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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
patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
528 posts
 

I have 600+ CDs ripped to my (SGC) Roon music server, fed into a microrendu and then into my DAC (not an MQA DAC, so I get only the first unfold via Roon).

I have A-B-C’d playing CDs via my Rega player (good unit) vs streaming the ripped CD, vs streaming the Tidal version up to 24/96. I hear very little to no difference (and of course the one comparison I am not doing is to vinyl). Streaming is SO convenient that I am hooked. My DAC/preamp (Audio Alchemy DDP-1) is good if not super high end, but it’s reviewed well with much more expensive amps.

A review of the dcs Bartok I covet (streamer/DAC) said that it closes the gap so much with vinyl that you may not miss licorice pizzas. My system isn’t as high end, but I am happy and won’t have a turntable again. Having 50 million tracks at my fingertips, with the beauty of Roon, has ruined me.

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mapman's avatar
mapman
22,609 posts
 

I use purely WiFi streaming. Piece of cake, never a problem and sound quality is not an issue. Been that way for many years now. It helps not being connected to noisy computer and network gear with a wire.

tump350
99 posts
 

Completely agree with the above posts.  My CDs are ripped to my Zenith but I tend to stream a lot of music that I would not have discovered were it not for the notes and hyperlinks found in Roon.  I have always wanted to enjoy my listening time with a minimum of hassle.  Can't beat Roon and Quobuz for convenience.  I'm sure I could achieve marginally better SQ, but what I have now is very good -- at least to me.  It is still true, however, that some recordings are better than others ...

pedroeb
493 posts
 

I also listen to Radio Paradise and AAC - 320 kbps sounds excellent.

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