Qobuz Hi-Rez Not Necessarily the Best Sound

@p05129 

I might agree with you on Hi Rez sounding better but until this day I’ve only been able to playback within the limits of my Dac. I’ve used Native DSD’s site and have heard some really interesting music there but ultimately had to downsample to DSD 128 to avoid DOP playback.

I had considered purchasing a T+A Dac earlier this year to experience more of the DSD stuff but even that was limited for me because of the Mac OS. I don’t see going into a windows machine or some other device grouping as a value spend. I hope that changes in the near future as it would be interesting to experience artists using that format of recording/mastering. Honestly the only difference I’ve heard (with true mastered hi res- not just up conversion) is a little more air in the presentation- but it wasn’t life changing.

@mapman 

So how has the vinyl conversion been working out in whole with the process you described? Do you find yourself still acquiring new titles or purely archiving your previously purchases albums?

I guess I didn’t clearly describe my setup and use. I audition music via streaming services before making the decision on what to buy. Once the disks arrive they sit in the listening queue. All disks are ripped via my Naim Uniti Core and stored for playback on SS drives. The disk is put away afterwards. I haven’t spun a disk in so long I can’t remember!

@mapman 

I’m up for hearing your work- not sure how to go about getting the files you have but send me a note sometime and we’ll figure it out.

@mapman / @lowrider57 

This is why I continue to buy CD’s and only use streaming for auditioning new music. Although I love the ability to have access to hundreds of thousands of artist titles ultimately it’s the quality of the streamed music that “To Me” is still lacking when compared to the physical media.

@mapman 

I totally agree- having access to so much is truly an amazing thing. I wish it had been that way when I was growing up!
I remember having dinner with a friend years ago (an audio engineer I worked with) and he was describing the process he was using at home to digitize/archive an old collection of 78’s left to him by his father. The process was very detailed and I remember telling him that his story made me glad I had decided to sell all of my LP’s years before that! (But I didn’t really have much of a collection anyway)

@sns 

x10 on Provenance 

@redlenses03 

I agree with you regarding provenance and being true to the source but feel the streaming services do play into this when pushing out upsampled versions that are a separate process from the original (provenance) combined with a lesser file format (compression) I order to aid in the streaming process. I might take a bite if there was a service that offered uncompressed WAV as an option for listening.

@redlenses03 

Thanks for the comment! I too just finished auditioning catalog titles making notes of which to buy a physical copy of (CD). Ironically on Spotify no less!

@dlcockrum 

Thanks for jumping in. It seems this conversation has melded down to “hi-res” streaming service offerings vs the real thing, whether that source be a physical copy or a file of the original.

I’ve never been a believer in MQA- read a lot about it and decided not to participate but since you’ve brought it up what are your thoughts on how it compares (in ideal conditions) to that of the real deal?