Personal Audio Player

[Ciaran]

Oh no! My research was not sufficiently thorough! The KANN doesn't support installing apps for streaming, though it has Tidal built-in. I think that would be frustrating as I'd like to try Qobuz and Idagio, not to mention being able to use Spotify. I could use the KANN as a USB DAC and use the lap-top for the streaming services, but I'd prefer if it were part of the player. I'm going to see can I cancel my order and get one of the A & K's which has this functionality.

[Diapason]

On the classical front, I find most of the smaller labels are not represented well on the streaming sites (e.g. Hyperion is nowhere, from what I can tell) so ripping might still be a thing. Personally, though, I started and didn't get far. So tiresome, I just couldn't cope.

I've tried 3 streaming solutions, Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. The only one I'll continue to pay for in the family context at home is Spotify, but our use case is a little different. Sonically I find Qobuz best of the three, and as said above Tidal's insistence on ramming the latest hip-hop albums down my throat drove me mad.

For classical you should also possibly add Primephonic to the list, but at the moment it's not so well-supported as others.

[Ciaran]

On the classical front, I find most of the smaller labels are not represented well on the streaming sites (e.g. Hyperion is nowhere, from what I can tell) so ripping might still be a thing. Personally, though, I started and didn't get far. So tiresome, I just couldn't cope.

I've tried 3 streaming solutions, Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. The only one I'll continue to pay for in the family context at home is Spotify, but our use case is a little different. Sonically I find Qobuz best of the three, and as said above Tidal's insistence on ramming the latest hip-hop albums down my throat drove me mad.

For classical you should also possibly add Primephonic to the list, but at the moment it's not so well-supported as others.

Hyperion hold on to their catalogue very tightly, and I don't think they're available on any streaming service. They do sell downloads (high res where possible), which I assume are properly tagged. I'm certainly going to have to get into streaming and downloading: lately top recommendations on BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library" have often been download only. Not only that, but I already have about 2000 CDs (very rough estimate, but they overflow from two big bookcases!), so something which takes up no physical space is very attractive!

I had spotted Primephonic, it does seem to be a contender for best classical streaming service, but it's not supported on A & K players, so I'll try out Idagio (another contender for that title!) first.

If I do get into streaming and downloading the next question is how to get them on to my DCS Scarlatti DAC when the big rig is up and running. DCS were pioneers of USB asynchronous audio transfer, but that came after the Scarlatti. I might be able to connect the DAP via my Squeezebox Touch: if I could work out how to do that properly, that would be a neat no-cost solution! DCS have their own solution, the Network Bridge, which I'm sure works beautifully, but at a price!

James, thanks for the suggestion of phones with high quality audio: I did toy with that idea, as I also have in the past with phones which have high-quality cameras. Carrying it all around in something you're going to be carrying anyway is an attractively neat idea. But I decided in the end that I'd prefer to keep the functions separate. Is sometimes convenient to listen to music on my phone, and it's not that bad (Samsung S7, 3.5 years old), possibly would be better if I got better earphones, and I take a lot of pictures on my phone, surprisingly good and so convenient!

James and Derek, thanks for the dbppoweramp suggestion: I acually had that on my computer, three or four computers ago! I didn't get into ripping then, but I'll look into it now.