Internet radio options - Experiences?

Just musing here. Anyone conversant on the business of internet radio? I'm currently quite tickled with Spotify's hi-rez player, which is a bit of a hack to install on a Linux box but apparently is easy to put on a Windows or Mac machine. Seems to eliminate the need for a DAC.
Are there other services with better audio quality? That pay the artists (Spotify, out of the UK, claims to, but who knows?)
Reason I ask is that I've been messing with this a bit in the den on my sand equipment and am wondering if I should buy a PC for the tubes.
Any intel would be appreciated.
Cheerio
d

The reasons I haven't settled on one are fidelity - I haven't found one that is lossless without encountering subscription fees and/or commercials - and choice. I don't want some computer algorithm deciding that if I like x I'll like y. I still prefer choosing my media the old-fashioned way in the old-fashioned formats.

daveshel wrote:The reasons I haven't settled on one are fidelity - I haven't found one that is lossless without encountering subscription fees and/or commercials - and choice. I don't want some computer algorithm deciding that if I like x I'll like y. I still prefer choosing my media the old-fashioned way in the old-fashioned formats.

And I might add that I can listen to non-commercial KXCI on FM or stream it from kxci.org and avoid playlists as well as commercials so I'm spoiled where it comes to radio.

deepee99 wrote:Just musing here. Anyone conversant on the business of internet radio? I'm currently quite tickled with Spotify's hi-rez player, which is a bit of a hack to install on a Linux box but apparently is easy to put on a Windows or Mac machine. Seems to eliminate the need for a DAC.
Are there other services with better audio quality? That pay the artists (Spotify, out of the UK, claims to, but who knows?)
Reason I ask is that I've been messing with this a bit in the den on my sand equipment and am wondering if I should buy a PC for the tubes.
Any intel would be appreciated.
Cheerio
d

As for Internet radio i usually tune in some blues station on shoutcast. This gives me hints of tunes and artists that i never heard of. I don't care about the quality since the goal is to buy cd or vinyls, these i listen and enjoy. Same goes for background music at parties where noone cares about the sound quality.

spotify and simular streamed in nothing i will pay for, i'd rather pay for physical media ( or flac files i store locally).

Not an option here in the sticks with a 5gb a month limit ...

All is not lost though ... I just set up a Sony HD radio here and hooked it up to a Magnum FM1 outdoor whip. Dragging in pretty much everything within a 100 mile radius now. And then some - I get a good stereo signal from Saginaw, and that's 117 air miles from here. On FM ... wahoo!

Not a whole lot of HD stations in the area, but some good ones. Local colleges have both jazz and oldies on sub carriers, as well as NPR. Also a couple nice commercial jazz and metal sub channels that you can't get otherwise. All else is definitely an improvement over what I could get with my old Sansui QRX tuner - lot more stations AND digital clarity.

PS ... rather than pay the big bux for a Sony XDRF1 ... and we're talking a few hundred anyway ... I got a car head with the HD tuner built in ...



... and power that with a LED Monitor 12v 6a brick. Less than $100 in the setup, not counting the antenna.

Now that I got it working nice, I figure to purty it up with a custom case ...

Yeah, that's the prob here: no FM signal gets around these mountains. Thankfully we're close to a VZ fibre trunk cable so bandwidth at reasonable cost isn't out of reach.
So IF internet radio is your only option, what's your call?

Spotify'..................Vary Cool...........thanks for posting............
How can Spotify be a Bad thing??
I spent the Night playing all the Patricia Barber cutes shes ever made..............for free...go fig...
On my laptop i well give the sound playing My Acoustat ESLs....1-10....8.....lot fun...better than FM...




thanks for the site Bob................

zx wrote:Spotify'..................Vary Cool...........thanks for posting............
How can Spotify be a Bad thing??
I spent the Night playing all the Patricia Barber cutes shes ever made..............for free...go fig...
On my laptop i well give the sound playing My Acoustat ESLs....1-10....8.....lot fun...better than FM...




thanks for the site Bob................

Spotify can only be a bad thing if they're not paying the artists. Which, depending on who you read, they are. Brits tend to be a tad more decent about these things. I'm a Union Man when it comes to paying writers  

I have had a Polk XM/Sirius rcvr for a number of years as it was the only way to get high quality audio "off the air." The high-rez player from Spotify costs about the same as a Sirius subscription but IMHO side-by-side Spotify wins hands-down over the Polk player for Sirius. Again, no FM possibilities here, so sat or internet are the only options. I'm listening to Spooky Tooth right now on Spotify. Pretty eclectic music supply. No, it ain't vinyl but a serious improvement over other sand media. As mentioned earlier, the Spotify premium (as opposed to streaming) player is in beta for Linux boxes, you have to launch it from the command line in terminal mode, but I think for MS and Mac Os it's already stand-alone.

deepee99 wrote:
Pretty eclectic music supply.

kxci.org is about as eclectic as music sources come. And it's free. Do you have a DAC on your PC or MAC? I just got one the other day and the PC sounds pretty good now.

daveshel wrote:

deepee99 wrote:
Pretty eclectic music supply.

kxci.org is about as eclectic as music sources come. And it's free. Do you have a DAC on your PC or MAC? I just got one the other day and the PC sounds pretty good now.

No DAC here, but I'll give 'em a whirl. Thanks!

I second the DAC requirement. I sort of assume that many, if not all folks here have a decent amp (; and speakers. That kind of gear will reveal all of the shortcomings of a direct-from-computer output digital stream. The most important thing with a DAC is not necessarily the DAC chip since they have been making good ones for long time now, but a good output stage, that will turn garbage in to, well, gold plated garbage. Seriously, it will make a huge difference in sound quality for computer based audio. Wyered4sound and Burson have good arguments for a proper output stage (no opamps) on a DAC.

sKiZo wrote:Not an option here in the sticks with a 5gb a month limit ...

All is not lost though ... I just set up a Sony HD radio here and hooked it up to a Magnum FM1 outdoor whip. Dragging in pretty much everything within a 100 mile radius now. And then some - I get a good stereo signal from Saginaw, and that's 117 air miles from here. On FM ... wahoo!

Not a whole lot of HD stations in the area, but some good ones. Local colleges have both jazz and oldies on sub carriers, as well as NPR. Also a couple nice commercial jazz and metal sub channels that you can't get otherwise. All else is definitely an improvement over what I could get with my old Sansui QRX tuner - lot more stations AND digital clarity.

PS ... rather than pay the big bux for a Sony XDRF1 ... and we're talking a few hundred anyway ... I got a car head with the HD tuner built in ...



... and power that with a LED Monitor 12v 6a brick. Less than $100 in the setup, not counting the antenna.

Now that I got it working nice, I figure to purty it up with a custom case ...

You thinking teak or African mahogany?

Maybe get some more Mollari to match the ST120 ...



Oh wait ... that's Makore! I always get those two confused. Easiest way to tell the difference - Mollari tends to scream if you run him thru a band saw.

Makori is some of the nicest stuff I've ever worked with, and not all that expensive either. Tools nice, and finishes up great in it's natural color with just a couple coats of rub on poly. Try it ... you'll like it!

It's sometimes called African cherry, so you weren't too far off. Lucky me, I got a Woodcraft store in the area - like a kid in a candy store for anyone into carpentry. 70+ stores nationwide, so might be one in your neighborhood ...

PS ... I just picked up some adapters and such so I can put my Magnum Sleuth FM amp in line with the whip. That's the one famous for use in the Canadian hinterland and does amazing things for signal power. Problem being, it's 300ohm, so I need to adapt it for 75ohm for the whip and radio. Should be interesting to see what it does for HD ... still having trouble getting a lock on a couple stations I really really want to have.

Spotify IMHO has the finest-sounding player, but at least in its beta-for-Linux (Ubuntu 13.10) iteration and despite trying every hack I could find, it hung the OS at least daily. Thought it was a conflict with Chromium, lit Firefox up, same results. The morning I got up to the sound of the hard-drive chewing itself up I gave up, shut it down and uninstalled. So it's back to Sirius XM on a Polk, and Pandora for now. When it gets out of beta maybe I'll give it another whirl.

Try using Spotify (now that MOG is gone) over your iPhone or iPad, streaming via Airplay to an Airport Express then into a DAC. No direct computer issues, much fidelity (320 kbps vs. much less on internet radio), 16 million tunes to choose from for $10 per month. All this sounds wonderful on my highly resolving system.

BTW, the best value in a great sounding DAC is Emotiva's DC-1, which can also serve as a preamp in your system.

Try the Linn radio stream. They stream fairly high resolutuin. Here is the link (scroll a bit down): http://www.linn.co.uk/music#linn-radio

Michael

Zimmer64 wrote:Try the Linn radio stream. They stream fairly high resolutuin. Here is the link (scroll a bit down): http://www.linn.co.uk/music#linn-radio

Michael

Michael, many thanks. Since I've still got a month left with Spotify, I'm still messing with their linux beta. Seems like if I light everything else off first (browser, word processor, etc.) it plays well with others. If it's the first launch it kicks everybody else out of the sandbox. I'm no computer guru.
I couldn't find any code to make Linn work in Linux, but this is always a quest for new knowledge, again trying to do this straight pipes, no DAC. I could probably buy some $300,000 Mac box for the time I've spent messing with this shite.
Cheerio
David

Those evil bastichis! They used to champion sound over statistics and snake oil. In recent years they are all about well heeled customers who can pay the price of admission.., you know, after they can prove to the McJonses they have the dosh to join the golf club with its 40k membership price of admission.

That said, I have an LP12, albeit upgraded with non-Linn bits and pieces. Oh the horror!

What's more, no doubt I'll check the Streaming Linn, but I suspect it of being a marketing ploy to sell hi bit Linn recordi gs to be played best over hi buck Linn digital audio devices.

But me? I'm stuck in the past with a record player Linn designed too well for their own (digital) good.

But pardon me...I really should have some XTC on hand, as I do rave a bit. Or byte.

Tube Nube wrote:Those evil bastichis! They used to champion sound over statistics and snake oil. In recent years they are all about well heeled customers who can pay the price of admission.., you know, after they can prove to the McJonses they have the dosh to join the golf club with its 40k membership price of admission.

That said, I have an LP12, albeit upgraded with non-Linn bits and pieces. Oh the horror!

What's more, no doubt I'll check the Streaming Linn, but I suspect it of being a marketing ploy to sell hi bit Linn recordi gs to be played best over hi buck Linn digital audio devices.

But me? I'm stuck in the past with a record player Linn designed too well for their own (digital) good.

But pardon me...I really should have some XTC on hand, as I do rave a bit. Or byte.

XTC? Is that like DBX? DBX comes in pill or liquid form. I could scan you my DBX scrip, works in any Canadian pharmacy.

OK, here's the real deal.

Qobuz, a French streaming service with a 14 million tune catalog, offers 16/44 (true cd resolution) as well as 320 kbps streaming. Mozart sounding great right now, a wonderful way to greet the day!

audiobill wrote:OK, here's the real deal.

Qobuz, a French streaming service with a 14 million tune catalog, offers 16/44 (true cd resolution) as well as 320 kbps streaming.  Mozart sounding great right now, a wonderful way to greet the day!

Bill, I'm giving them a try. Very French in its complexity of setting up an account but the streaming sounds quite good. Thanks!
Spotify update: they seem to be making improvements in the Linux beta. I use Libre Office and Chromium running under Ubuntu Linux 13.10 If I launch Chromium first (from a cold start), then launch Spotify off a command line, and lastly launch the office suite, they seem to play well together. Any other launch sequence and the OS eventually hangs. Knock on wood, 48 hours now and no issues, although some error messages still do appear in the Terminal when opening Spotify, however not near as many as two weeks ago.

Agree - a little effort to sign up!

So you can go to the Qobuz site, downoad the pc or mobile device players, and get 7 free days at 320kbps.

And, if you email them, they allow you to sign up using your charge card then you get 30 free days at 16/44 or higher and are charged monthly thereafter.

The monthly charge is about $27 usd (19.95 euros), but then this is actually cd or higher quality streaming.

If you sign up for a year at a time, its about $200 euros, or about $22.50 per month.

I understand this is the highest resolution music streaming service with a large catalog available.

I am trying out the free 30 day cd quality plan, then make a decision about the annual pricing.

But for 75 cents per day for this quality, may very well be worth it !

audiobill wrote:Agree - a little effort to sign up!

So you can go to the Qobuz site, downoad the pc or mobile device players, and get 7 free days at 320kbps.

And, if you email them, they allow you to sign up using your charge card then you get 30 free days at 16/44 or higher and are charged monthly thereafter.

The monthly charge is about $27 usd (19.95 euros), but then this is actually cd or higher quality streaming.

If you sign up for a year at a time, its about $200 euros, or about $22.50 per month.

I understand this is the highest resolution music streaming service with a large catalog available.

I am trying out the free 30 day cd quality plan, then make a decision about the annual pricing.

But for 75 cents per day for this quality, may very well be worth it !

Their streaming sounds pretty good, but I haven't found a Linux hack for their player yet. Have you got a link to the code?

No, I don't think you can get there.....why not write them?

audiobill wrote:No, I don't think you can get there.....why not write them?

Je ne pas parlse le francais, but I'll try.