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Is Pretty Good Good Enough? Listening Habits In The World Of Streaming Services.

I'm a recent subscriber to Tidal and Amazon Unlimited.  The sound quality of the cd quality music is surprisingly good.  I find myself listening to more music because of it.

I've also found myself in a situation when I come across a very familiar recording that I find it missing some of the inner details of the recording that I'm very familiar with....overall, the recording is good, but I noticed the missing elements.  Though I found it not as good as it sounds on my cd player, it was good enough that I didn't stop the song and went and got my cd and played it.  In other words, I settled for pretty good.  Interestingly, as I moved up the chain in the world of audio, it was always in pursuit of better equipment to extract better sound from the recording.  I was always looking for better than 'good enough'.  Well, 'good enough' has gotten a lot better than it used to be...and much more convenient.

Sadly, my critical listening time with my cd player and turntable is a lot less these days because of the streaming services.  I've just started to fiddle around with burning wav files of my cd's to a hard drive to make copies of those recordings where nothing but the original file will do. 

How have your listening habits changed since the higher resolution services have arrived?

128x128mitch4t
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 

If you miss inner detail, stay away from records. 

"Higher resolution services have arrived"🤣🤣🤣 Yeah like a hundred years ago. It's called the LP.

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,144 posts
 

Ready access to good music can be more important than achieving the ultimate sound quality.  It sounds like you're in a good place.  Enjoy!

lg1
199 posts
 

For me, the sound quality of streaming has reached good enough status (I’m a Tidal subscriber.) and my turntable use has dwindled to practically nothing. My CD player died a couple of years back and I don’t anticipate replacing it. Of course, sound quality varies within streaming just like any other media but my 65 yr old ears can’t tell any tangible difference between streaming’s best and vinyl’s best within the limitations of my system….Admittedly, I haven’t poured a king’s ransom into vinyl playback — I’ve got a Music Hall MMF-5 with the stock Goldring cart which is probably due for an upgrade but, considering the enjoyment I’m getting from streaming, the question I ask myself is, “Why would I want to spend the bucks for a cartridge when I could invest it in a better DAC for my streamer?”.,,,

 

Different strokes for different folks…

fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,502 posts
 

"Good enough" has indeed gotten a lot better than daze of old. I even get a lot of musical enjoyment out of Linn radio @320. Of course some tunes are fun enough to acquire but that is exceptional. Take the testvand you’ll see that higher than Redbook is only randomly discernable.

I echo onhwy61. Enjoy!

reubent
6,939 posts
 

@mitch4t 

Is Pretty Good Good Enough?

For me? Yes. I listen to a ton of music on both Spotify and Radio Paradise. For me, it's about discovery and background music (mostly). We also stream from Spotify or Apple Music at my little local music club meetings.

Pretty good has become pretty darn good and it's convenience cannot be denied.

More to discover