Is using streaming services worthy of an audiophile?


I read that a lot of people on this forum use Tidal etc. Is this ok from audiophile perspective? I mean, do people who use such services actually know what quality is streamed? Don’t you lose all control over your music when you surrender to streaming services?
defiantboomerang

Showing 4 responses by willemj

The signal is bitperfect 16/44 and stays that way if your computer or streamer is set up correctly. As you can see here even a modest Chromecast Audio can achieve that:  http://archimago.blogspot.nl/2016/02/measurements-google-chromecast-audio_27.html
So with the same DAC it should be sonically identical to CD. There is no magic in science.
I continue to be surprsed if people say that a particular digital system is almost as good as vinyl. Of course they continue to sound different, but only because vinyl is inferior. Apart from the ticks and the plops, vinyl suffers higher distortion, a non-flat frequency response, lower dynamic range, and lower channel separation.
Until now Spotify is 320 kbs at best, and Tidal can be had in full redbook cd quality. So for that, use your Oppo and enjoy.
The reason the vinyl rig seems to produce more detail is that the dynamic range of vinyl is more limited. Therefore, both in the mastering and in the cutting the peaks have to be limited to avoid distortion and even the stylus jumping out of the groove, and the low level signals have to be lifted above all that surface noise (also, low frequencies have to be in mono for the same reason that peaks have to be limited). The end result is a dynamically compressed signal that suggests there is more detail. If you want to, you can achieve the same with digital compression. There are quite a few plug ins for mastering consoles to mimic this vinyl sound.
Sorry if I have destroyed an illusion.