BTW just found another Qobuz compressed to the max re-issue
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/186934
Cheers George
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/186934
Cheers George
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
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
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- 239 posts total
And here we go!!!, Just managed to search the DRDB site for just Qobuz entries 3 pages were ID’d and yes mainly only the latest compressed re-issues https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/1?album=Qobuz There are sprinkling of untouched uncompressed ones that I would pay for but they are more your hi-fi show type CD’s which never got compressed re-issues. Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Diana Krall etc etc And again only the later re-issues from "HD Tracks" https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/2?album=HD+tracks One one uncompressed 1986 Louis Armstrong https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/185788 Cheers George |
I’ve been comparing quite a bit lately. My ears tell me the story. CD beats steaming (even high res) 9 out of 10 times.Most likely because the later streamed re-releases, are far more compressed than your "older issue" less compressed CD’s. And why the cat. no. should be supplied with any streamed/downloads before purchasing. Cheers George |
If you have a high quality dac ,and very good streamer a key to help ensure noise is at its minimum is a great network switch without spending too much $$ such as Uptone Audio ether Regen which is very apparent eliminating noise and the Excellent Bricasti M3 dac withNetwork streaming card.it has tons of trickle down technologies from all they have learned in mastering studios ,exceptional performance that is actual to the point it surpasses a good turntable in many areas.I have friends with very good $10k + turntables and used to hate digital. A top CD player like Esoteric can be exceptionally good, but still not up to par with the pristine signal from Ethernet or usb from my experiences. A very good dac-streamer is better pin sonics,purity of signal Ethernet ,as well as I2S is a superior Digital signal. And cd is just Waay outdated.I use only if I can’t find on QObuz or Tidal. |
- 239 posts total