Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming

Lalitk,

Now you tell me! LOL
No wonder I went crazy trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.
Sounds like a great device, though.

kahlenz You must be kidding I hope. Classical and jazz sound are acceptable to hear with compressed sound? That’s utter nonsense. Classical and jazz are especially critical to hear (and enjoy) with a full panoply of dynamics, both micro and macro. Post 1995 pop recordings are typically highly compressed- no need to expend that music.  Listening to heavy metal and hard rock from the 60's to the 80's have generally compressed dynamic ranges anyway.   

Also very compressed modern music can sound just fine at higher spl's if your system and room is good (neutral) enough in the bass region. For some "audiophile" systems this may not be the fact.

The topic of dynamic compression grew out of my broader question whether streaming services gave access to, and information about, various masterings, I acknowledge the affects of the loudness wars,* but the issue is broader than that and affects more than just pop confections. I come from vinyl land, but in exploring CDs, the issues include what source the particular master was taken from as well as the mastering choices, EQ (in vinyl that also extends to what pressing plant made the record and the quality of the vinyl compound used, factors that aren’t relevant to digital files and may be of only limited relevance in digital hard media).
The mastering issues are not limited to compression, though. I’ve been buying multiple CDs of old, and sometimes obscure, records and you can hear demonstrable differences in sound quality.
Thus, my question about what masterings were used by streaming services and whether they were identified in the meta data. Apparently Aurender does make the information available.
I didn’t mean to sidetrack the discussion about comparing Redbook to streaming services, but it struck me that the differences in source and mastering could be a big part of the sonic outcomes, especially if you are not comparing identical recordings.
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*I’ve certainly heard its effect when it is heavy handed. Judicious use of compression in the final mixdown (and sometimes in the mastering) doesn’t bother me, and can make for a punchier, more dramatic sound.

In a head to head comparison between Tidal, Qobuz, IDAGIO and Spotify, Tidal does have the best SQ.  Which creates a dilemma for the classical music lover.  The search engine stinks vs. IDAGIO.  Very hard to find a specific performance. Very easy on IDAGIO.