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Best way to stream pandora to stereo - Page 2

post #31 of 75
6/20/12 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan1 View Post


No. This is simply a workaround made possible by Apple's AirPlay (or AirPort), and receivers which are AirPlay capable (like Marantz, Pioneer and Denon).


AirPlay is Apple's answer to DLNA (which is implemented on most network AV receivers and is supported by Windows boxes), except that it is far more elegant and capable -- thus making the workaround above possible.


Of course, you can also get a HTPC (which can be Mac or Windows), hook it up directly to the receiver and get 192kbps Pandora that way.


Some network receivers will show the streaming rate on screen.


Also, you can tell fairly easily the bump from 128kbps to 192kbps with any pair of halfway decent speakers. But if you personally can't, why even bother getting all worked up?

I never knew Pandora had higher bit rate via AirPlay than via a standalone device. Pandora via my Sony Blu-ray player sounded spectacular (and about a thousand times better than Sirius) going into my old analog system (Apt-Holman Preamp/Crown Amp), but only "okay" going thru my new Pioneer SC55 receiver. I'll have to test via AirPlay to see if I can hear a difference. (I wonder if the bit rate has changed over time and I only think it's worse thru the Pioneer because they lowered the bitrate around the same time I switched components.)

For the record, I've almost never had a problem receiving Pandora and I've always been wireless. Certainly fewer glitches than Sirius. A lot of these problems have nothing to do with Pandora - they have to do with the speed of your home WiFi network or speed/traffic to your ISP.
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post #32 of 75
6/21/12 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by OconRecon View Post

What about a cheap Android Tablet connected to a receiver? You'd have the screen. Could leave it plugged into AC all the time and then just a cable to take it into an aux (or Phono, Tape, CD, etc.) input on the receiver. Could just download the app from the Android Marketplace.
Maybe the Vizio tablet, or a Color Kindle or Nook Tablet?

How much are Android Tablets?

Those are like an iPad yes?

They access the web?

What kind of audio output do they have?


I was thinking about using this, from my computer - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067RBT/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
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post #33 of 75
6/21/12 at 3:11pm
From what I understand, it is only 96 kbps, if you do it this way.
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post #34 of 75
6/21/12 at 3:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by OconRecon View Post

With more thought, I may just try hooking up an iPod Touch and stream Pandora from the app. I may even get an Airport Express and stream it from around the house.

From what I understand, the stream will only be 96 kbps if you use this method.
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post #35 of 75
6/22/12 at 4:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Starflyte View Post

From what I understand, the stream will only be 96 kbps if you use this method.

Hmm. Not great.
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post #36 of 75
6/22/12 at 4:36am
I used to have a Pandora subscription, but I've switched to mog, and love it. I can create my own playlists instead of being stuck with what Pandora comes up with (some days I like it; some days I don't), and the 320 kbps stream sounds noticeably better than Pandora. You can control it with a squeezebox touch, or the iphone or Android phone apps, or a laptop or tablet.

I also recently ditched by Sirius subscription in my car; the sound quality is awful and why do I have to pay a subscription fee to listen to news channels like CNN, which have just as many or more ads than the free versions OTA?
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post #37 of 75
6/22/12 at 4:52am
For the record, I've almost never had a problem receiving Pandora and I've always been wireless. Certainly fewer glitches than Sirius. A lot of these problems have nothing to do with Pandora - they have to do with the speed of your home WiFi network or speed/traffic to your ISP.[/quote]

+1

Between Apple Tv / Pandora / Wifi network

I'm willing to bet the villain would be the wifi network more often then less
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post #38 of 75
6/25/12 at 9:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trey9128 View Post

I used to have a Pandora subscription, but I've switched to mog, and love it. I can create my own playlists instead of being stuck with what Pandora comes up with (some days I like it; some days I don't), and the 320 kbps stream sounds noticeably better than Pandora. You can control it with a squeezebox touch, or the iphone or Android phone apps, or a laptop or tablet.
I also recently ditched by Sirius subscription in my car; the sound quality is awful and why do I have to pay a subscription fee to listen to news channels like CNN, which have just as many or more ads than the free versions OTA?

I checked out MOG after reading your previous post.. it seems as though when you select an artist, to play that artist's radio, you only hear music from that one artist. To me, that kills the whole point of listening to internet radio. I want to hear a variety of similar themed music, not just all one artist. Am I misunderstanding how it works?
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post #39 of 75
6/25/12 at 9:19am
Ok for feedback, I got the 3.5 to RCA wire, and connected my computer directly to my receiver...

It worked!!!

I mean, I can't tell for SURE that I'm getting 196 kpbs, versus the 128, but the sound quality is pretty good, and I have thousand dollar speakers. Now there's always room for more quality/higher fidelity, and I'd like to get as much as possible, but at least it is decent. I can say that.
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post #40 of 75
6/25/12 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Starflyte View Post

I checked out MOG after reading your previous post.. it seems as though when you select an artist, to play that artist's radio, you only hear music from that one artist. To me, that kills the whole point of listening to internet radio. I want to hear a variety of similar themed music, not just all one artist. Am I misunderstanding how it works?

MOG Radio has a slider with:

all the way to the left plays only the the selected artist;

all the way to the right plays the widest variety of music themed after the selected artist;

the positions between let you vary how much material of the selected artist you are hear.

MOG does have a much better streaming quality than Pandora (or even, for a good portion of the catalog, than Spotify).
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post #41 of 75
6/25/12 at 10:58am
Where is that slider or is it only available to paying subscribers?
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post #42 of 75
6/25/12 at 12:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdsmoothie View Post

Where is that slider or is it only available to paying subscribers?

I see it when I select MOG Radio. Take a look at the image here, showing the MOG Radio slider with the "Pearl Jam Only" point on the left and "Similar Artists" point on the right.

But I do have a paid subscription. smile.gif
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post #43 of 75
6/25/12 at 12:42pm
Yup ... that's apparently why.
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post #44 of 75
6/26/12 at 9:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan1 View Post

MOG Radio has a slider with:
all the way to the left plays only the the selected artist;
all the way to the right plays the widest variety of music themed after the selected artist;
the positions between let you vary how much material of the selected artist you are hear.
MOG does have a much better streaming quality than Pandora (or even, for a good portion of the catalog, than Spotify).


Whoa!

I will have to try them again.

I'll report back.

Thanks Ryan!
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post #45 of 75
12/3/12 at 2:33pm
The only way to play pandora to airplay is with an iphone, ipad or ipod touch and either an apple tv or an airport express with airplay enabled and a set of speakers hooked to it. All of my devices play Pandora great to my apple TV and to my airport express. No skips ever. My apple TV is WIRED to my router and my AirPort Express is a wireless extender, so technically it is wireless. They both work great. To enable AirPlay in the Pandora app you must go to the "Now Playing" section, then slide your finger up on the three bars inbetween the thumbs up button and the pause button. If you are on your wireless network on your iDevice and it is the same as your Apple TV or AirPort network, a box with an arrow pointing up in the bottom will appear to the right of the Volume Slider. Click this box with the up arrow and you will be able to select your different airplay devices to stream to.

If anyone figures out how to AirPlay your PC's sound directly to an Apple TV or AirPort Express Airplay, please let me know.

One option I have not seen pointed out is that on a MAC computer you can do this. Go into Settings then sounds and then pick your AirPlay device as the sound output for your mac. Go to Pandora.com and login to your account. Play music. It should just work.
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post #46 of 75
1/25/13 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dranalytical View Post

One option I have not seen pointed out is that on a MAC computer you can do this. Go into Settings then sounds and then pick your AirPlay device as the sound output for your mac. Go to Pandora.com and login to your account. Play music. It should just work.

Ahhh, the beauty of Apple products. They just work.

I have Pandora going through my Pioneer VSX-822-K and the audio is great considering that you are streaming off the internet from an unkown file source. Clearly it is not a FLAC or ALAC on 500k of equipment, but I have the paid Pandora and I am very satisfied with them.

Maybe I missed it or misunderstood, but I can also play Pandora from my Apple TV that is plugged into my Pioneer also, same with my BD Player. All 3 sources for Pandora sound perfect.
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post #47 of 75
1/26/13 at 5:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AudioSerf View Post

Ahhh, the beauty of Apple products. They just work.

They "just work" when Apple decides they're compatible. I have no problem with Windows 7 "just working."
Edited by Theresa - 1/26/13 at 5:06am
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post #48 of 75
1/26/13 at 8:08am
I just e-mailed Pandora with this question. In the past they have responded to me. I am in the same boat.
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post #49 of 75
1/26/13 at 7:15pm
I got a response back from Pandora regarding the higher quality audio. I e-mailed them stating that I thought I was paying the annual fee to get the 192KBPS. I said that I am streaming wireless to my TV as well as a Blu-Ray Player. I asked "am I getting the 192KBPS? If not, what do I need to do to receive it?" I also mentioned that this info should be easy to find on their web site.

Their response:
"Here are some specs 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."

"The primary benefit of upgrading to Pandora One is no commercials."

"If you check the web page that details the features of Pandora One, you can see that only the web is mentioned, not devices like your receiver. http://www.pandora.com/one"

"Sorry if that wasn't the answer you were looking for but thanks for writing in."
"Best"
"Kristofer"
"Listener Advocate"
"Pandora Internet Radio"
"need help? http://help.pandora.com"

I simply want the higher quality sound. I want to go to Pandora on my Directv set top box, my Blu-Ray player or my TV and listen to it through my audio system in it's highest form, now that I know that it is available to me. BTW, I really enjoy finding new music on Pandora. I have high speed internet and never have any problems with it.
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post #50 of 75
1/26/13 at 8:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NicksHitachi View Post

Pandora has most recently become very unstable for me on any PC platform.  So much Flash going on, ads, and add ons. 

It is however very stable on my iphone and on Directv, just not on PC since it has all those add-ons.

I would find a stable platform and connect to your stereo with this.

I'm using Firefox with the "Ad Block Plus" plug in installed. NO ads, no flash, just music. Not subscribed either.

Make sure to get the following filters:

Fanboy's Adblock List
Easy List
Fanboy's Tracking List
Peter Lowes List
Adversity

Down side is some web pages may have issues loading. You can disable it on a 'per web-page basis' for instance, I have it turned off for AVS and AVS Forum.
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post #51 of 75
1/27/13 at 11:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Espo77 View Post

I got a response back from Pandora regarding the higher quality audio. I e-mailed them stating that I thought I was paying the annual fee to get the 192KBPS. I said that I am streaming wireless to my TV as well as a Blu-Ray Player. I asked "am I getting the 192KBPS? If not, what do I need to do to receive it?" I also mentioned that this info should be easy to find on their web site.

Their response:
"Here are some specs 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."

"The primary benefit of upgrading to Pandora One is no commercials."

"If you check the web page that details the features of Pandora One, you can see that only the web is mentioned, not devices like your receiver. http://www.pandora.com/one"

"Sorry if that wasn't the answer you were looking for but thanks for writing in."
"Best"
"Kristofer"
"Listener Advocate"
"Pandora Internet Radio"
"need help? http://help.pandora.com"

I simply want the higher quality sound. I want to go to Pandora on my Directv set top box, my Blu-Ray player or my TV and listen to it through my audio system in it's highest form, now that I know that it is available to me. BTW, I really enjoy finding new music on Pandora. I have high speed internet and never have any problems with it.

So, where does this leave tablets like the i-Pad ? Are they considered "cell phones" and dummed down to 24k - 64k since they can be mobile devices. Or are they considered "home listening devices" since they are wifi devices and run at 128 Kbps ? Or are they capable of the 192 Kbps using the app since its really no different than running the desktop app on a windows laptop in your house ?

Forgive it this has been clarified somewhere, but I haven't found a clear answer anywhere. Basically, all I want to know is if the Pandora App with a paid subscription runs full bandwidth on an i-Pad using WiFi. If not, what do you get ? As someone mentioned above, can connecting with Safari on an i-Pad get you to 192 Kbps or does it still realize its streaming to an i-Pad and dumb down the stream ?
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post #52 of 75
1/27/13 at 12:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpollagi View Post

So, where does this leave tablets like the i-Pad ? Are they considered "cell phones" and dummed down to 24k - 64k since they can be mobile devices. Or are they considered "home listening devices" since they are wifi devices and run at 128 Kbps ? Or are they capable of the 192 Kbps using the app since its really no different than running the desktop app on a windows laptop in your house ?

Forgive it this has been clarified somewhere, but I haven't found a clear answer anywhere. Basically, all I want to know is if the Pandora App with a paid subscription runs full bandwidth on an i-Pad using WiFi. If not, what do you get ? As someone mentioned above, can connecting with Safari on an i-Pad get you to 192 Kbps or does it still realize its streaming to an i-Pad and dumb down the stream ?

I posted Pandora's response here because I really didn't get a clear answer from them...at least one that I can understand. Can I get the 192 Kbps with my current set up? If not, what do I need? Why is this so confusing to me? They should make this perfectly clear for one to grasp.
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post #53 of 75
1/28/13 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpollagi View Post

So, where does this leave tablets like the i-Pad ? Are they considered "cell phones" and dummed down to 24k - 64k since they can be mobile devices. Or are they considered "home listening devices" since they are wifi devices and run at 128 Kbps ? Or are they capable of the 192 Kbps using the app since its really no different than running the desktop app on a windows laptop in your house ?

Forgive it this has been clarified somewhere, but I haven't found a clear answer anywhere. Basically, all I want to know is if the Pandora App with a paid subscription runs full bandwidth on an i-Pad using WiFi. If not, what do you get ? As someone mentioned above, can connecting with Safari on an i-Pad get you to 192 Kbps or does it still realize its streaming to an i-Pad and dumb down the stream ?

Well it looks like the I-pad is limited to 64k max on Pandora with or without a subscription. You can not open pandora from safari on an I-pad (or maybe its just me). It instantly jumps you to a mobile web app download page. As soon as you download the mobile app you are considered a mobile device and dropped down to 64 KBps AAC.

So why is a wifi only I-pad considered a mobile device and a lap-top with a mobile transceiver not ??? Pandora really needs to figure out what it's selling.

From Pandora "Currently all in-home devices receive 128k MP3 audio. Mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+. Pandora on the Web or the Desktop app plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192k for PandoraOne subscribers."
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post #54 of 75
1/29/13 at 7:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Starflyte View Post

Ok for feedback, I got the 3.5 to RCA wire, and connected my computer directly to my receiver...

It worked!!!

I mean, I can't tell for SURE that I'm getting 196 kpbs, versus the 128, but the sound quality is pretty good, and I have thousand dollar speakers. Now there's always room for more quality/higher fidelity, and I'd like to get as much as possible, but at least it is decent. I can say that.

Something tells me that you are not getting the higher quality audio from the computer's headphone jack.
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post #55 of 75
1/29/13 at 7:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpollagi View Post

Well it looks like the I-pad is limited to 64k max on Pandora with or without a subscription. You can not open pandora from safari on an I-pad (or maybe its just me). It instantly jumps you to a mobile web app download page. As soon as you download the mobile app you are considered a mobile device and dropped down to 64 KBps AAC.

So why is a wifi only I-pad considered a mobile device and a lap-top with a mobile transceiver not ??? Pandora really needs to figure out what it's selling.

From Pandora "Currently all in-home devices receive 128k MP3 audio. Mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+. Pandora on the Web or the Desktop app plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192k for PandoraOne subscribers."

What do you mean "Pandora on the web"? There are lots of ways to go "on the Web"...TV's...Blu-Ray Players...Set top boxes.
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post #56 of 75
1/29/13 at 8:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Espo77 View Post

What do you mean "Pandora on the web"? There are lots of ways to go "on the Web"...TV's...Blu-Ray Players...Set top boxes.

Yes, their response is kinda vague but what they mean is accessing pandora by going to pandora.com from a web browser and streaming from your browser instead of a standalone app or box.
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post #57 of 75
1/29/13 at 8:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by saeyedoc View Post

I believe that's correct. The smart TV is more like a set top box in that regard, rather than a computer.

See my posted "Pandora's response" further down on this thread...not very clear...HUH...a rather pour response..."but thanks for writing in"...(post #49)
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post #58 of 75
1/29/13 at 9:22am
This is very unscientific--- and using an iPad directly to some $350 Klipsch ead buds. When I went to the paid version of Pandora, I noticed a nice improvement in sound quality. Seems much cleaner, clearer with more detail. Suppose it could be all in my head but I noticed it immediately.
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post #59 of 75
1/29/13 at 9:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterK View Post

This is very unscientific--- and using an iPad directly to some $350 Klipsch ead buds. When I went to the paid version of Pandora, I noticed a nice improvement in sound quality. Seems much cleaner, clearer with more detail. Suppose it could be all in my head but I noticed it immediately.

What is very unscientific?
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post #60 of 75
1/29/13 at 12:04pm
Oh I was just being a smart alec. :-) No DBT done as requested so often.
Just giving my comment that the claimed improved signal from Pandora when purchasing their upgrade gave me a noticable improvement in sound quality using an iPad. I am not one to go claiming night and day differences when purchasing new stuff. When I have made an addition and it didn't give me a noticable change, I have been more than willing to post that like when I added an amp to my receiver. Just trying to be realistic.
Pete
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