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Is Pretty Good Good Enough? Listening Habits In The World Of Streaming Services.

I'm a recent subscriber to Tidal and Amazon Unlimited.  The sound quality of the cd quality music is surprisingly good.  I find myself listening to more music because of it.

I've also found myself in a situation when I come across a very familiar recording that I find it missing some of the inner details of the recording that I'm very familiar with....overall, the recording is good, but I noticed the missing elements.  Though I found it not as good as it sounds on my cd player, it was good enough that I didn't stop the song and went and got my cd and played it.  In other words, I settled for pretty good.  Interestingly, as I moved up the chain in the world of audio, it was always in pursuit of better equipment to extract better sound from the recording.  I was always looking for better than 'good enough'.  Well, 'good enough' has gotten a lot better than it used to be...and much more convenient.

Sadly, my critical listening time with my cd player and turntable is a lot less these days because of the streaming services.  I've just started to fiddle around with burning wav files of my cd's to a hard drive to make copies of those recordings where nothing but the original file will do. 

How have your listening habits changed since the higher resolution services have arrived?

mitch4t
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,609 posts
 

If the CD sounded better it was probably a different release mastered or produced differently than the source for the streamed version. Could also be a different DAC. There is no reason why streaming categorically would be inherently inferior to CD equivalent. It is true that most streaming services tend to lean towards more recent remasters that are probably mixed louder than in the past but same would be true if same version were played from CD. Streaming is a wonderful thing and it bugs me when people knock it categorically. Get with the program boomers! Ymmv always from release to release no matter what format the material is delivered in.

femoore12's avatar
femoore12
683 posts
 

@mapman 

There is no reason why streaming categorically would be inherently inferior to CD equivalent.
 

I agree with you. It shouldn’t be inferior to CDs, but my internet service is awful (stuck with DSL) and the quality is hit and miss. Some days its great. Some days it’s terrible. 

danager's avatar
danager
972 posts
 

I think the difference is the player app. The CD player / transport doesn't have to adjust to different streaming rates or advertizing bloat.

When is congress going to decide on Ro vs Bott?

jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

it takes a decent amount work and knowledge to accomplish it, but to me, in my system, streamed music is equal to cd’s played on my cdp (modwright modded sony sacd player with tube rectification/output) - some even better if the hi-res feed is well recorded

took me a solid year and numerous equipment changes to get here though - and not just audio gear... networking, modems, switches, and so on too...

but it definitely can be done

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