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RE: thoughts on Spotify connect on the bluesound node vs. Chromecast with google music unlimited

Posted by AbeCollins (A) on July 16, 2014 at 20:06:34

In Reply to: thoughts on Spotify connect on the bluesound node vs. Chromecast with google music unlimited posted by bullethead on July 16, 2014 at 18:22:44:

I was experimenting with various internet radio stations a few months back and like you, discovered that MP3 is about the worse sounding compression out there, if not THE worse.

Some stations would allow you to select the bit-rate and MP3 or AAC. In all cases I found AAC to sound better than MP3 at a given bit-rate. I also found that lower bit-rate AAC can sound as good as a higher bit-rate MP3. For example, AAC at 64-kbps sounded at least as good as MP3 at 96-kbps.

I'm not surprised that you find Ogg Vorbis better than old MP3.

As for music services, I have Pandora One that tops out at 192-Kbps and Spotify Premium at 320-kbps. Spotify sound noticeably better to me and I like it's layout for selecting genres and sub categories. I prefer it for new music discovery too.

I also have iTunes Radio (free) which is fine but not nearly as robust with features being the relative new kid on the block. That might change someday since Apple bought Beats Music (which bought MOG before Apple bought them).

Unfortunately for now anyway, Pandora and iTunes Radio are better integrated for use with my car's infotainment system with album art and playlists viewable in the large Navigation system screen plus voice commands and steering wheel mounted controls. Spotify requires more manual control on the smartphone itself but still plays wonderfully through the car audio system, but it requires more effort while driving.

I listen to all three but prefer Spotify Premium in my office for all-day background music while I work. The one thing I hate about Spotify is it's social media features that I don't need. Whenever I launch the Spotify App, it wants to broadcast to the world via Facebook what I'm listening to or if I create a new playlist or whatever. I have to manually shut it off by selecting "Private Session" each time I launch Spotify. Maybe there's a workaround that I have yet to discover.

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