YouTube Music arrives on all Sonos speakers
February 16, 2019 Comments Off on YouTube Music arrives on all Sonos speakers
“YouTube Music Premium (£10/month) offers ad-free music streaming as well as downloads for offline listening, while the £12-per-month YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) subscription offers ad-free, background and offline viewing across all of YouTube, in addition to all YouTube Originals.
Naturally, owners of the smart Sonos One and Beam will be able to control playback of the YouTube streaming services through voice commands once Google Assistant arrives on the speakers, which should be very soon.”
Roon Launches Biggest Update Yet
February 9, 2019 Comments Off on Roon Launches Biggest Update Yet
“The software update also provides access to Qobuz’s entire music catalog, including uncompressed high-resolution tracks, and integrates that content with Roon’s metadata for an enhanced listening experience. Users can seamlessly sync Roon and Qobuz collections to replace “lossy” content with lossless versions from Qobuz.
Finally, the Version 1.6 update gives Roon a “fresh new look” and makes the software “easier and more fun to use than ever.”In addition to showing a high-resolution image of the selected artist, the Now Playing screen displays lyrics in real-time along with streaming resolution, credits, biographical information on the artist, and even a review.”
Why Sony Is Launching a Hi-Res Streaming Service in Japan
February 7, 2019 Comments Off on Why Sony Is Launching a Hi-Res Streaming Service in Japan
“Sony Music Entertainment Japan — which is under the Sony Corporation umbrella but operates independently from the U.S.-based Sony Music Entertainment — will offer subscriptions to Mora Qualitas for 1,980 Yen ($17.50) a month starting in early 2019 as a streaming component to its existing high-res music download store called Mora. The new service will run off of Rhapsody’s “Powered by Napster” platform, which provides systems, tools and APIs and will deliver lossless music at 24-bit/44.1-96khz (high-resolution) and 16-bit/44.1khz (CD quality). While global industry leader Spotify launched in Japan in 2016, Sony and Rhapsody executives say they expect Mora Qualitas to appeal to a different class of consumer: diehard music fans who want a deeper, richer experience than the norm.”
Qobuz
February 4, 2019 Comments Off on Qobuz
“Roon’s Radio Mode includes the Qobuz library and, of course, your own library (and Tidal’s if you also have a subscription). When Radio Mode is turned on, Roon continues to reach out on its own accord (an example of ‘machine learning’) to consecutively choose and play other tracks of music for you from among all libraries it has access to. One major way I took advantage of Radio Mode (in addition to personal selection and comparisons not using Radio Mode) was to have only the Qobuz library turned on for it; that way I was able to listen to an enormous sampling of Qobuz music—by just keeping Radio Mode on for hours at a time. If I wanted to change genre or another attribute, I could simply intervene and insert a chosen track to cause the music to drift in a new direction. As a reviewer, this was golden.”
Sonarworks Creates Headphone Correction App for Mobile Devices
February 3, 2019 Comments Off on Sonarworks Creates Headphone Correction App for Mobile Devices
“A few technical details: The True-Fi mobile app supports a range of file formats including MP3, WAV, AIFF, ALAC (for iOS) and MP3, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, and ACC (for Android); these encompass iTunes and Android content libraries. The highest supported sampling frequency depends on the processing power of the host hardware; iOS users can expect 96 kHz and higher, and Android can expect sampling frequencies up to 48 kHz. FLAC files, as well as higher sampling rates, will be supported in the future.
Customization and personalization of audio files is a new and growing market. It will be interesting to see how Sonarworks develops its technology to respond to this market’s needs.”
Qobuz is bringing hi-res music streaming to the USA in 2019
January 9, 2019 Comments Off on Qobuz is bringing hi-res music streaming to the USA in 2019
LUMIN X1 $13,990 Network Music Streamer REVIEW
November 27, 2018 Comments Off on LUMIN X1 $13,990 Network Music Streamer REVIEW
“A dedicated device like Lumin X1 is a proof of importance for a reference class digital front end. As much I’m a hard-core computer fan and have tried to stay solely dependant on the Mac or PC as the main digital hub (with all the tricks, tweaks and optimizations), I have no doubt for some time that dedicated music streamer or DAC with an integrated streamer/server can deliver a major step up in the performance. As I’ve written above, the difference is not even funny. The Lumin team can happily grim with the big smile by thinking… you’re being served and served properly sir!”
McIntosh MS500 Music Streamer $6,000 Review
November 24, 2018 Comments Off on McIntosh MS500 Music Streamer $6,000 Review
“I’m fond of saying everyone has his/her speciality. I look at a turntable like it’s a rocket surgery project, but give me the most convoluted digital product and it’ll be right in my wheelhouse. These specialities hold true for audio companies as well. McIntosh has always nailed the analog side of HiFi. The company also offers a great D1100 DAC that I reviewed and placed on the C.A.S.H. List earlier this year. However when it comes to a complete digital platform capable of streaming, integrating with Crestron, and building iOS/Android apps, etc… McIntosh has elected to outsource this specialty. I don’t blame them, it’s difficult work. The MS500 has Autonomic technology where it counts and McIntosh design and DNA where it counts.
I must also note that it’s impossible not to enjoy the beautiful design of the McIntosh MS500. It’s black glass, glorious green illuminated logo, distinctive red power button, and classy aluminum end caps are legendary and look even better in person.”
Shazam Is Now Completely Ad-Free (Thanks to Apple)
September 25, 2018 Comments Off on Shazam Is Now Completely Ad-Free (Thanks to Apple)
‘Apple Music vice president Oliver Schusser commented positively on the acquisition saying, “with a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music.”
Shazam helps its users identify over 20 million songs per day, so that’s a lot of ad revenue that Apple is giving up in favor of a different strategy. Shazam will be ad-free on both iPhone and Android, though Android users have access to Google’s superior Sound Search.”
Audiophilepure 
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