Qobuz Hi-Rez Not Necessarily the Best Sound
Hello:
I stream Qobuz using Roon into a Bricasti M1SE DAC/Streamer into a Benchmark HPA4 headphone amp and then into various Kennerton or RAAL headphones.
Lately I have been comparing different versions of recordings on Qobuz. For instance, lately it has been Depeche Mode but also Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, and Supertramp. Oftentimes there are several versions of titles, usually Hi-rez files of 24/192 or similar, versus the standard 16/44.1 resolution versions. Sometimes there are remastered versions in various resolutions.
Quite by accident I have found that the highest resolution versions are not necessarily the best-sounding versions, often preferring the remastered and/or standard resolution recordings. Today, for instance, I was listening to DM's A Broken Frame. The 24/192 sounded a little sharper with perhaps a little more detail and spaciousness but was amazingly dynamically compressed. The difference was not subtle. Going from the 24/192 to the 16/44.1 remastered version was going from a bland recording to one that came alive. I guess it goes to show that higher rez files are not necessarily superior sonically.
Anyone else found this to be the case in their streaming? Thanks.
@hankeson Qobuz isn't upsampling, dac is doing this.
If one wants to try intensive dsp, try HQPlayer, up and over sampling makes more difference with this software vs. Qobuz or Tidal recording. Streamer must have capability, in other words powerful processor, not many streamers have this. |
Yes, that makes sense, @sns . Thank you. 'Come to think of it, there have been a few firmware updates to the Auralic Aries. That's got to be it. TY, again! |
I agree with you regarding provenance and being true to the source but feel the streaming services do play into this when pushing out upsampled versions that are a separate process from the original (provenance) combined with a lesser file format (compression) I order to aid in the streaming process. I might take a bite if there was a service that offered uncompressed WAV as an option for listening. |
Yep, agreed. Really the only way is to buy physical copy (which I do for the bands/tunes I like) based on ones research. The streaming services can and do (on a whim) change the "source" and we’ll never be the wiser so to speak (unless you pay attention to the metadata like a hawk), even at that, the metadata is so crappy as it is...urghh it’s really one of my biggest annoyances. One day it could be "cat # 0011", and tomorrow it could be "cat # 0022" - maybe better, maybe worse etc.. Very nice rig BTW! |
