I have two DSD downloads from Native DSD and they sound amazing. II'd say, these DSD files sound better than any other source in my stereo.
Is Pretty Good Good Enough? Listening Habits In The World Of Streaming Services.
I'm a recent subscriber to Tidal and Amazon Unlimited. The sound quality of the cd quality music is surprisingly good. I find myself listening to more music because of it.
I've also found myself in a situation when I come across a very familiar recording that I find it missing some of the inner details of the recording that I'm very familiar with....overall, the recording is good, but I noticed the missing elements. Though I found it not as good as it sounds on my cd player, it was good enough that I didn't stop the song and went and got my cd and played it. In other words, I settled for pretty good. Interestingly, as I moved up the chain in the world of audio, it was always in pursuit of better equipment to extract better sound from the recording. I was always looking for better than 'good enough'. Well, 'good enough' has gotten a lot better than it used to be...and much more convenient.
Sadly, my critical listening time with my cd player and turntable is a lot less these days because of the streaming services. I've just started to fiddle around with burning wav files of my cd's to a hard drive to make copies of those recordings where nothing but the original file will do.
How have your listening habits changed since the higher resolution services have arrived?
69 responses Add your response
loaman I don't mean to offend, but comments like "I find those who buy equipment because of the way it looks and not the sound amusing", just has a holier than thou feel to it? My apologies if that was not your intention. While I find a lot of content on this site informative and friendly, there is an awful lot makes we wonder why I stay. Over opinionated, rude, condescending and at times combative. I bought my first LP at age 11 (Who's My Generation) and I've been a serious listener and buyer for 55 years. Listening to sax player Ike Quebec as I write this. I may not be as technically savvy as some but I know what I like and my opinion is as valid as any other. I think many of this site's contributors lose site of that fact. In the end, it's all just opinion. See you around the site. |
there have been lively, well discussed threads in the past couple years with folks noting the comparative quality and cost of analog, digital-cdp/local files, digital-streamed front ends those interested should use the search bar above to locate them, its easy peasy i would say, regarding this -- if your streamed digital isn’t as good as your local, cdp-derived digital, you haven’t done streaming right -- if you’re used to analog and it sounds right to you in a way that no digital can, then that’s great, stick with analog - why suffer in a pursuit that should bring only joy? -- to get an analog front end to be comparable to well done digital, the analog rig would be 3-4x the cost... including phono stage, cart, all the rest of it --- then, there is the obligatory record collection...
|
Bought a subscription to Quobuz back in February and I have nothing but good things to say about streaming. I don't think I have the critical listening skills that most on this forum has so I wan't speak to the quality of the sound. What I can say is having that kind of a library at your fingertips can significantly change your listening habits. I spend way more time listening now compared to when I was streaming my iTunes library, Pandora or listening to CDs. In fact, I've become a bit of a music whore. I'll literally give anyone a half hour of my time. I find myself listening to genres I never would have considered in the days of physical media. One of my favorite ways to spend time now is to settle down with an issue of Sterophile or The Absolute Sound and playing every song mentioned in the issue as I'm reading it. I've discovered so many artists doing this. It's made me realize how little I really knew about music before I started streaming. |
I think there are many different reasons why people use streaming. The one that comes to my mind is it’s pretty universal and easily sourced through a lot of digital devices. The accessibility to such a large music data base is now open to even the normal Joe or Jane. There are so many views as to why streaming is good for that individual. I am an audiophile but I still have to drive my car to work and listen to what came with it. My car stereo does not beat what’s in my home audio 2 channel system. So driving with the enjoyment of Tidal HiFi. It helps the fact that new cars don’t come with CD players anymore. So it wasn’t easy to have an simple way to listen to high quality files until Tidal was on the market. In addition to that AppleCar Play and Android Auto have come into play on newer cars and aftermarket head units. So for me both of these technologies have been a blessing for me in the vehicle. To have acceptable sound quality sources on the road for my car audio system. This puts me back in my seat while cruising. I forget about the bad years of MP3 players replacing cd quality and technology is finally started to catch up with superior sound quality! I think this can only help to bring the Joes and Janes of the world. To possibly explore better electronics because the sound quality is already available to them with their Tidal subscription. They just have to be exposed to better electronics and speakers with a streaming service they already have. |
When talking “critical listening”, any extra effort to seek the best source shouldn’t be an issue really. If <critical then yeah stream to your heart’s content. When working I stream Pandora via WiFi and at times I even pause to listen to some pretty incredible sounding stuff. When critical listening, I always reach for the CDs. |
Honestly, I believe a lot of vinyl lovers are far more like you than they'd admit, with a large portion of their vinyl enjoyment being in the "care and feeding" of the vinyl experience. I've always considered it a chore myself, but to each their own. If you enjoy that part of the experience, then it's a bonus on top of the music. I do miss the album covers and liner notes that disappeared (or minaturized into oblivion) with CDs. But I still have about a thousand I can dig out to look at if I get too nostalgic. But it isn't the same as buying a new album and reading through it the first time as you listen to the new tunes. I don't stream from hi-res services, but as @sj00884 described, I also stream from Pandora while working, or listen to ripped CDs, through headphones and laptop while working. Quality is fine for me since I'm concentrating on what I'm writing or reviewing. And I have found a great deal of music over the last decade that I otherwise wouldn't have, and now I own much of it on CD. I have to say that the whole concept of "critical listening" to *music* seems a bit bizarre. I listen to enjoy the music, not to "critically evaluate" it. Those two concepts are mutually exclusive in my experience. YMMV of course. |
Well, after working on power (Dedicated line) and the internet (Fiber, cascading switches, external LPSUs, clock, ENO filter) my Tidal became pretty pretty close to my tests playing CDs on a loaned Esoteric X05. Most of the times I could not tell them apart. So now I stream mostly, and play DSD files from my NAS, which is just slightly better than Tidal. |
I have Qobuz and it's pretty good SQ, but definitely a notch behind my CDs either ripped or played from a transport. It is mainly useful for exploring new recordings or mobile listening (my car or being out of town). I've taken a new job that dramatically shortens my commute, and with traveling greatly curtailed due to Covid, it's generally used for exploring unfamiliar. If I like the release enough I still buy a physical copy |
sounds_real_audio ...I've given your suggestion a lot of serious thought. |
