Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming


I’ve found that the SQ of my red book CDs exceeds that of streaming using the identical recordings for comparison. (I’m not including hi res technology here.)
I would like to stop buying CDs, save money, and just stream, but I really find I enjoy the CDs more because of the better overall sonic performance.
 I stream with Chromecast Audio using  the same DAC (Schiit Gumby) as I play CDs through.
I’m wondering if others have had the same experience
rvpiano

Showing 2 responses by rhljazz

When conducting your comparison did you turn off the “loudness compensation” in the Tidal app?
If you didn’t, that will certainly alter the comparison IME.
The default position in Tidal is “on”.  The reason is so someone listening to play lists doesn’t need to constantly adjust the volume for each song.

You must go into the Tidal app to turn it “off” for critical listening.  It is easy to do. You can easily switch back and forth as needed.