I’ve had an HD 6XX with a Schitt Magni + Modi for quite some time. I just wanted better sounding audio. Eventually I fell out of being into good sounds and I’m not even sure what’s what anymore because I barely had a clue then. So, I’ve been listening to music on Youtube for free and just now realized wtf am I doing…there must be a better quality place to listen to music. So, I’m here asking for your assistance. Also, maybe my setup isn’t good so I’d be curious to see what anyone has to say about that if you have input on it as well.
Your setup is fine, better than what 95% of people have.
As far as where to listen to music, literally any streaming service. (Free) YouTube has some pretty noticeable compression on everything but the differences between Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, whatever other platform are so minute that you will never hear them unless you are meticulously A/B testing them together, and even then a lot of that could be placebo.
I personally went with Tidal back when I was chasing audio fidelity a year and a half or so ago and I ditched Spotify for it since they’re the same price (I’m on Tidal’s HiFi tier, not the Max one) and I wanted to reset my discovery algorithm. Spotify was recommending me the same albums for years on end even when my tastes were broadening out past just prog metal, so I wanted to reset. I also didn’t want podcasts clogging up my feed because I use a separate app for that. In general Tidal and Spotify are 90% similar to each other, with Spotify having more social features (which I don’t care about at all) and Tidal having more in terms of information about the artists, which is pretty cool. Tidal’s a little buggier but it rarely has an impact that lasts more than, say, 10 seconds. I don’t think you can truly go wrong with any of the big streaming platforms though, so do whatever your budget allows.
It seems the consensus is Tidal so I’m gonna probably start with them.
Getting back into my CD collection after using streaming services for years. If you have CDs , definitely do this!
Spotify is the best and with the largest collection, but definitely has audible compression if you’re using really resolving headphones. I didn’t like Tidal because the catalog is small and the high quality music is even smaller.
All that said, if you want the highest quality, just use lossless files. But remember that even the best Bluetooth streaming is lossy and new compression algorithms are very good with psychoacoustics… For most purposes Spotify set to Very High over BT is more than acceptable.
Just pick the cheaper one. Really, the only advantage is practicality and some exclusive track version that there is not on youtube. You will not find a better sound quality unless you expect it to be better.
Don’t trust me. Just use foobar2000 abx plugin lossless vs lossy