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Tidal Flac.

by 116 Comments

Tidal flac is now a reality for hi-res streaming. With the demise of MQA this was inevitable and I for one couldn’t be happier. I have never been convinced by MQA. I could see the point of it if bandwidth was an issue but it isn’t so all I and many others have wanted from Tidal is hi-res flac. Neither of my external Dacs are MQA compliant that’s how much I deemed MQA a necessity. So here’s the burning question Can I hear a difference? I played the latest offering from Terrace Martin this morning through headphones and it sounded sublime at 24bit/64k but it’s early days yet and I need to do a lot more listening before I finally nail my colours. Why you may ask haven’t I simply switched to Amazon or Qobuz instead of waiting for Tidal to see sense and ditch MQA? Well firstly they haven’t exactly ditched it. It’s still available as they add hi-res flac alongside it. I believe they currently have an offering of six million songs in hi-res flac with more being added all the while to the current catalogue of over 100 million tracks. Secondly I just prefer the UI of » Continue Reading.

Tidal alternative to Spotify

by 67 Comments

Im not really interested in the Rogan/Young spat. I never listen to Rogan so I feel I’m not in a position to have a valid opinion. However it did get me thinking about moving off Spotify to another service if only to try to break the grip Spotify seem to have on the streaming industry – and you know, change is as good as a rest and all that. So I have taken the free trial for Tidal (finally swayed by the fact that they have the wonderful Cardiacs Sing to God and spotify dont. )

I have lots of playlists on Spotify but SongShift is a tool for migrating – and checking through my playlists I realised I never play nearly all of them.

I have checked on the most obscure artists I can and it seems pretty much equal with a few exceptions (like Cardiacs). Most of my favourite spotify missing artists are also missing on Tidal – I suspect for similar reasons – (no Apple Venus, no “From Gardens where we feel secure” ).

Oh and the “family plan” for both services is the same price. Tidal pay artists (or rights holders) slightly better but its still » Continue Reading.

Not On Spotify

by 80 Comments

The recent threads on Vinyl and CD versus streaming threw up a number of considerations, but several object-heads talked about the fact that they owned the music and that no-one could take it away from them was really important. Five years ago the discussion would have been dominated by the artists who weren’t on Spotify. Since then the last big hold-outs: Floyd, AC/DC, Swift, Zeppelin, Beatles have all taken the green dot shilling. But the question’s still valid, and was raised. Today, when I played Lloyd Coxson’s King of Dub Rock and realised that only volume one was on Spotify. A quick check on my itunes (yes, still digital but I do own the files at least) revealed that yes vol 2 was Not On Spotify. So here we go, your nominations for the Not On Spotify awards.

I’ll kick off with some obvious categories. The Spotify licensing and royalties model clearly doesn’t work at all for compilations. Ace Records – whose excellent Stax Funk series I am currently enjoying – are barely represented. Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures only exists as the somewhat melancholic user playlists.

Even worse than compilations (where at least you can reconstruct the album) » Continue Reading.

ATM. Streamers

by 150 Comments

A lot of my listening is done via streaming. Before the vinyl purists start I know I am evil incarnate but living in an already cluttered one bedroom flat I really do not have the space for a vast record collection so needs must. At the moment I am streaming flac and hi-bitrate music files to my Marantz amp via an Audioengine B1 Bluetooth receiver in Aptx through a toslink connection. When the music arrives through my Dali floorstanders it sounds pretty acceptable but I am wondering if when I can eventually afford it should I invest in something like the Bluesound Node 2I streamer which I could hardwire via Ethernet to my router and so eliminate the need for Bluetooth. Would this improve the sound enough to warrant my saving up the cash to invest in it? Anyone got any idea? No rush as it’s entirely dependent upon my making some sales or getting some commissioned work in which is as always in the lap of the gods. I’m all ears. For the sake of clarity this is entirely a question about streaming sound quality. I have no downloaded music I wish to stream and in a one bedroom » Continue Reading.

Quick Question: What’s Trending Now?

by 54 Comments

I live in quite a small world, here in the North West of England. I’m white, middle class and well into middle age. I’ve barely witnessed any violence and my encounters with the police have been brief and courteous. I’ve never known any real suffering, any significant ill-health and I’ve never gone hungry. I live in warmth and want for nothing, able to indulge my passion, listening to music. I’ve recently mastered Spotify, still buy a physical newspaper and regularly watch the news on terrestrial TV. I’m a very lucky man.

My 23 year old daughter tells me, almost in passing, “Women’s body hair is trending now.”

My world just moved slightly off its natural axis. What the hell is she on about?

ATM: New Adventures in Hi-Fi?

by 64 Comments

I’m thinking of replacing my malfunctioning Arcam hifi. Technology has moved on in the fifteen years or so since I bought it, with new features like streaming & multi-room capability coming into play. And this is where I would like some advice before I start getting bamboozled in hifi shops. I guess the key question is what is hi-fi these days? With wireless speakers and Sonos-type multi-room systems, is there still a need for the combination of various boxes of tricks and two carefully placed speakers to get what would be traditionally required as high fidelity sound quality? How does the sound quality of these newer types of system stack-up against the more traditional ‘hi-fi’ set-up? To what extent have improvements in technology ‘improved’ the sound quality of traditional systems since I bought my current black boxes? I know a lot of this is subjective but I’d value the opinions of a bunch of music fans above the reviews of magazines that are a little too dependent on advertising, so over to you folks for any views or advice you can offer.

Emusic on a roll

by 8 Comments

Seems to be a particularly strong selection at the moment from Emusic, possibly as the majors shrink and more and more artists make the kind of recording deals they can pick up. I have on my to-download list new albums from:

Pet Shop Boys Primal Scream James M83 Explosions In The Sky Joe Bonamassa Black Mountain Yeasayer The Field Bob Mould

And recent downloads have included: Polica Basia Bulat Bloc Party School of Seven Bells Cavern of Anti Matter Emma Polloock Nazca Lines Shearwater Tindersticks

Not sure what the long-term business model for mp3s is, it’s telling they have recently introduced their own streaming/playlists app. But all power to their elbow while they can keep going.

Money for nothing

by 5 Comments

On another post I was added a Buzzocks YouTube video, and it occurred to me that I haven’t given them any money for probably 25 years (though I can sing every word of their first dozen singles, and play mp3s of their CDs. Got me thinking – if I want to channel (a tiny amount) of money to my favourite struggling artists, what gives them the best return? Should I stream them on (Free) Spotify, Amazon Prime, Googleplay, or YouTube? And on YouTube does it have to be the official channel for them to get money? Any one know?

And here is one of my favourite struggling artists on what I think is his official channel. https://youtu.be/VnEryrw4-G8?list=PL4S3FyuYt-BHIXTfH1O4CJLgATwr4rQY9

Another ATM – delayed sound between TV and Hi fi speakers

by 12 Comments

I have actually researched this before resorting to the Massive but the answers are incomprehensible or not relevant to my set up. The isituation:watching some, some but not all you tube or a streamed movie. The problem the sound coming out of my hi fi speakers is slightly delayed to the visual. The set up: a smart TV,an optical out that bypasses the TV speakers, feeding into optical in on my Marantz stereo amp. Doesn’t seem to be so bad on all you tube but is a problem on a lot. Some people say turn TV speakers down but these are bypassed in the settings.

Friends had a similar problem when trying to use TV as a slave screen to a laptop but I wouldn’t expect to have the same problem with a smart TV doing the streaming. Thanks

Does Streaming Work For Artists?

by 32 Comments

Just wondering. Ron Sexsmith popped up on my Facebook today – his new album is now streaming on The Guardian. Now Ron is one artist whose every new album I would once have bought unheard. For me record buying always had a big element of instant gratification about it – pop into a record shop and for not too much money walk away with something which gave great pleasure. The streaming thing kinda takes that element away and I find I don’t buy new stuff nearly so much. Once you’ve handled the goods they don’t seem worth so much somehow.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/23/ron-sexsmith-carousel-one-exclusive-album-stream