So, Educate me about streaming (music).

[tomteriffic]

I've been putting some of my filthy lucre from my occasional geriatric gear purges toward a modest but pretty damn hi-fi audio system. Vinyl and CD's are my sources.  The centerpiece (receiver?) has a tuner but, for the most part, terrestrial radio is a wasteland around here.  So I thought, since there are some good quality streaming services out there, I'd look into it.  I know I need a streamer and I've picked out a "punches way above its weight" one.  I know there's a smartphone involved somehow as well.  But I seem to have a blind spot with regard to "where does this stream come from and how do I get it into the rest of this gear?"

Can anybody step-by-step me through this?  Muchos thankyous!

T.

[JGale]

I dunno anyting aboot it, but this one looks very cool.

[gorch]

Well, I'm having a Qobuz subscription for years. They provide high resolution starting with CD quality and beyond. It has an app for mobile and PC. Although, I use Audirvana Studio on the PC. For streaming into the analog Hifi audio system, I chose the WTX MicroStream from Advance Paris. Other than that I have the Steinberg UR44C audio device for a while.

https://www.advanceparis.com/en/produit/wtx-microstream/

Occasionally, I buy highres DSD formats from https://www.nativedsd.com/

Rare CDs that won't become available from Qobuz, I rip to FLAC and link into Audirvana.

Much fun is listening to the binaural 3D mix of Jean Michel Jarre's latest album Oxymore. Binaural requires headphone listening. Qobuz have the Alan Parsons Project iRobot in 24 bit / 192 kHz on file now. That's a nice listen too.

Maybe that's giving an idea for what you are looking for. Of course I'm still into vinyl. However, prefer buying mint quality vintage issues through discogs before any kind of reissue.

[Jimbilly]

I'm not highly tech literate, but I do enjoy the free (with ads) version of Pandora, for quite a few years.  I can't pick what is going to play, but what comes up is most often in the genre of the 'station' I choose, and I've found quite a few groups and artists that I really like, that I would have otherwise never heard.  I run it through my cheap Motorola phone, via 1/8 cable out the headphone jack, or bluetooth to wireless headphones or portable speaker.

  Hopefully that is something to do with what you are asking.

[JGale]

Pandora 50's Jazz Radio for the win! I keep smashing like on Miles Davis. I never got a chance to listen to much of his catalog. But at 128kbps for the first tier subscription I think it falls short of hifi.

[a.bandini]

I use the Bluesound gear for streaming, but there are lots of other options.  

The way it would probably work for you:  Your streaming device goes into the auxiliary input of your receiver, and is another wireless device that connects to the internet on your wifi.  You will have to (probably) download an app onto your phone, which becomes your remote controller for the streaming device.  You select the music source you want to listen to (there are many, some are free but have ads, the others are subscription) on the app, and it plays on your stereo without any static or interference (once you get the app to work, and the wifi issues resolved).   It is fantastic.  

I end up listening to Radio Paradise (https://radioparadise.com/home), which broadcasts in different audio quality, from MP3 to digital lossless (FLAC), with no adds - financial contributions are voluntary analogous to PBS.  It's like good FM radio from way-back-when, but at much higher fidelity.  I love it.  

Good luck!  

Bill M

 

[JGale]

Don't forget these guys. They have mucho mucho music, many of it live.

https://archive.org/details/audio

And they have a stream only section. Interesting.

https://archive.org/details/stream_only?and

 

[HSB0531]

Music Streaming is music that's playing live at the speed of a New Hampshire stream in early Spring.

Music Streaming +Infinity & Beyond is music playing at the speed of White Water Rafting in summertime...about 384kHz.  ..But it's unobtanium vaporware at the moment.

[tomteriffic]

16 hours ago, a.bandini said:

I use the Bluesound gear for streaming, but there are lots of other options.  

The way it would probably work for you:  Your streaming device goes into the auxiliary input of your receiver, and is another wireless device that connects to the internet on your wifi.  You will have to (probably) download an app onto your phone, which becomes your remote controller for the streaming device.  You select the music source you want to listen to (there are many, some are free but have ads, the others are subscription) on the app, and it plays on your stereo without any static or interference (once you get the app to work, and the wifi issues resolved).   It is fantastic.  

I end up listening to Radio Paradise (https://radioparadise.com/home), which broadcasts in different audio quality, from MP3 to digital lossless (FLAC), with no adds - financial contributions are voluntary analogous to PBS.  It's like good FM radio from way-back-when, but at much higher fidelity.  I love it.  

Good luck!  

Bill M

 

This is the missing piece, what I needed to know.  Thanks!

[Cboss]

My opinion only of course, but I have tried every streaming service with very good equipment and to me Tidal sounds the best, plus I love the way that it will show you new music that matches in some way what you've been listening to, I've discovered a ton of new music This Way

All of these Services have 30 to 60 day free trials, if you give tidal a try, in the options set the quality to master on both cellular and download.. also make sure volume normalization is unchecked, for some reason this seriously degrades the quality

Highest quality protocol between your streaming device and whatever is receiving it via Bluetooth at this point is LDAC, set this to the highest quality option, for me that is 990kbps, sounds glorious, three-dimensional, almost as good as a record

[Jakeboy]

I got nothing for you except that I hate that streaming has destroyed the monetization of making music. Napster won after all, and that sucks.

But they DID win and it is here to stay….as I sit next to my Bluetooth Marshall speaker upon which I will undoubtedly stream something today…

Sounds like you have a badass system!

[planetgaffnet]

Here's my input. 

I ditched the whole big hi-fi quite a few years back and rely on two streaming sources.  For playback, I decided on Sonos stereo pairs in four rooms and in the biggest family room I've paired a Sonos Mini-Sub with the stereo pair for a bit more rumble.  They're perfectly adequate for my needs.  I subscribe to Spotify Premium; I tried a couple of other streaming services but to be honest there was little difference tonally to anyone's ears and the additional expense didn't warrant the (assumed) better audio, so Spotify it is.  My ears are still in great shape and we just feel it's more about listening and enjoying music rather than whether you get a couple more db of anything from Qobuz.  The Sonos app works well enough although weirdly our microwave oven affects the Sonos MESH network, so we suffer infrequent dropouts when the oven is running.

I also have a NAS - all my old CDs are ripped to that in FLAC format - the Sonos app handles that content and will squirt audio to any Sonos pair we need it - you just point the app to the NAS location on the network and boom, you're up and running.  The NAS also contains all our film/TV box-set library (in MP4 format) and 5.1 audio (ie the Steven Wilson XTC/Tears For Fears 5.1 stuff); I have a Plex server installed on the NAS and Plex clients on all out TVs, which allows for streaming from the NAS.

We own a little Sonos unit called a Roam that can receive content by Bluetooth; I'm assured that it would be possible to connect a Bluetooth turntable to that, which in turn will connect to the Sonos MESH network, so I might be able to play the two boxes of old vinyl living in my loft.   Interestingly, I read just this morning that Victrola is about to release a turntable that integrates with any Sonos system in the next few weeks. (https://thevinylfactory.com/news/victrola-stream-onyx/)

Paul

[Disturber]

Find a Google Audio Chromecast device. Attach it to your stereo system with a 3,5" tele cable. Connect to your wifi. Stream to it from your phone. With Tidal lossless you will have CD quality. I have my Chromecast Audio connected to a small tube preamp, to get the audio level up a notch. Any reasonable good preamp would do.