I will always be oriented toward listening, my precious hours, to the best SQ I can muster. However, it seems very attractive to check out something like Pandora and how when selecting a favorite artist they mix in related content from others. Think I will spend some daily time listening to Pandora through the app on my smart TV. A good idea to discover new artists and music. Have that as a handy guide to buy new CDs or LPs.
CD or Streaming... am I missing out?
I listen to CD in my headphone office system. Use a Theta Compli transport and a very nice and pricey tube 16/44 DAC. Have thought about a streaming capability and all its benefits but am both limited by SPDF and by 16/44 only. I also love the analog sound of my tube DAC. Does streaming sound far surpass CD? Am I missing out?
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Think I will spend some daily time listening to Pandora through the app on my smart TV. A good idea to discover new artists and music. Have that as a handy guide to buy new CDs or LPs.Good way to look at it, use the internet services as a sampler library, then look for the "least compressed" version CD/LP of it using the "dynamic range data website" http://dr.loudness-war.info/ (usually the earliest/first one) Get the label/cat no. buy used one for a couple of dollars on ebay, like I do. Cheers George |
+1 to what @georgehifi says. Streaming can sound quite enjoyable, it's just not quite as good as playing back local files and definitely not as good as vinyl. However, I find that in this year of COVID and working from home that I'm streaming most of the time, because it allows me to listen to music while doing other things more easily. See if you like the idea of listening through Pandora. Just know that if you like the idea of streaming, you can get FAR better sound quality via Qobuz. Even Spotify Premium sounds pretty decent. (Amazon HiFi & Tidal do not). |
My listening notes: My subjective impressions of the musicality and sound quality of the major HD streaming services:
Round 2, Qobuz vs Tidal: So far Qobuz is clearly better than Tidal even listening through pretty cheap desktop passive speakers. Tidal sounds very two dimensional and flat in its sound quality but with some harshness in the high frequencies. I'll listen a bit more to Tidal, but so far I'm not impressed at all. Spotify Premium even seems to sound better than Tidal. Some additional thoughts about Tidal after listening on higher quality equipment. I think they have applied some equalization to boost the bass and treble. In the process, I think side effects of doing this is to take out some of the presence of voices and instruments and add an artificial quality to voices and instruments.. Qobuz sounds a LOT better. Spotify Premium also sounds better. To my ears at least. (Disclaimer: Your results may vary). I'm currently listening to a track that is a MQA file on Tidal vs a CD quality file on Qobuz. The CD quality file on Qobuz sounds a LOT fuller and more natural. Not a big fan of hip hop, but decided to listen to something that is squarely in Tidal's area of focus. I listened to 'The Box' by Roddy Ricch which is a MQA file on Tidal and CD quality on Qobuz. Same results. The Qobuz file sounds fuller and has more presence. Almost sounds like two different recordings when listening on Qobuz vs Tidal. Round 3, Qobuz vs Amazon HD: Winner for me is Qobuz for the following reasons.Amazon: Sounds more flat. Less drive than Qobuz so that some music sounds like it is plodding along. Sound is less full. Amazon HD doesn't necessarily do anything wrong (as does Tidal), but also clearly not as good as Qobuz to my ears. Qobuz: Much more presence than Amazon HD. More 3-dimensional. Better pace and drive. Better low-frequency response & definition. More range to conveying the emotion in music: (i.e., calmer for calmer music & more drive & pace for more upbeat music) |
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