Did you notice....


That even great quality streamer streaming great hi-rez digital format cannot outperform cheap CD-player playing red-book CD or it's only my 'illusion'?

czarivey

What a waste of time, “Audiophiles are Snobs”.  Life is to short to waste time listening to idiots like this. Why would he waste his time talking about this… and why would anyone listen to it?

"Audiophiles are Snobs"  features an idiot!  He states, with no equivocation,  that $5,000 and $10,000 speakers sound equally good and a $500 and $5,000 integrated amp sound equally good.  He is either deaf or a liar or both!   There is a site filled with posters like him called Audio Science Review.  If a reasonable person posts, they immediately tear him down, using selected words and/or sentences as 100% proof that the audiophile is dumb and stupid with his money and that the high end audio equipment/cable/tweak sellers are criminals who commit fraud on the public.  

The first question you have to ask is "Am I comparing the same masters?"  Most often, if you have an older CD, then NO, you are hearing a newer master from the streaming service, and it's usually not better than what is encoded onto your CD.  

I have compared some CDs to the album on Tidal, and found them to be identical... but MANY times, the streamed version is louder and more compressed, and therefore worse sounding.  Sometimes the difference is subtle, sometimes dramatic, but I have heard a few sound nearly identical. So that tells me the streamer CAN indeed match the sound of my CD player (an OPPO 105). 

I completely agree. Mastering must be the same if the same results from streamers and CDs are to be similar or even the same. Perhaps a streamer can reproduce sound/music equivalent to a CD playback. I am unfamiliar with streamers capabilities generally (except at audio shows). Why streamers often use inferior remastered/altered recordings which are compressed and louder is the question. Why not just use a good CD as the streamer basis (or is it a financial reason)?