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 2 responses by randyhat

I am new to streaming.  I've had audiophile aspirations most of my life and have collected and listened to music for the past 55+ years. I have a modestly extensive collection of LPs, CDs and SACDs that I have accumulated over this time.  I enjoy having this collection and have tried to optimize my system to get the most out of my physical media.  All of this is to say that I do have an investment in physical media and certainly that is the comfort zone of my experience. So I went into streaming in general and Tidal in particular with a bias toward physical media.  My experience with Tidal is that in many ways it has transformed my listening experience.  For those audiophiles who truly enjoy music and the discovery of new music I think Tidal is great.  In my experience the sound quality of of their lossless and MQA albums are on a par with what I get from my CD player...and sound quality IS important to me.  I am not sure if Tidal is "audiophile approved", nor do I care.  My ears still work and I can discern between good and bad sounding recordings.  I don't need a device to reveal to me the meta data of the digital file before I can enjoy it.  
"... almost ALWAYS sound thin, wiry, bass shy, rolled off, tinny, electronic, lumpy, two dimensional, boring, synthetic, fake, congealed, and a lot like paper cache."

  I have both a decent vinyl rig and digital.  Broad generalizations like the above has just not been my experience.  For me it "almost ALWAYS" comes down to the individual recordings.  Sometimes vinyl sound better...sometimes digital.  I'm just happy to have the choices and do not feel the need to draw a line in the sand and take a stand for one or the other.  Same is true of streaming... just another choice.