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Is using streaming services worthy of an audiophile?

I read that a lot of people on this forum use Tidal etc. Is this ok from audiophile perspective? I mean, do people who use such services actually know what quality is streamed? Don’t you lose all control over your music when you surrender to streaming services?
defiantboomerang
cycles2
208 posts
 
@willemj, I mainly listen to digital, but I must admit there's something pretty special about listening to a clean well recorded vinyl album. I have yet to find any digital versions of Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or The Who's Quadrophenia albums that sound as good as the vinyl versions.  And that includes a hi-rez (96kHz, 24-bit) version of Quadrophenia. 
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,613 posts
 
@willemj

Aren’t you the one listening to digital bits off Google Chromecast stick?

I don’t own Vinyl but well aware with how good a properly setup Vinyl rig can sound....only an ignorant fool can make such a BS statement about Vinyl.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
5,023 posts
 
Apart from the ticks and the plops, vinyl suffers higher distortion, a non-flat frequency response, lower dynamic range, and lower channel separation.
...and incredibly, it sounds better.  Huh.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@cycles2 
I listen to mqa tracks through my vault2 and I am definitely a believer.
Non mqa tracks of tidal sound better using the vaults digital out and let the McIntosh handle it BUT mqa through tidal sounds better letting the vault handle it and sending via its analog outs to the McIntosh.
Of course "better" is wholly subjective and is just my results in my system with my ears.
Naysayers will ALWAYS be naysayers and the earth will remain flat...... 
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Here is my take:  If you like more modern music selections, Tidal will be great and there is no reason to prevent you from having a audiophile quality experience, assuming your system is up to snuff.  Most modern recordings in PCM use the full dynamic range of the CD format and have great frequency extension.

On the other hand, if you grew up in the 70's, most of the music you love may be from that era.  I did.   In this case, I have found that hi-res versions of these tracks that are remastered make all the difference.  I usually download them from HDTracks.  Joni Mitchell is a prime example of music that deserves to be hi-res.  Most of it is available 24/192.

I use my network DAC, the Overdrive SX, with Jriver to play all resolutions of PCM files over the network.  I can use any computer with Jriver on it, Mac or PC.  I can do this using wired Ethernet or WIFI with identical quality.  I have made comparisons to my best XMOS USB interface and the network interface yields much better SQ, even though they both use identical circuitry for clocking.

I have made comparisons to DSD and find that my PCM files are just as good, and with classical music, usually better.  There are not enough tracks I like available in DSD anyway.  I also leave everything in .wav format because I have found that AIFF, ALAC, FLAC and other formats compromise the SQ.

Steve N.

Empirical Auido

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