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Which Has Best Sound Quality -- CD vs. Tidal vs. FLAC Uploaded From Burned CD

I will start the discussion noting my experience using Roon and Tidal, which enabled a direct A/B comparison between my FLAC library which I transferred from my CDs and Tidal.  It was easy to A/B compare because in many instances I uploaded the same album in FLAC that Tidal had in their general mainframe for our listening pleasure.

As an example, I listened to both versions of the Ratatat album LP3.  I found my FLAC version superior to the Tidal version based on being crisper, more refined and less bloated in the bass.  The Roon software clearly identified that I was playing the same album from the two different sources.

I have not compared the CD, as this would require adding a CD player.  What has been your experiences in this area?





 
hayw
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,441 posts
 
Sure , you can take a poll, but how will this help you specifically? If streaming Tidal is most important to you, then get gear known for and built to assure streaming sounds best. If you will do more ripping and listening from stored cd files, then buy to maximize this option. I am suggesting this may be the better question and route.

In my reference rig I have had front ends that make the burned CD sound better. I have also had front end gear that makes Tidal sound just as goods and even a tad better. Depends on the front end gear.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

My CD's to WAV are identical; I don't know why yours aren't?   


djones51
4,947 posts
 
I don’t know unless its the Node 2i I stream the WAV files through from my NAS. It’s set up wireless but I am going to hard wire it this weekend which might make a difference. Of course Tidal is wireless as well.   The CD player and Node both connect to a Benchmark DAC 3B with coax. But the ripped files have never sounded as good to me, I ripped them with bdpoweramp.
ianrodger
164 posts
 
With my Antipodes DS streamer/server, tracks FLAC ripped into it direct from CDs and played back with Roon via my Denafrips Pontus DAC sound marginally better than Tidal streamed through Roon and the Pontus.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I suppose it was being on wireless that made the difference. I got my wire installed today and I can’t tell a difference between CD and the ripped WAV which is how I thought it should be. Some might argue being wireless shouldn’t matter but to me in my system it does. It sounded pretty good on wireless but I always had to turn the volume about 20% more to get the same level as CD which I don’t have to do being hard wired.
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