I recently compared 4 versions of the same recording. It's Larry Young's "Zoltan" on his Unity album..... Qobuzz 24 bit 192 khz, vs Tidal's 24 bit remast which plays in 44 khz 16 bit FLAC and their standard version which plays at the same resolution but lower volume... against the 1991 Mosaic CD set of the Complete Blue Note Larry Young (cut 7 disc 3). The Mosaic master from 30 years ago is by far the superior one, followed by both Tidal versions.. the Qobuzz was by far the worst.
Deja Vu all over again
The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young remastered album is available on Qobuz for streaming at 192kHz 24bit. It sounds great. I have the original vinyl that I bought in the late 70s. This remastered version has a very crisp clean sound with good soundstage depth and width. I especially like the song, "Almost Cut my Hair". The song seems almost comical to me at the beginning but the mood changes for me as the song continues into a serious and good discussion.
I believe this digital version has little to no compression since I have my preamp volume set at 50 for my normal listening level. Compare that to some pop albums on Qobuz at 44kHz 16bit that I play at a volume level of 27-33.
I believe the compression level is proportional to the volume level I use for my normal listening level. For example, ROON shows the dynamic range of each of my CDs that I have ripped as FLAC files into my Library. I see dynamic range as low as 8 and as high as 18. The 18 is for a Telarc CD and is exceptional. I notice my volume level for normal listening level is correlating to this Dynamic Range value. Of course the higher dynamic range recordings have some nice loud peaks.
I believe this digital version has little to no compression since I have my preamp volume set at 50 for my normal listening level. Compare that to some pop albums on Qobuz at 44kHz 16bit that I play at a volume level of 27-33.
I believe the compression level is proportional to the volume level I use for my normal listening level. For example, ROON shows the dynamic range of each of my CDs that I have ripped as FLAC files into my Library. I see dynamic range as low as 8 and as high as 18. The 18 is for a Telarc CD and is exceptional. I notice my volume level for normal listening level is correlating to this Dynamic Range value. Of course the higher dynamic range recordings have some nice loud peaks.
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It’s all about compression, either because of the vintage of the release of the album used when streamed or because it get compressed because of the streaming process itself. Which ever it is, playing the original retail stamped release CD on a transport or "copied to a hard drive", always sounds the better to me in most cases than anything streamed. Cheers George |
@georgehifi: "Stereophiles music reviewer Tom Fine on CSNY "Deja Vu" The first CD is the original album, sourced from the original tapes. Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering used a light hand at the mastering console and kept the original dynamics and tonal qualities". I checked out the Discogs site and didn't see any masterings by Bellman of this recording prior to this 50th anniversary release. |
I checked out the Discogs site and didn't see any masterings by Bellman of this recording prior to this 50th anniversary release.Very strange, Deja Vu was released (vinyl) in March 1970 by Atlantic Records. Yet the 1st CD, didn't as far as I can find come out till 1988 6 years after retail CD started???? Cheers George |
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