CD v Streamed

George,
I've done some experiments with this.  I've compared CDs from my collection that I've ripped to Tidal's version of the same recording.  I've figured out a way to download from Tidal, then I look at the DRs calculated when I import the Tidal rip into JRiver.   In most cases, you're right that Tidal tends to have a recent remaster, or lately, an MQA version only....if you search by artist.   But if you search by album name, I've found as many as 6 versions of the same recording, and these are mostly all different.  This is a laborious process, but if I find this, I download all 6, listen to each, then compare the DR values.   Usually I wind up marking the version with the highest DR and I stream that one from now on.  I also look at the files in Audacity to see which have clipped peaks, and which don't.  I haven't found a faster way yet to do this.   Some of the DR results are wildly different.
Dave

Wow that's what I call being persistent, but as you now also find the vary different DR's of the same album.
And when you look at the Dynamic Range data base site https://dr.loudness-war.info/, it's mostly the older recordings with the better DR, and this is what I do to get the CD with the best DR use it's cat no and go search for a cheap used one on one of the used CD sites, ebay etc etc

As for the compression of the streamed ones, it would still be great if someone can measure the 1min size of the streamed version vs the 10.6mb size of a 1min CD being played
   
Cheers George

"I am not sure why the need to choose.  I prefer CDs, or CDs burned to a HD, to streaming content from the likes of Qobuz.  The only measurements I have are my ears.  It doesn’t require much imagination to see why the content provider or the ISP have incentives to compress sources and throttle bandwidth.  I think that Qobuz sounds inferior, but it isn’t a night and day, it’s a subtle difference.
   However, do we need to argue it?  We can have it all.  Play CDs, burn them to a HD, or stream them.  A streaming subscription costs the price of a decent download.  Don’t want a dedicated streamer?  Use a PC.   We live in a time of fantastic sonic replay.  Live and let live"
I guess I agree with mahler1234. I see the point in what numbers and data can provide but what would one do if the measurements point to better sound with "source A" but when one listens..... "source B" sounds better? Compressed, not compressed.... I guess it's not too important to me unless there is a big difference in sound quality. I have a friend that has a great turntable and luvs the analog sound over digital. But even when playing clean records the occasional pops clicks or hiss is hard on my ears..... we all have our own tastes?

I would think some people would then convince themselves to like what sounds inferior?!?

A streaming service streams the file you request. (As an aside note that compression of a file and compression of music in the mastering stage are two completely different things).On Qobuz you may have an option of a CD quality file or a higher quality file. The resulting file is streamed at the bit-rate of the file. There is no ’downgrading’ in Qobuz, there is no point as the streaming costs are so small.  If you are experiencing different dynamics that is down to the master used, not the streaming rate of the file. Compression of a file will not compress the music.  These compressions, as noted, are completely different things.   Here’s the explanation from Qobuz re bit rate. 


“The Bitrate, the flow of binary data, expresses the speed of information per second. It is measured in bits per second and is calculated fairly easily. For CDs: 44,100 samples per second, each one sampled over 16 bits, everything over two channels (left-right stereo). We therefore get a bitrate equal to 44,100 x 16 x 2 = 1,411,200 bits per second: the bitrate of a CD is equal to 1.411 Mb/s.
In the case of streaming, the size and therefore the quality of the files should be chosen depending on the bitrate of internet available. With a theoretical maximum bitrate of 13 Mb/s, an ADSL is adequate for CD quality streaming (at 1.411 Mb/s). For Hi-Res sound streaming at a bitrate of 9.2 Mb/s, it is clear that you can quickly reach the ADSL limit. A fiber connection would therefore be preferable. For smartphone streaming, most platforms offer an MP3 format with a maximum bitrate of 320 Kb/s.”

If you are experiencing different dynamics that is down to the master used

We've been saying that all along also, as they usually use the later versions/re-issues of albums which are normally more compressed than the originals.

But what we want from different streaming companies, is a 1min live streaming size in mb, to see how it compares to CD's 10.6mb for 1min

Cheers George