't Amazon have its own special speaker for that purpose? . check out their website or google. think of the service they call 360 which is not the same as Dolby Atmos. otherwise it says well on their website which units it applies to. For example, when it comes to Netflix, you obviously need to either have a TV that supports Dolby Atmos or, for example, an Apple TV or X box
@@Andersljungberg The only device authorized by Amazon to playback Dolby ATMOS music is the Amazon Echo Studio. The Echo Studio does not have any kind of output that would allow it to deliver ATMOS to a sound bar or home theater receiver. However, in the video, the host says that at Audio Advice, they use Amazon Music to test Dolby ATMOS on their sound bars. It is my understanding that this will not work, which is why I asked if they have found some kind of loophole, or if there is some information I'm not aware of.
That is a great question. All of the high performance music streamers are audio only. The video streamers are dominated by Apple, Roku, and Nvidia. To get the best music experience from them, just make sure you are connected to a product that has a good internal DAC. Thanks for watching.
@@AudioAdvice there is a hole in the market for high quality music video streaming unfortunately I’m not rich but I’m sure someone with a few million will start an app
Deezer is a great option for some. We simply omitted this one from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching.
@@AudioAdvice well, I use it, and the difference in the interface is not that big, even is better tham RU-vid audio and Amazon Music. But is miles ahead in quality of the audio, with CD audio on almost all of the songs, something not Spotify or Apple has. Thanks for take the time for antier.
Audio Fidelity; Music Discoverability & Shareability(not words); User Experience & Accessibility. How can you do a comparison without including support for artists? How are you going to get the best music experience if the best artists can't afford to be musicians? Unforgivable oversight.
How can one streaming service sound better than the other, when are both streaming in 24/192 FLAC? For example, if Adele's "Easy on Me" is streaming on hi-res 24/192 FLAC on both Amazon and Quboz; how can Quboz sound quality be better than Amazon? Using a hi-res digital preamp (Cambridge Audio Azur 851n) and I have a NVIDIA Shield TV Pro connected (HDMI to TV Samsung U-Connect, out to a Toslink splitter; one to Pioneer Elite 7.2 channel AV receiver; and one to my Cambridge) to the preamp; if both streaming services are playing Adele's song in hi-res to the same equipment, I'm not sure how one can sound better than the other.
@@AudioAdvice that makes sense; and thank you for the information. To paraphrase, if I may, so I understand; Quboz has more 24 bit hi-res songs than Amazon; however if both or the same songs are 24 bit hi-res or in 16 bit cd quality, they will sound the same. For example; Adele's "Easy on Me" in 24 bit hi-res on both Quboz and Amazon will sound the same; however I might get Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" in 24 bit hi-res on Quboz; but 16 bit cd quality on Amazon?
@@jeffreybischoff6772 yes, they should, however, there is still how the timing information embedded in the stream is delivered. We have not done a comparison to test that, but we suspect it would be minor if any at all. Ultimately the DAC you are using will have far, far more impact than the difference in the services. And your Cambridge is a very good one. If you are interested in the very best sound, you will probably get better results using the native streamer in your 851n for Qobuz rather than going Toslink out of the Nvidia. Cambridge has been updating the firmware and it now works with Qobuz. No Amazon music though. We hope this helps.
I would use amazon music if i could stream it on my music streamer, i can only Bluetooth Amazon music from my phone, which is pointless, i have tried every music streaming site, quobuz is the best for me, then deezer then spotify, tidel don't stream mqa to my streamer no more and i have no idea why, as its 24bit/192, i guess they pick and choose, they were streaming me cd quality and i was on the top price plan so be aware.
after a year of using (or trying to use) Tidal and seeing how completely bugging and unreliable it is I can't see how it can even be considered as a serious contender.
@@AudioAdvice Myself and two audiophile friends here in NZ(so thats three tidal accounts) have spent the best part of a year trying to get tidal/tidal connect working with a Node2i/bluOS. And not only can tidal connect not do that reliably as the contolling app, Tidal can't even stream/play songs properly just via my phone a lot of the time. Songs have massive interruptions at times, command processing times are ridiculously slow. All like you would expect with slow internet speeds, even though we know from monitoring the internet connection/speeds that the lag is not there and appears to be with tidal itself. Most of the issues with using tidal/tidal connect with the node and bluOS seem to be related to tidal connect often not being able to correctly select devices, or it losing connection with the node. A greater degree of reliability (still not 100%) is achieved if bluOS is used as the controlling app.. But it is still not reliable enough, and of course you don't get the extra playlist features tidal connect offers (or would offer if it worked properly). Am starting to wonder if this is a NZ issue with tidal somehow bottlenecking NZ at times. But there seems to be endless discussion on forums etc to suggest tidal is just a buggy mess and this is ongoing and not just a NZ thing. I'm on the verge of giving up on tidal.
The MQA is complete horseshit, it's a lossy format for.... no reason whatsoever just to screw everyone, not just end-users but also manufacturers. Only benefit there is less bandwidth, which like nobody cares about, except for the streaming service. Tidal will get steamrolled for this dumb move by Amazon HD, very soon Apple Music Lossless and Spotify will follow. It's just ridiculous, the whole thing.
You do need to subscribe to their premium service (15/month) and have the right kind of connections, then also find the songs done in Dolby Atmos. We did get it to work on the Shield when we tested it, but cancelled our subscription after the test. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice i have shield hooked up hdmi, in shield settungs have all the audio settings checked off. Plus i only get 16.48 sampling rate. No 1696 or 24-192 sampling. Plus i pay for musiv hd service. Tried everything. Tell me your steps when you got yours to work
@@allancopeland6342 Sorry, its been almost a year since we did the testing and do not remember having to do anything out of the ordinary. Not all of the Dolby Atmos content is Hi Res, we do remember searching to find things that were, but have no memory of what those were at the time. As any FYI, we use Qobuz and Tidal for all of our normal testing.
When artist like Anita Baker are not on Spotify that is a problem. Spotify needs get that racial stuff together. India Arie left Spotify for that reason. Amazon Music you can only stream one device at one time. Definitely struggles to play on a computer. Sucks really. RU-vid music is alright. A person like me who loved to burn 💿 needs a paid music subscription because I enjoy a wide range of music. So I just rotate when I feel like it's not worth the money. I have had Spotify, Tital, Apple, Deezer, RU-vid Music, and Amazon Music. Spotify is still my best experience and Amazon is the worst for me.
Deezer is a great option! We simply omitted from our list and chose to focus on the others since the user experience fell a little shorter compared to the others. Perhaps things will change in the future though! Thanks for watching.
Pandora was included in our assessment but did not make the list for several key reasons. These are simply the best of breed in terms of hi res audio, and are the ones that really stand out. Hope that helps and thanks for watching.
There is a ton of music on YT but it is so compressed compared to the other services, it is far from high res which is why we left it off. Even their high bit rate is less than standard compressed Spotify. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice ı see. as a student just the convenience of payin only one cheap subscription, and optional videos. I have KZ ZST and using only a phone, i don't need the best, but like I would watch Dolby surround movies, so what can you suggest, i should use and swich to?
