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How To Get The Best Sound From Pandora & Rhapsody?

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How do you get the best possible sound from Pandora and Rhapsody? Is a computer via USB Dac the best way? Or, will using one of these newfangled streamers and a Dac give you better sound?

The majority of my listening is from these two sources, and I'd like to go whole hog to get the best possible sound from them. I still listen to cd's and vinyl, but Pandora and Rhapsody is so doggone convenient, that they get the bulk of my listening time.
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Showing 2 responses by hgeifman

hgeifman
2,110 posts
 
Here are some specs I received from Pandora regarding audio quality on Pandora:

Free Pandora is 64k AAC+ on the web.

Pandora One subscribers get the option of 192k MP3 on the Web and when using the AIR Desktop App.

Most Home-listening devices get 128k MP3 – whether the account is free or paid.

Cell phones get anywhere from 24k to 64k in mono or stereo, depending on the phone, carrier, connection type, and in some cases the user setting.

I recently switched my source to a MAC Book Pro computer connected to my Oppo 105 Blu-Ray player (DAC only) using the USB cable. The Oppo is temporary until my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC arrives. This front end change enables me to upgrade to Pandora One ($36 per year) with 192k streaming (done today).

I also agree with Sfar above that MOG streams at 320k with excellent results. Pandora and MOG are great options to have for listening to music streaming.
hgeifman
2,110 posts
 
Ptss: That is a very good question. I will let you know in early February after I start using the Ayre QB-9 DAC.

I heard the Ayre QB-9 using the MAC Computer, my amplifier and my speakers at the Audio Store and liked it very much. I am currently using the MAC connected to the DAC in the Oppo 105 now and it does sound very good. I felt the Ayre QB-9 sounded better but the real test will be when I hook up the Ayre and compare it to the Oppo 105 in my system.
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