[DougSmith]

I'm surprised there isn't much info on MOG available here.  This is a great streaming music service that provides high quality streams (320kbps MP3) for millions of songs.  They haven't really tapped the potential of home audio devices so far, but are making significant strides in that direction with Roku, and (soon) LG, Samsung, and Sonos streaming devices.  Works great on android phones as well.  I was curious whether any folks here are using it and if so, how they are integrating it into their system.

Doug

[DougSmith]

OK, against my better judgement I am going to respond to my own thread here.  I sprung the 100 bucks for the Roku XDS so I could get MOG streams on my system.  The sound quality is really quite good; a definite improvement over Rhapsody via my receiver, which was my main music source previously. 

The interface is not really ideal, but it has some nice features; like when you select an artist, you can easily browse all albums by that artist at the click of a button.  The Roku is also really cute (about 1" tall  x 5" square) and gets you quite a number of free video channels as well as Netflix.  The Netflix load time is much faster than my Samsung BDP2500 (which has a Reon HQV processor) and the video quality is actually very similar. 

I would have preferred to add a high end Blu-Ray player with Netfix streaming and top-notch internet TV features combined with a state-of-the-art audio/video processor, but there is nothing really compelling out there in that department yet.  So, I figure I will buy a better device in the next year or two when the MOG interface and other features improve. 

In the mean time I am enjoying great sound quality from the cloud with MOG. This is close to the ultimate diskless solution (I suppose it would be better if the audio quality were lossless, but that is splitting hairs at this point, I think).  No disks, no burning, no dealing with artwork, and no need for a dedicated music server with huge amounts of disk space.

[Dan Driscoll]

With well recorded music I can hear the difference between 320Kbps and loss-less; I have absolutely no interest in a compressed solution for home use. And frankly, with today's streaming speeds and the low cost of storage, why bother with compressed? Although I run FLAC on my D2, I can understand MP3 in a portable device, where storage space may be an issue, but not in a home system.

And call me old fashioned, but I still prefer to actually own the media.

[DougSmith]

Fair enough.  Maybe I'm not discriminating enough, but I have hard time hearing the difference between 320 and wav.  Don't get me wrong, though!  I think it would be great if companies like MOG and Rhapsody would stream lossless, or even high res music.  This just seems to be the best compromise between quality and selection out there at the moment. 

My wife and I have very broad and eclectic tastes in music.  She is a musician and is constantly listening to new things and multiple versions of the same song by different artists - and I just like to experiment listening to different genres and discovering new music.  If we bought the CDs for everything we like to listen to, it would very quickly run into multiple tens of thousands - not to mention the money I'd have to invest in a decent server and storage system. 

I'm sure there are many out there who don't mind making that kind of investment in music, and I'm sure those shiny little plastic disks will probably be around for a while yet (heck, a lot of people out there are still playing vinyl), but the world is definitely changing.

[wilbert-vanbakel]

I had MOG for our iPods, one account serves all players. It also lets you download and store tracks so you enjoy them while not connected.Internet service providers are moving toward capping bandwidth AT&T announced a 150 GB cap. With 300 MB size for a flac CD, you want to do some math first.
The concept is interesting, just like TV you pay for watching/listening time and you won't get to own TV shows/music tracks. But on the other hand, the selection is virtually unlimited. I was able to listen to music that would have cost me over $30 to buy.
When I converted to a squeezebox based music server I quit MOG, because it doesn't have a Squeezebox plugin yet. I still listen to Pandora. Bottomline, MOG is great! Sound quality is far better than FM.

[WC]

I have MOG. I really like it. I use it to listen to new music to see if I like it before I purchase a physical copy. I filled up my iPod with MOG downloads. Sounds pretty good to me. 

I think that it would be acceptable to listen to it as background music, but it sounded good to me in my main system also. I don't have a real hifi setup at the moment, if I did I might change my mind.

[wushuliu]

MOG sound quality is top notch. Much better than Spotify. I have used it with both a PC and MAC via headphones and through main setup and I do not detect any compression with their quality. I do with Spotify. MOG is cd-quality. I love it, love it, love it for discovering new music.

Of course if you're listening through a >$xxxx rig you may be disappointed (but provided the PC end is up to snuff I doubt it)

[ebag4]

Very cool program/site, thanks for the head-up guys!

Best,
Ed

[tabrink]

 
Mog is absolutely the "real deal" especially when doctored and cleaned up through a Bravo 24 Bit Digital processor and a decent DAC.
Played through my Hifiman planar headphone setup it has changed the way I work and listen.
I would never listen to anything but my Pure Music music library. Now I go to one of my nearly 50 playlist of exotic artist Michael Hedges, Will Ackerman or Craig Chaquito and am pleasantly surprised by just how easy this is.
I have to just tuck my snobbery under my hat and put the cans back on.

[wushuliu]

They also have a trial period and a $5(?) monthly charge option as opposed to Spotify, who wants a yearly fee last i checked.

[JEaton]

MOG support should be coming to Squeezebox next week.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=666765#post666765

[dwk]

With well recorded music I can hear the difference between 320Kbps and loss-less; I have absolutely no interest in a compressed solution for home use.
[snip]

And call me old fashioned, but I still prefer to actually own the media.

Um, do you realize that MOG is a radio station  - not a music store?

Does MOG actually require a Facebook acct to sign up? My wife signed up and while she prefers Pandora at work since it needs less interaction, I suspect that MOG would suit me better. She said she couldn't sign up without giving her Facebook acct, though. This struck me as odd, and a bit of a problem since I don't facebook and have no interest in doing so.
 Support on the squeezebox would be great. I listen to a lot of XM on the squeezebox (despite the problems they have), but an alternative would be appreciated.

[bikes and beats]

Thanks for starting this discussion, Doug. I was asking the third party software manufacturers at RMAF about MOG and Spotify and they all said their systems would "pass through" these services. Any processing that can clean up these streaming services whether inside the computer or externally gets the sound very close to lossless ripped tracks in my opinion. Pretty soon everyone will come around to the convenience. Far as Facebook goes, my wife likes being able to easily play the music her friends are listening to. After all, isn't it all about playing more music?

[xr2]

Um, do you realize that MOG is a radio station  - not a music store?

Does MOG actually require a Facebook acct to sign up? My wife signed up and while she prefers Pandora at work since it needs less interaction, I suspect that MOG would suit me better. She said she couldn't sign up without giving her Facebook acct, though. This struck me as odd, and a bit of a problem since I don't facebook and have no interest in doing so.
 Support on the squeezebox would be great. I listen to a lot of XM on the squeezebox (despite the problems they have), but an alternative would be appreciated.

It is possible to sign up using just an email account, but they don't make it easy.  I just signed up a few days ago.  I know it took some poking around to find the option, but I don't remember if I found it on the web page or through the client application (os x in my case).

[WC]

Um, do you realize that MOG is a radio station  - not a music store?

Does MOG actually require a Facebook acct to sign up? My wife signed up and while she prefers Pandora at work since it needs less interaction, I suspect that MOG would suit me better. She said she couldn't sign up without giving her Facebook acct, though. This struck me as odd, and a bit of a problem since I don't facebook and have no interest in doing so.
 Support on the squeezebox would be great. I listen to a lot of XM on the squeezebox (despite the problems they have), but an alternative would be appreciated.

If you get a premium account you don't need a Facebook acct. I am not sure, but the free version may require the Facebook acct.