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CD Quality Versus Streaming Quality

I realize this will be a contentious subject, and far be it from me to challenge any of the many expert opinions on this forum, but if I may offer my feedback vis-a-vis what I am hearing, and gain some knowledge in the process.

i will begin saying that my digital front end setup is not state of the art, but i have had the good fortune to listen to a number of really high-end systems. I guess the number one deficit in my digital front end is a streamer server, and no question about it that will improve the sound.

My CD player is a universal player; Pioneer BDP-09fd. It uses Wolfson DACs. It has been modified to a degree. I have bought and sold other players, but kept this one, because it has a beautiful sound that serves the music well.

Recently, i ventured over to my son’s place and we hooked up my player (he doesn’t have one and rely’s on streaming only) We compared tracks / albums of CD quality and master quality streamed on Tidal with ‘redbook’ CDs I have. For example, some Lee Ritenaur CDs and some Indian classical and the wonderful Mozart and Chopin.
His system is highly resolving.

we were both very surprised to find the CDs played on the player to be the better sound. And not just by a little. The sound was clearly superior, with higher resolution and definition, spatial ques, much better and clearer imaging. Very surprising indeed. Shouldn’t there be no difference? This would suggest the streaming service is throttling the bandwidth or compressing the signal?

i am most interested to hear others’ observations, and suggestions as to why this might be? I do love the convenience aspect of streaming, but it IS expensive for a chap like me of fairly modest means. The Tidal HiFi topline service is $30 per month I believe, something the good lady is not too thrilled about. God forbid I should suggest Roon on top of that I may likely get my walking papers. I jest, but only partially LoL. My point is, if I pay this sort of money, isn’t it fair to expect sound to equal the digital stream from the CD player and silver disc?
Thoughts?

AK





4afsanakhan

Showing 3 responses by audioman58

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,905 posts
 
I have over 40 years in Audio as well as owning a Audio store 
I have owned pretty much 90% of most designs out there .
a cd was great in its day ,but today Waay outdated .
a disc wobbles even a small amount ,is magnified and error correction needs to work on correction error correction .
It’s ok for CDs thst are out of print , I burned mine to a hard drive 
DB Poweramp is a great way to accurately copy your discs to hard drive . The key is getting everythung done correctly with great streaming . I just purchased a Bricasti  M3 very good buy having both in the same chassis with optional Roon 
Ethernet card ,before connecting Ethernet cable ,BTW I use 
certified cat6 cables made by Beldon used in top studios blue jeans cables sell it very good cost effective Ethernet , and 
Uptone audio, Ether regen ,which totally makes a New clean digital signal right before it goes into the streamer . Use very high quality power cords , dedicated line I use a 4 wire dual ground 
one common, the other insulated,isolated ground , awg10 ,
20 amp dedicated circuits are  essential, Gold plated  Copper AC outlets . It sounds like a lot but done over time , you can hear the difference with a very good dac, and high quality streamer any short cuts your audio will suffer ,it sounds very natural and better then using a usb cable for sure and superior to cd ,clear and pure.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,905 posts
 
Agreed you are rarely getting  master recordings but QObuz has hirez masters 
as well as Tidal just not that  much maybe 10% or less , as I stated in a previous email , if the dac you have is doing it’s job correctly Bricasti for example is known for their excellence in the recording venue and use the older no longer made laser trimmed Analog Devises ladder dac chips just as a starting point there are a ton of many critical areas to total the sum of its parts to properly convert the Digital to Analog signal.  From there the Streamer has to correctly not corrupt 
or allow any artifacts or electrical noise in the signal path while it is sending data 
to be processed , as they say ,the end result is only as strong as it’s weakest link.
quality of all cables count Analog ,power cords, as well as digital .
it can be very stressful at times.it seems  $$ money is always not enough .
now I am saving for a Loudspeaker upgrade, how much do I need to spend 
$10k-$20 k ? I guess we shall find out.
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,905 posts
 
If you have a high quality dac ,and very good streamer 
a key to help ensure noise is at its minimum is a great network switch without spending too much $$ such as Uptone Audio 
ether Regen which is very apparent eliminating noise 
and the Excellent Bricasti M3 dac withNetwork streaming card.it
has tons of trickle down technologies from all they have learned in mastering studios ,exceptional performance that is actual to the point it surpasses a good turntable in many areas.I have friends 
with very good $10k + turntables and used to hate digital. A top CD player like Esoteric can be exceptionally good, but still not up to par with the pristine signal from Ethernet 
or usb from my experiences. A very good dac-streamer is better 
pin sonics,purity of signal Ethernet ,as well as I2S is a superior 
Digital signal. And cd is just Waay outdated.I use only if I can’t find 
on QObuz or Tidal.
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