Higher Quality Alternative to Pandora?

[nealric]

Since I spend a lot of time studying (law school ), I end up spending a lot of time listening to internet radio.

However, I have found that even the "high quality" (128kbs I believe) setting on Pandora leaves audible compression artifacts when I'm using my studio headphones (audio technica ATH-M50). I can't hear said artifacts with stock earbuds or my low end IEMs, but I would prefer not to have to choose between low-fi headphones or digital artifacts.

I'm almost always in wifi range around here, so 3g bandwidth is not a limitation. Any suggestions? One qualification: the service needs to be more than just popular music. I listen classical or jazz pretty much exclusively when studying. I don't mind paid as long as it's reasonably priced.

Also, anybody know why they can't make Pandora One work over wifi with the iphone? I understand 3g bandwidth limitations, but seems like there should be no problems with a wifi connection.

 

[m3coolpix]

Slacker.

I've ditched 3 Sirius/XM accounts because of it. You can do the free option, and it'll just have a couple of minutes an hour of commercials, and a limit of 6 skips an hour. The paid version (~$50/year), gets rid of both 'limitations'.

I also use the AOL Radio app and the Wunder Radio app.

Can't remember the last time I used the Pandora app or website. It had too many repeats for me. Not so much of a problem, at least in my experience, with Slacker.

 

[muxbox]

Here in the UK i use Last.fm and spotify.

Not sure if those two are out in the States

 

[m3coolpix]

Here in the UK i use Last.fm and spotify.

Not sure if those two are out in the States

Last.fm is available. No Spotify for the U.S. yet.

I used Last.fm for awhile (desktop and iPhone), and still, for me, enjoyed Slacker a bit better. May have to revisit Last.fm.

 

[Kadman]

Last.fm is available. No Spotify for the U.S. yet.

I used Last.fm for awhile (desktop and iPhone), and still, for me, enjoyed Slacker a bit better. May have to revisit Last.fm.

Echos and other compression artifacts drive me nuts as well. It's one of the reasons I have a hard time listening to Pandora. For the most part I listen to Slacker. To be honest I don't think in terms of pure bit rate it's any better, but the compression method being used seems to produce far better results in terms of fidelity. I've been very happy with Slacker.