#Hifi spotify plus#

Is the equipment “Roon Ripoff Ready”? Nope. I don’t fixate on the technical details that frAudiophiles thrive on but cannot prove in double blind testing. My “streamers” (oh lordy but I hate that term) have colour displays and show album information and other information as it is available. I have affordable equipment that gives me what I want and need. “The FARCE be with you” should be their tag line.

I will never support a company that props up MQA. TIDAL is stupid and I will NEVER pay for that joke. It is not that QOBUZ is “bad”, but rather that I am not falling for that line. “Lossless”?! Really?! MQA?! Puhleeeeeze! LOL! Not a person I personally know can hear any difference in formats, sampling rates, etc. I have never given a thought to TIDAL (yuck) nor QOBUZ (huh?). I do NOT need nor want anything with MQA. When in town I have that and Pandora and Amazon. No cell signal above Gen 2? Not problem, I have SiriusXM via Satellite. Siriusly Sinatra, Real Jazz, Classic Vinyl, et al. Okay…In the middle of the Aridzona desert SiriusXM is there for me. They all work just fine and I cancelled the Amazon Ultra HD because to be HONEST, I could NOT hear a difference.Īnd then Amazon just made the UHD de facto.

#Hifi spotify plus#

I have SiriusXM, Pandora Plus (Family Plan) and Amazon Ultra HD. We think that was a brilliant move by both who desperately need greater brand awareness with mainstream customers. Qobuz announced a new partnership with Sonos which will help expand their reach into the mainstream market.īoth hi-res brands are now working with the premium television manufacturers to offer their services via an app on your smart TV. Hi-Res support is going to cost $6 more per month. Tidal announced some significant price changes in 2021 those who have zero interest in MQA or Hi-Res can select a new lossless tier that caps out at 16-bit/44.1kHz. Qobuz and Tidal are audiophile streaming platforms that appeal to a different audience than Spotify. So where does that leave Tidal and Qobuz? Name one high-end audio product that ever sold 1% of that total.Īmazon also delivered on its promise - granted, it was a knee-jerk reaction to the competition and growth of TIDAL and Qobuz. With hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads being used around the world, it’s not like Apple didn’t have a captive audience to sell lossless streaming to.Īpple have actually sold more than 2.2 billion iPhones since inception. I know this means that the service will show up on Monday, but did people actually forget about this and what does that say about interest in lossless streaming?Īpple was clearly spooked by Spotify’s announcement and made the jump into lossless hyperspace. Apple actually did what it promised in 2021 and launched Apple Music with Spatial Audio.Ī quick look at the calendar reveals that it is 2022 (I need to remember to redo my passport) and that Spotify HiFi is a giant no-show.

Except perhaps for the folks in Cupertino. With plans to expand to an additional 85 new markets and launch Spotify HiFi, there is no chance for any rival to overtake them. With almost 175 million Premium subscribers, the streaming titan has a sizable percentage of the digital music streaming category. Spotify is clearly the Godzilla of the streaming world. Those of us who understand the power of Spotify saw this as a huge opportunity for the high-end audio industry to reach a new audience. If we take a look back at 2021, Spotify made a huge deal about Spotify HiFi and even hired the services of Billie Eilish to promote their massive foray into “hi-res” streaming.Įven when that was only going to be 16-bit/44.1kHz streaming for its premium subscribers.

The bottom line is that Spotify doesn’t have a date yet and I would not expect to see it in Q1 2022.