OT: Pandora quality
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10252
Printed Date: 05 June 2025 at 10:23pm
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Topic: OT: Pandora quality
Posted By: EdisonLite
Subject: OT: Pandora quality
Date Posted: 02 June 2025 at 2:25pm
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I realize many of you are not into streaming services because of the lower quality, but ... I've had a paid Pandora account for years. While most songs used to stream up to at least 20k, I'm finding now that everything I've checked only goes up to 16k (and cuts off sharply). I checked cuts from several different albums and this seems to be the case. I didn't downgrade to a free pandora account. So I'm wondering if anyone else here pays for Pandora and has noticed this lower "mp3 level" quality. Or if you can check what you're finding on your end. (BTW, I think most of us here, including me, are audiophiles, looking for the best quality. And go to painstaking steps to get it. But I'll just say this about the streaming services I pay for. I discover great songs on them. And then buy them on CD, or at the very least, lossless format on Qobuz). |
Replies:
Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 02 June 2025 at 4:50pm
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Deezer is mostly lossless and untouched. Tidal used to "touch" the source files and turned them into some compressed, lossy quality format called MQA, which now after much controversy, they dropped and turned back to flac. Spotify is and has always been lossy as far as I know. Qobuz, well it'll always depend what they get from labels but in general, most of their stuff is in lossless quality, and it's the one featuring a lot of material in "High Def" (AKA 24bit, 48kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz, whether your audiophile skilled ears can hear any of those or not, lol). Not sure how up-to-date/reliable the following info is, but here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_music_streaming_services" rel="nofollow - Comparison of music streaming services |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 11:00am
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Well, this is a strange one. On Pandora, I discovered an alternate mix to a 1979 Frank Mills song, which I liked a lot. It showed it cut off at 16k (mp3 quality), as did about 5 other random songs I checked. So I bought this recording from Qobuz to get the better quality. And the qobuz file also cuts off dramatically at 16k. But here's the strange part. It came from a V.A. comp CD from 1995. (I couldn't find the CD anywhere, but back then, before most people even had home computers, there weren't songs released only on streaming services, and not CD. So an mp3 was supplied as a source for this 1995 CD. I know starting in the 2000s, an occasional CD single release would have an mp3 as a source. But in 1995, a CD of a 1979 song?? Maybe Pandora still broadcasts in 20k+ quality, like I had observed a few years back. I'll have to check more songs. But it always such a disappointment when buying a "lossless" flac on Qobuz and 7Digital and getting mp3 quality. And Qobuz stopped giving refunds for something like this situation quite a while ago. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 11:01am
| Cristian, thanks for the link to the comparison of music streaming services. That was very informative. |
Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 11:59am
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It sometimes depends on the source. Sometimes all a label or distributor delivers to any given service is a an MP3 or maybe even a WAV that's sourced from MP3. I won't say that it happens all the time but it certainly does happen. ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 4:49pm
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As LunarLaugh pointed out, sometimes labels are the ones to blame. Whitney Houston's "I believe in you and me" and "Step by step" are lossy in each and every single release I tested. It's lossy-mastered I guess. Whatever they used as the master recording had been downgraded to mp3 quality (at 128kbps lol). That was 1996. There are many recordings that suffered from that. A Celine Dion track that was part of an album (don't remember which one) is lossy too. Cher's "When the money's gone" is lossy too. The latter though are more into the 2000s I think. You're most welcome about that link :) |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 2:32pm
I am unaware of Pandora ever being lossless. The only lossless streaming services I'm aware of are Deezer, Qobuz, Amazon HD, Apple Music, and Tidal. Deezer is what I use. |
EdisonLite wrote:Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 6:21pm
I used to have a paid subscription to Deezer, then with Tidal because (at the time, I don't know why), the following album (funny the group is a mexican trio called "Pandora", lol, which I adore) is lossy @Deezer, while lossless @Tidal, and Qobuz. No idea why. https://www.deezer.com/us/album/315924" rel="nofollow - https://www.deezer.com/us/album/315924 https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/pandora-pandora/0077774208659" rel="nofollow - https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/pandora-pandora/0077774208659 But yeah, most stuff @Deezer is lossless and untouched. Great streaming service. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 6:45pm
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Brian, I should clarify what I was saying earlier. There have been some albums that literally only have been on Pandora. One in particular comes to mind - couldn't find it on any other streaming service, and the CD was impossible to find (though I eventually did and bought it). But prior to finding that, I saw that this album on Pandora went up to the 20k-22k range when I checked in Adobe. I'm fine with that; it's just when a file only goes up to 16k (especially a flat cutoff there, rather than a smooth one) that I'm unsatisfied and try to find better sources elsewhere. So I knew Pandora was broadcasting in the 20-22k range; but my test yesterday on 5 random files from 5 different artist - all cutting off at 16k - made me conclude Pandora is broadcasting files that will only go as high as 16k now... until I bought 1 of those files (Frank Mills) as a flac on Qobuz, which also stopped at 16k. I have to check other files and really figure out what's going on with Pandora. I have a free Deezer account but have only listened to music there occasionally. Do you need a paid account to get lossless quality? or even choose the specific songs you want to hear in any given moment? |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 6:49pm
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"funny the group is a mexican trio called "Pandora", lol" Cris, what's also funny is that a Swedish artist named Pandora recorded a song of mine (about 15 years ago). What would be even funnier is if the song was called Deezer :) I do have a song called Tidal Wave. Maybe it will be released on Tidal one day - in Wave quality :) |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 05 June 2025 at 12:59am
You do need to paid account to get lossless quality, yes. I think it’s about 10 bucks a month. But I think it’s programmable by song whether you have a paid account or not. |