Streaming Services

@Larry5729 - Qobuz hi resolution files are less processed than MQA files on Tidal. Many people can hear artifacts generated by the MQA process and prefer the unprocessed files e.g. from Qobuz. BTW Tidal did not develop MQA. It was invented by Bob Stuart, originally the founder of Meridian (along with Allen Boothryod). MQA is a form of compression which is unnecessary given the bandwidth now available for streaming.

Every streamer review I’ve seen where the reviewer has changed from some kind of Mac had the reviewer raving about the improvement. I don’t understand why, but just saying....

I have used many streamers, and I’m happy with my Auralic Aries G1. It can output USB, SPDIF, or AES3 into a DAC. (If you want to spend more, there’s the Auralic Aries G2.1 and many other options.) It’s built like a tank and among other services, it does support Amazon and Qobuz (I use and recommend Qobuz).

It will even let you hook up a USB optical disc reader and play CDs using the Auralic's buffering and reclocking. That sounds really good to me and better than the $1000+ transport I was using.

(@cosmic_charlie : Auralic added Amazon support some time in the last year or so.)

After my recent digital front end upgrade I signed up for Qobuz to compare against Tidal - Qobuz was the easy winner.

I downgraded Tidal to the basic level (no MQA access) a long time ago. 

@yoyoyaya if your internet speed slows down for whatever reason tidal will still work, but Qobuz will not, that tells me that Qobuz is uncompromising which is good.

Whether your streamer is effected by a slowdown in internet speed is primarily a function of your streamer. A high quality streamer will cashe the files, isolating you from all but extended incredibly low speeds. The bandwidth used by streaming services today is miniscule.