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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 lowrider57

lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,397 posts
 
I agree that a streaming setup will never have optimal SQ until RFI/EMI is lowered or eliminated. 
The coax cable coming into the house carries with it high levels of RFI, then plugs into a modem/router which generates RFI/EMI to the audio system.
A few members here have experienced improvement by using a LPS on their routers rather than the wall-wart which adds noise from the mains and from the SMPS device itself.

I chose a different way to go by using a power conditioner with RFI/EMI filtering with my router. The improvement in SQ was most audible, the lower noise-floor being the major upgrade.


lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,397 posts
 
This is the "Bruce Springsteen" "Born to Run"
That Quobuz streams/downloads that you pay for.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/58448
It’s the worst compressed version of all 28 re-issues/originals.

And here is the original 1982 uncompressed CD. (which would you prefer?)
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/98918
George, this is really shocking that Qobuz sees this amount of compression and can't get a better release from the record label. The streaming system is f#~ked up, the record label holds all the cards. 

In every case, there's no way to know the provenance of the master used to make the Qobuz copy. 

I've had some luck checking the copyright of an album on the Qobuz Info page, then checking to see if there's a matching date on DR Database or Discogs. 

My only recourse with the Qobuz Springsteen file is to listen to the album on CD.


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