Big Improvement in Pandora

[gibson66]

i have been enjoying Pandora streaming through a pair of Oppo players ( 93 and 103) in different rooms. My basement set up is a home theater with KHorns. The connection in the Wi Fi

started dropping off. I connected an ethernet cable from the modem and was stunned by the improvement. I did the the same in my main floor family room, two channel, Chorus. Huge

change. Net Flix now is true HD. Streaming rivals Blu Ray. If your WiFi drops off I would recommend a cable

 

[avguytx]

My stuff is always hardwired unless it's just impossible.  Wired is ALWAYS better than wireless in connection.  It kills me that at the school where I'm a Network Admin, we have so much wrapped up in wireless devices between laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, Samsung tablets, TI calculators, etc.  But it's the 1100+ desktops that give the least amount of trouble; especially come testing time.  (which is always)

 

I've got direct connections I wired from my modem/router/switch to any devices in any room I can.  There's only one bedroom that isn't just because it's a PIA to get a cable down an outside wall with the insulation in it.  My 9 year old can just use wireless for his stuff in there.  ha

[hsosdrummer]

The most expensive, technologically-advanced wireless network in the world is almost as good as a $10 cable. The same thing's true of microphones. A thousand-dollar wireless transmitter/receiver system never works as well as a $25 50-foot cable. 

[CECAA850]

Interesting.  Thanks for posting.

[pbphoto]

Pandora streams at a bit rate between 64Kbs and 192Kbs depending on your subscription, device, and connection type.  This bitrate range should be easily handled by any decent wifi network.  If you are experiencing streaming drops on your wifi network at this low bitrate, then there is definitely something amiss.  I suspect, wifi drops aside, that the improvement you heard is a function of the Pandora service built-in to your Oppo devices.  Maybe it just works at a higher bitrate when it detects a hardwired connection.

[Matthews]

12 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

Interesting.  Thanks for posting.

Yes, interesting. 

 

My experience: I use wifi to transmit to my laptop.  Connected to the laptop is an NAD wireless DAC transimitter which then sends the signal to the NAD DAC receiver at my pre-amp.  Many times, I have listened to the exact same song, back to back, from my 3 available sources (CD, Spotify, Pandora). Spotify has a very slight hand up over the Pandora.  However, CD (hardwired) play and Spotify are so close in sound quality the result is a tie finish (hence, selling my CD player). 

 

I did all of this to try and find weak spots with the NAD wireless DAC.  I was very suspicious the unit would perform up to my expectations.  To report, I am happily delighted with the NAD wireless performance.

 

For me, this eliminates the question of using wifi to transmit my signal (vs hardwire).  Just my experience...

 

Matt ♪ ♫ ♪ 

[pbphoto]

2 hours ago, Matthews said:

 

 

For me, this eliminates the question of using wifi to transmit my signal (vs hardwire).  Just my experience...

 

Correct.  The underlying network layer has no impact on sound quality.  The packets either make it or they don't.  And if they don't, they get retransmitted which causes hiccups and drops.  But this is a sign something is wrong with your network. 

[hsosdrummer]

I was speaking only of reliability. Wired always beats wireless for reliability. With any wireless system you're trading money and dependability for convenience. Lots of people are fine with that, others aren't.

 

[dtel]

I guess I got lucky, wireless is fine, rarely have a problem and it's streaming music at least 8 hours a day and sometimes also outside at the same time. Good thing, it would be hard getting a cable to where it's needed.

 

I first I thought this was about Pandora, I was hoping someone had news. About 2 weeks ago I read a news story that Pandora was changing, there was going to be a  new service for $9.99 a month that was a higher bit rate and also have the search function like Spotify, but still have the same program to reccomend songs.

 

Now I only use the free version of these sites, hoping to find something like this, I have used Pandora  so long it usually does really well picking out music l like. Part of the reason I can't decide is with both Pandora and Spotify I can hear a difference, Spotify sounds better.

 

 

 

 

[pbphoto]

8 minutes ago, dtel said:

I guess I got lucky, wireless is fine, rarely have a problem and it's streaming music at least 8 hours a day and sometimes also outside at the same time. Good thing, it would be hard getting a cable to where it's needed.

+1  I have Macs and use Airplay to reliably stream everywhere.  If I get a drop-out, it's usually because one of my Airports has connected to the wrong hotspot.  OS El Capitan had some Airplay reliability problems a while back too, fixed by following the steps here: http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/16/fix-wi-fi-problems-mac-os-x-el-capitan/

 

8 minutes ago, dtel said:

I first I thought this was about Pandora, I was hoping someone had news. About 2 weeks ago I read a news story that Pandora was changing, there was going to be a  new service for $9.99 a month that was a higher bit rate and also have the search function like Spotify, but still have the same program to reccomend songs.

I saw this too.  I have the "Pandora Plus" service for $3.99/month that allows 192Kbs streaming (depending on device.)  A few weeks ago, they rolled out a new interface and announced "Pandora Premium" available only on mobile device apps with additional search features, playlists, and offline stuff, but no info on bitrate that I can find...

 

8 minutes ago, dtel said:

 

Now I only use the free version of these sites, hoping to find something like this, I have used Pandora  so long it usually does really well picking out music l like. Part of the reason I can't decide is with both Pandora and Spotify I can hear a difference, Spotify sounds better.

Free Pandora tops out at 128Kbps IIRC.

 

 

[thebes]

You probably spent more on your cable then those Pandora scumbags spent on on royalties to their best selling artists.

 

Grumpy Thebes

[bracurrie]

On 4/11/2017 at 11:27 AM, avguytx said:

My stuff is always hardwired unless it's just impossible.  Wired is ALWAYS better than wireless in connection.  It kills me that at the school where I'm a Network Admin, we have so much wrapped up in wireless devices between laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, Samsung tablets, TI calculators, etc.  But it's the 1100+ desktops that give the least amount of trouble; especially come testing time.  (which is always)

 

I've got direct connections I wired from my modem/router/switch to any devices in any room I can.  There's only one bedroom that isn't just because it's a PIA to get a cable down an outside wall with the insulation in it.  My 9 year old can just use wireless for his stuff in there.  ha

I agree. Except my 9 yr old grew up and now complains about my wifi setup.

[thebes]

This factoid from a Billboard article says it all:

 

"the rate that Billboard uses to estimate the revenue generated by streaming ($0.0063 per song), which is clearly a central part of the revenue estimate, has been disputed as too high by some indie labels."

 

Silly me.  I thought the mil was the lowest possible monetary denomination.  I think that's .1 cent.  So what's this about 6300enth less than a mil? So the song has to be played 6300 times to generate a penny of royalties? My math skills fall off pretty dramatically when monetary rules are suspended so I could be wrong about this.

 

So the next time your walking down the street and see an artist, kick some dirt in his face.

[muel]

Where's Charles Atlas when we need him!

[Marvel]

9 hours ago, thebes said:

This factoid from a Billboard article says it all:

 

"the rate that Billboard uses to estimate the revenue generated by streaming ($0.0063 per song), which is clearly a central part of the revenue estimate, has been disputed as too high by some indie labels."

 

Silly me.  I thought the mil was the lowest possible monetary denomination.  I think that's .1 cent.  So what's this about 6300enth less than a mil? So the song has to be played 6300 times to generate a penny of royalties? My math skills fall off pretty dramatically when monetary rules are suspended so I could be wrong about this.

 

So the next time your walking down the street and see an artist, kick some dirt in his face.

 

Doesn't $0.0063 equal 6.3 mil?

 

Bruce

[thebes]

I'm thinking Thebes should be banned from ever using math on the Forum.  I do believe you may be right.  So a mil is one tenth of a cent so 6300 plays of a song would yield $6.30 in royalties?  From something I read on the web, a single song played in an unban market  (and a lot less in rural or smaller markets) amounts to about $6 in royalties paid to that radio royalty organization.

 

I posted an article last year where some guys song was streamed over 2 million times and he got about $60,000.

 

Hard for the steaming companies not to make money when your product is essentially free.

[dtel]

On 4/14/2017 at 6:28 PM, thebes said:

spent on on royalties to their best selling artists.

Best selling is probably nothing I would listen to anyway.

 

2 hours ago, thebes said:

Hard for the steaming companies not to make money when your product is essentially free.

True, it's really ashamed we didn't come up with this idea, for that kind of money I wouldn't care how many people called me names.

 

*I have to admit I am willing to give up a little quality for an almost unlimited, very convenient music collection. A warehouse couldn't hold the amount of music that can be had by touching a couple of buttons, very handy. imo