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CD Quality Versus Streaming Quality

I realize this will be a contentious subject, and far be it from me to challenge any of the many expert opinions on this forum, but if I may offer my feedback vis-a-vis what I am hearing, and gain some knowledge in the process.

i will begin saying that my digital front end setup is not state of the art, but i have had the good fortune to listen to a number of really high-end systems. I guess the number one deficit in my digital front end is a streamer server, and no question about it that will improve the sound.

My CD player is a universal player; Pioneer BDP-09fd. It uses Wolfson DACs. It has been modified to a degree. I have bought and sold other players, but kept this one, because it has a beautiful sound that serves the music well.

Recently, i ventured over to my son’s place and we hooked up my player (he doesn’t have one and rely’s on streaming only) We compared tracks / albums of CD quality and master quality streamed on Tidal with ‘redbook’ CDs I have. For example, some Lee Ritenaur CDs and some Indian classical and the wonderful Mozart and Chopin.
His system is highly resolving.

we were both very surprised to find the CDs played on the player to be the better sound. And not just by a little. The sound was clearly superior, with higher resolution and definition, spatial ques, much better and clearer imaging. Very surprising indeed. Shouldn’t there be no difference? This would suggest the streaming service is throttling the bandwidth or compressing the signal?

i am most interested to hear others’ observations, and suggestions as to why this might be? I do love the convenience aspect of streaming, but it IS expensive for a chap like me of fairly modest means. The Tidal HiFi topline service is $30 per month I believe, something the good lady is not too thrilled about. God forbid I should suggest Roon on top of that I may likely get my walking papers. I jest, but only partially LoL. My point is, if I pay this sort of money, isn’t it fair to expect sound to equal the digital stream from the CD player and silver disc?
Thoughts?

AK





4afsanakhan
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riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook
981 posts
 
Money has nothing to do with it...in my case anyway.  If I wanted to spend another 20K-30K on a TOTL streamer its no big deal. I rather handpick the best possible recordings available WITHOUT resorting to Vinyl or Reel to Reel which are the best mediums hands down IMO. Dont have the space (or the back) to manage those collections.

Whats the point in me spending 6 figures on a system and then I feed it overcompressed inferior recordings for the most part? I primarily listen to Classic Rock so Im behind the 8 Ball already as far as quality and care put into recordings at their inception (Dire Straits and Alan Parsons notwithstanding).   I have no issues with people that dont want to do the homework or put in the effort to search them out. Maybe their hearing is shot due to age or other factors and they cant notice a difference between different mixes/masterings. More power to them. They can use all the extra cash on other pleasurable pursuits.  I really dont think there is a right way or wrong way. Like everything else its personal choice and whatever works for you is whats best.  I dont get the personal attacks at all on this issue.  People wouldnt be spending $250 each for Black Sabbath Japanese SACD's as an example if they sounded the same as whats being offered by Tidal/Qobuz etc.
larsman's avatar
larsman
1,998 posts
 
44.1Hz on Qobuz sounds as good to me as any of my CD's, and better than some....
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jallan
317 posts
 
I have read a lot of comments that I find mystifying. I have a system with decent resolution- Cary SLP05 and SST Son of Ampzilla II feeding ATC SCM35 speakers. My experience is that high res streaming from either Quboz or Tidal almost always sounds better than my CDs, with many of my early cds sounding wretched. Almost without exception, cds remastered in the late 1990s sound much better (Rudy van Gelder Blue Note recordings, as an example), as do the high res equivalents. Well recorded cds occasionally sound slightly better than streamed equivalents, though I am suspecting that the SPDIF rca inputs on my Yggdrasil sound better than the USB input. And, high res streaming crushes my vinyl (Ariston RD11s, Grace 707, Benz Ace).
ghdprentice
7,122 posts
 
@jallan. +1

As a practical matter a well chosen streaming system will equal or outperform a CD system (due to the greater availability of higher resolution files). The difficulty in assembling such a system will become easier in the future. Just as there are differences in implementations and system interactions of it’s components. I suspect the broad range of experiences (each of us with a very limited number of them) leds one to draw different conclusions. I have seriously streamed and been dissatisfied in the output for twenty years or so. Finally I purchased high quality streamer, then traded them until I found the right ones and that difference disappeared.

It is difficult to put together a great sounding CD front end… it is equally difficult to put together a great sounding streaming front end. If you put together both. It is easy to have them sound different. There is no fundamental technology difference between CDs and Streaming (other than the location of storage (leaving out the file versions used) like there is in vinyl playback. So while it is difficult to deal with all the variables in real time transmission of data through the internet. A number of companies have taken it seriously, Aurender for instance, and others. In the future this will be the primary mode of digital content unless there is an apocalypse.


One of the reasons I think this is an important discussion is that it is far more general than this component or that. So, folks reading these kinds of discussions may set their direction for many years. Time and technology moves rapidly… and heading down a dead end is costly in time and money.
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