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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 2 responses by gerryah930

gerryah930's avatar
gerryah930
144 posts
 
Streaming will eventually be better. However, unless you have examples of wide dynamic range LPs recorded using analog equipment, most vinyl disks recorded using digital methods are not significantly better then are hi quality CD formats (SACD, UHQ-MQA, HDCD, K2CD, etc).

As may have been mentioned, since I am too lazy to read the entire thread, it depends so much on the master and whether you have information on the provenance. 
gerryah930's avatar
gerryah930
144 posts
 
The RIAA 2020 year end report demonstrates streaming music is dominant in the marketplace, but I think that 3 caveats should be mentioned:
(1) During the year(s) of Covid-19 (SARs-Cov2) pandemics, of course streaming will have gained more traction as a medium;
(2) For those of you who read physical books, I think a good warning here is that the quality and availability of good books (or CDs) and the experience of shopping for them in brick and mortar stores has been seriously degraded through a reliance on Amazon;
(3) Marketing folks become confused - once they see a trend, they often believe that everyone will switch to the new trend. Even if 83% of consumers run to streaming, the older and wealthier consumers are sticking to more expensive and higher quality audio and playback systems. The latter may represent 15% of the users, but they may have 90% of the available spending money. Comparisons to the high end automobile marketplace are relevant here.
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