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Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming

I’ve found that the SQ of my red book CDs exceeds that of streaming using the identical recordings for comparison. (I’m not including hi res technology here.)
I would like to stop buying CDs, save money, and just stream, but I really find I enjoy the CDs more because of the better overall sonic performance.
 I stream with Chromecast Audio using  the same DAC (Schiit Gumby) as I play CDs through.
I’m wondering if others have had the same experience
128x128rvpiano
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Well, after obtaining a streamer (Arcam,)  and dumping Chromecast Audio, I still find CDs superior sonically to streaming when comparing identical tracks.
 The streamer is close though.

With this equipment, it's not surprising.  Too much jitter.  Are you streaming Tidal?

Steve N.

Empirical Audio


rhljazz
1,254 posts
 
When conducting your comparison did you turn off the “loudness compensation” in the Tidal app?
If you didn’t, that will certainly alter the comparison IME.
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,661 posts
 
I have a Cyrus transport.  Both the Arcam and Cyrus are run the a Schiit Gumby DAC.
  I’m actually streaming Tidal, IDAGIO, Qobuz, and Spotify at different times.
(All But IDAGIO are trials.) Tidal seems to be the best.
I don’t know about loudness compensation.  I never implemented it.
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,661 posts
 
Just found “loudness normalization” in Tidal and disabled it:  immediate improvement! 
rhljazz
1,254 posts
 
The default position in Tidal is “on”.  The reason is so someone listening to play lists doesn’t need to constantly adjust the volume for each song.

You must go into the Tidal app to turn it “off” for critical listening.  It is easy to do. You can easily switch back and forth as needed.
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