Pandora vs. Pandora One. Any audible difference?

Free Pandora streams at 128kbps, Pandora One streams at 192kbps - which is the highest any commercial streaming service goes (i.e. Rhapsody). There used to be a few that streamed at 256k, but recent legislation may have limited them all to max 192k.

And yes, it makes a difference - especially on good equipment. Cymbals are cleaner, voices are a little more natural, and you'll get fewer compression artifacts popping up in the middle of songs (can sound like a bird chirping or a momentary speed change as something falls out of key).

Thanks for the response. I just started using Pandora and noticed those chirping sounds. I thought that it was a hardware issue with my system perhaps, but I see that I can avoid those sounds by upgrading.

I noticed a diff upgrading and for 3 bucks a month what a deal pandora is. (IMO)

I'm probably way behind the curve here, but Pandora was my best musical find of 2009.

I paid for a year of premium service and yes it is better and definitely worth it. For me, I was not willing to pay for Sat radio with there ("no commercial"---"COMMERCIALS) if you get my meaning. I use it in the home at work and on my iPhone. Pandora sounds great at 192khz. It's not bad at all at 128khz.

I have the iphone app for pandora so I can stream radio while docked on my krell KID=pretty cool. I have found a lot of great music to purchase as well.

Stl114_nj: I echo your' sentiments, it has been great in helping me to discover new music. I love it. I bet your "Kid" setup is cool!

I'm planning to upgrade my Pandora access as well. In addition to improved audio quality, will anyone comment about a broader range of music? On several of the "radio stations" I now have, it seems I hear the same couple dozen recordings over and over. It gets kind of boring. I'm hoping variety will increase if I upgrade. Please advise if you have experience in this regard. Apologies to Umn for a partial hi-jacking - but hopefully this query is still relevant and helpful.

I listen to blues on internet radio and that has helped me identify new artists since I see the artist info and search for other albums. I look up on amazon and there are other recommendations that I look into as well. I also listen to bellyup4blues. I agree that with Pandora there are repeats of a particular artist if that is how you built the playlist, but it also attracts other similar music.

Just upgraded to Pandora One; an audible difference!

Ghosthouse - the more things you give thumbs up, the wider the variety you will get. The more thumbs down you give (or no feedback) the narrower it will get. That is the essence of the Pandora approach - finding songs that are "similar to" what you indicate you like. Sometimes you will have to go to the preferences for the station and add more artists and variety.

If any Pandora users didn't know already, the Pandora iPhone app is free, and works great over 3G, and even pretty well over EDGE.

So if your iPhone is hooked into your car system, you can access all your Pandora stations in your car, and play though your car stereo. I think it is pretty cool.

dave

Thanks, Shazam.

Free internet radio over cell phone will eventually kill off XM, and sirius.