THIS. You nailed it.
Spotify isnāt doing the slow roll on lossless music because of some technical problem or because its library is two or three times the size of services that offer lossless. Anyone who believes that is a fool.
The main reason Spotify wonāt offer lossless ever ā or if in the miracle it does, it will be only CD in an overpriced, $20 per month tier ā is because the VAST majority of its customers donāt give a shit about good sound. They just want to pop on their Beats, Jabras or Sony XM5s or fire up their JBL wireless speaker and hear music as background accompaniment for workouts, chores, whatever.
Spotify knows its customer base. And it also knows the price to boost its entire catalog to high-res will not be very profitable without an obscenely high subscription price because so few of its customers care about sound quality.
There are a number of costs that mean it would either have to be a higher tier subscription, or not doing it would have to have a significant impact on their subscriber base. But as pointed out the bulk of their subscribers arenāt audiophiles.
Even if they could wave a wand and magically host Hires content (assuming their existing licenses actually allow them to do that), the increase in CDN costs if people actually consumed it regularly would be significant.
Hello,
We donāt really need Spotify.
Spotify lives from the mainstream, from users who also believe they are audiophiles with their Apple, Beat, ect.
That sounds arrogant on my part at first.
They donāt know what a dac or amplifier is and they donāt even know it exists.
They think the newer the smartphone the better the sound, or the more expensive the items they buy from the mainstream.
Spotify lives on that and thatās enough for them.
Thatās why Spotify fell flat on its face when they wanted to go Hi res.
They didnāt expect that the technical effort plus costs would be so great.
Thatās why Qubozz and Tidal are better positioned.
It was foreseeable that Spotify will also charge 20$.
Nevertheless, they will have big problems convincing real audiophiles at the beginning and later, when things go wrong, they will want to sell to stupid non-audiophiles as a subscription.
Where they then believe that they will have a better quality where they listen.
Thatās why itās a win win situation for Spotify.
Compared to Tidal and Qubozz they have done a lot more to offer what is right.
And also pay artists.
Spotify only takes and will only take with the intention and they know that the stupid audiophiles are really stupid.
And those who donāt realise it are the stupid audiophiles, because they still believe the quality comes from iemās or the smartphone.
I had to say that metaphorically.
Thatās why Iām not quite sure why some real audiophiles are really willing to support such a company?
If the artists knew that, they would immediately cancel their contracts and switch to serious ones like Qubozz or Tidal.
Because they are taken seriously there.
Absolutely! The back end costs wonāt be insignificant, also given the largest user base, means theyāll bear the highest CDN costs. In the end no one is leaving Spotify for the lack of lossless. For them itās how many NEW customers theyāre going to attract if they enable lossless and the answer is, not many. Given the additional cost and lower quality (non HD) content.
The long rumoured closed back
NITSCH x ecp Audio DSHA-3FN
Hi Everyone,
Just got the 2-week FINAL COUNTDOWN from the factory!!!
For my super-patient DSHA customers: Sorry for the wait!!
Been a LONG time coming (the first run is always the hardest).
- Air shipment to California leaving factory July 17th.
- Will email again to take orders and send PayPal invoices at end-July (or beginning August, depending on customs).
- Shipping is now early August.
COMPLETED:
- Finished metal volume knob and feet color change (warmer/richer).
- Added rubber to metal feet.
- Added venting to bottom.
- Slight movement of LED.
- Adjustments to silk screening.
- Extension of internal case bracing.
- Another round of board testing, listening, independently measuring, changing some values of resistors for better results.
- Purchased hard cases for shipping, travel, and storage.
FIRST RUN Details:
- First run will be 120V US amps only. (For second run, will take interest check and make 230V.)
- When amps are in-hand, will send another email to this group for orders.
RECAP:
- Amps finished at factory July 17.
- Air shipping to California.
- Will send emails at end of July to take orders and send PayPal Invoices.
- First shipments early August!
Thank you SO much everyone. I am very exctied for this NITSCH production.
All the best,
Christian (CEE TEE)
Really the only reason I still have tidal is cause itās so darn cheap for me, but itās nice to see the inevitable end to mqa
I really like the interface, and change is hard.
At this point with Tidal, i would like to see independently tested truth that it is what they advertise. I hope they learned from MQA and it is what it says it is.
Also werent some of the MQA tracks a new mastering? Does any of that mastering get put to the new flac?
I was a bit underwhelmed by the Piety, but Iād definitely be interested to see what people end up thinking of the new DSHA-3F models. Anyone planning on picking one up?
Nope, not for myself.
Iāve read quite a few promising things about the new planar headphones from Mod House Audio. They are an open-back called the Tungsten. Thereās a nice write-up on Head-Fi from someone that went to the recent CanJam in Chicago and got a chance to hear them. Supposedly they are going to be $1500, and from what this guy said, they might be able to compete with much higher priced headphones.
I personally know Ryan from Mod House does good work. I have a pair of his Argons that are a modded Fostex T50, like what Zach from ZMF used to mod as well. Zach made him a custom Caldera pad for his new planar, so that in and of itself is promising. I look forward to giving them a listen.
Everyone thatās tried them has mentioned how hard to drive they are, like Susvara hard. Itās unclear if the final model that gets released will be the same specs as the demo heās been bringing to audio shows. I for one am ok with them being hard to drive if itās necessary to maximize the sound quality. Iāll have a headphone amp capable of 15W into 32 ohms, so I donāt think Iāll personally have any issues.
They were one of my favorites I heard at AXPONA, back when the headphone was called Silver(single magnet) and Gold(double magnet) 
Nice, rich, non-fatiguing sound with some decent soundstage. Affordable! I didnāt hear anything about power difficulty tho. (running off that Black Ice Audio ARIES amp in SE)
I wonder if there will still be two models or if Ryan at Mod House has decided to focus on one for the initial release. Thereās very little info out there at the moment, so itās all guesswork.
I ahve a pair kn the firat batch comming so ill mak sure to do a writeup. I was pretty impressed by them iverall
The solver vs gold actualy refered to trace material. Tjere havrnt been any double magets made yet even as prototypes afaik
Do you know when the first batch is due to come out? Also, do you just contact Ryan at Mod House directly to pre-order?
No contete dates but hopefuly shipping out in the next month or so