CD Quality Versus Streaming Quality
A couple of issues to consider in your listening test with your son’s system. 1. From my experience, Tidal is the worst sounding of all of the major streaming services. My impressions of the sound quality of streaming services is: 1. Qobuz 2. Primephonic 3. Spotify Premium (320 kbps Ogg Vorbis which is not lossless) 4. IDAGIO 5. Amazon HD 6 Tidal 2. Analog noise in the form of EMI and RFI has a major impact on the sound of digital. What source did he use for streaming? If it was a PC or Mac that could be a reason why streaming sounds much worse. Now I will admit that I replay digital music from both local files and streamed through Qobuz (and some Spotify Premium). Local files DO still sound better to me presumably because local files attached to my streamer have a shorter signal path to my amplifier than files streamed via the Internet going through Comcast’s cables through my WiFi router, etc. BUT, I found that these changes that I’ve made to my streaming signal path all have made a noticeable improvement in sound quality to a degree that streaming music is quite enjoyable. 1. Switching from WiFi on my streamer to Ethernet via a TP-Link RE230 WiFi extender 2. Switching from an AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable to a Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable (~$70) 3. Adding an Audioquest Jitterbug noise filter onto the USB output from my streamer 4. Using a Stordiau Lush USB cable (~$200) 5. Using a Shunyata Venom power cable ($135) on my DAC 6. Linear power supply instead of a switch mode power supply for a streamer. I haven’t tried this yet because my Pro-ject streamer is supposed to benefit less from this change. The reason why all of these changes have improved the sound is because they help block EMI/RFI from getting into the signal path. As I heard, Darren Myers, analog engineer at PS Audio, say on his Hi Fi Podcast just this morning: Getting digital audio to sound good requires more than just plug-and-play. Every component in the digital signal path can matter and setting up digital audio for good sound is as complex as setting up a turntable and cartridge. My perspective is that even if you can’t get streaming to sound quite as good as CDs, the ability to hear all sorts of new music is really fantastic. |
CD vs streaming quality ... CDs use land and pit to read the impressions (grooves) made by a laser as 0s and 1s. Streaming with Wi-Fi is pretty good. New iterations of Bluetooth 5.0 that include other codecs above 320kbps may sound identical to CD quality for the average person. A good CD player can match or best many DACs out there. CD players don't have the same latency problems/EMI that DACs have. If your CD player is really good, you should be able to seek (go forward or backwards) instantaneously; where the track dial is very fast. With CDs, there is no additional software, cables, or programs to worry about. Anything within this chain could change sound quality for better or worse. A good example - foobar vs Jriver. They don't sound alike when configured (options) at all. |
I just don’t get it, those pro to streaming/downloading just don’t see this??. https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Traveling+Wilburys&album=Traveling+Wilburys Or are they that blinded by streaming/downloading now they just can’t bear to look at it to see what’s happening to the uncompressed/dynamic music they once loved. I had many audiophiles friends that don’t come to our Audio Society club meetings anymore, that had mega systems and cd collections and have gone by the way side now after selling their music collection and stream now through far more mediocre systems. Cheers George |
