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CD v Streamed



Uncompressed CD audio will take about 10.6mb per minute to play, to stream that takes big space and dollars to stream an album, see what your streaming company’s takes mb per minute to stream, find out and post up here.

I hear CD’s are better, I get better dynamic range from CD every time it’s A/B to me, now that could be that the streaming companies are using the "later compressed re-issues" of the same albums, you can find that out here https://dr.loudness-war.info/
Or that the streaming process itself compresses the music to save "streaming size" to save big dollars even if in small amounts.

Here’s a video from the CEO of Disc Makers Pty Ltd, yes he probably also biased because he manufacturers CD’s and vinyl, and is a very bad dancer.
https://youtu.be/YHMCTUl2FQo?t=1

Cheers George
128x128georgehifi
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi OP
10,312 posts
 
And, you can’t be sure that the version of a piece that you’re listening to on the CD was engineered the same as the version you’re getting while streaming. Probably wasn’t.
If you can find out your streamed versions cat no. then compare it to other released versions here https://dr.loudness-war.info/
Usually the later the version the more compressed it is, and that’s mainly what streaming companies use.

Cheers George
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
Same DAC. Esoteric N-01XD. Has a top quality streamer built in.

Cd playback via a Transport (Esoteric p-05x) is better than Qobuz and Tidal streaming (Roon Nucleus + server). Every single time.

I don’t know why. I don’t know what to measure, don’t have the measuring gear. That is what ears tell me.

Streaming has long ways to go IMO
khiak
66 posts
 
Agree with @ thyname. comparing the same music my transport playback is better than Tidal streaming via my T+A SD3100HV.
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charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
@thyname,
Wrote, "I don’t know why. I don’t know what to measure, don’t have the measuring gear. That is what ears tell me."

"Streaming has long ways to go IMO."

Maybe not as long a way to go as you think. If your streaming service is using the more compressed version of recordings, that's a significant bottleneck.  If they made the commitment to stream only  the least compressed versions of available recordings it would be a big step forward. 

You do not  need to measure anything.  You can inquiry and request information from your streaming service company  as explained earlier by the OP. He's right concerning the deleterious effect of compressing recordings. 
Charles 
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