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Grimm findings on streaming audio

I just wanted people here to know that Eelco Gimm, who makes Grimm streamers, spoke to a reviewer where he addressed the reason why most streaming from the likes of iTunes, Tidal and Qobuz sounds different from CD playback.  It's that the music is watermarked before you get it. It accounts for what he deems to be a fluttering around the edges of music. Everyone thought it was compression.

Also, when music is streamed, the first block you get is lossy, followed by blocks of lossless, so if the content is too much for the carrier, the lossy will get through without the listener's knowledge of the switch, unless you're monitoring it on a regular basis.

I understand why some streamers charge for the product, but to go further and mess with the content in the name of licensing, permanently degrading the content, is beyond me. This was from a very short article and more is said to follow.

I also want to add that all of this is over my head but I thought it would be of interest to those who stream and for those who wonder which is the best way to listen.

All the best,
Nonoise
128x128nonoise

Showing 1 response by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,406 posts
 
+1 for tidal sounding better especially with MQA.
There is no roughness or thinner soundstage with MQA and I would say it has just the opposite: neutral to a warmer sound, more dynamic: highs and lows and a broader soundstage. The benefits of streaming increased when I went with a 1G fiber internet and using Ethernet to the ps audio DS sr dac. When I was using copper for my internet connection, the music was rougher or not as clean sounding and was definitely noisier. 
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