Tom899, I understand your point of reference where the comparison of the two different Lumin components are applied however, the Wolfson and the Sabre DAC chips would sound entirely different when implemented by other companies.Then you have companies who build everything in house and will charge whatever they can get given there is no point of comparison. And there is no point of comparison for most given most are unable to take that niche streamer and implement it into there own stereo.
Tidal MQA vs Qobuz hi-res
My brief experience.. for posterity.
Comparing Tidal MQA to Qobuz hi-res, you -will- hear degredation/loss in the high frequencies (violins in an orchestra etc) on MQA... assuming you have reasonably resolving equipment. For me, that’s Macbook USB to a $150 Audio Engine D1 DAC going to a $600 used Parasound A23 going to used $600 Kef LS50’s, $100 Transparent speaker cables and cheap USB and RCA cables.
The Audio Engine is surprisingly good for it’s price BTW. Over the years, trying different DACs in audio stores when I had an opportunity, I feel like you’d need to spend close to $1,000 to get something significantly better.
The A23 and LS50’s are really good too for today’s used prices. New, they would’ve been $2,500 a few years go
Comparing Tidal MQA to Qobuz hi-res, you -will- hear degredation/loss in the high frequencies (violins in an orchestra etc) on MQA... assuming you have reasonably resolving equipment. For me, that’s Macbook USB to a $150 Audio Engine D1 DAC going to a $600 used Parasound A23 going to used $600 Kef LS50’s, $100 Transparent speaker cables and cheap USB and RCA cables.
The Audio Engine is surprisingly good for it’s price BTW. Over the years, trying different DACs in audio stores when I had an opportunity, I feel like you’d need to spend close to $1,000 to get something significantly better.
The A23 and LS50’s are really good too for today’s used prices. New, they would’ve been $2,500 a few years go
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A good reason to stay with a high-def streaming service is to support them. If you can afford it you can even use more than one (I don't use any, yet). I don't think Tidal has started making profits. Not sure about Qobuz. Amazon can of course afford to lose money for years but may give up if they don't reach some target they have set for themselves. This was from last year. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2019/12/09/jay-zs-return-to-spotify-could... |
- 41 posts total