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CD Quality Versus Streaming Quality

I realize this will be a contentious subject, and far be it from me to challenge any of the many expert opinions on this forum, but if I may offer my feedback vis-a-vis what I am hearing, and gain some knowledge in the process.

i will begin saying that my digital front end setup is not state of the art, but i have had the good fortune to listen to a number of really high-end systems. I guess the number one deficit in my digital front end is a streamer server, and no question about it that will improve the sound.

My CD player is a universal player; Pioneer BDP-09fd. It uses Wolfson DACs. It has been modified to a degree. I have bought and sold other players, but kept this one, because it has a beautiful sound that serves the music well.

Recently, i ventured over to my son’s place and we hooked up my player (he doesn’t have one and rely’s on streaming only) We compared tracks / albums of CD quality and master quality streamed on Tidal with ‘redbook’ CDs I have. For example, some Lee Ritenaur CDs and some Indian classical and the wonderful Mozart and Chopin.
His system is highly resolving.

we were both very surprised to find the CDs played on the player to be the better sound. And not just by a little. The sound was clearly superior, with higher resolution and definition, spatial ques, much better and clearer imaging. Very surprising indeed. Shouldn’t there be no difference? This would suggest the streaming service is throttling the bandwidth or compressing the signal?

i am most interested to hear others’ observations, and suggestions as to why this might be? I do love the convenience aspect of streaming, but it IS expensive for a chap like me of fairly modest means. The Tidal HiFi topline service is $30 per month I believe, something the good lady is not too thrilled about. God forbid I should suggest Roon on top of that I may likely get my walking papers. I jest, but only partially LoL. My point is, if I pay this sort of money, isn’t it fair to expect sound to equal the digital stream from the CD player and silver disc?
Thoughts?

AK





4afsanakhan
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,692 posts
 
To the OP , love your “ top of mind comment “ I try to get all the digital stuff including any SMPS on a separate power conditioner with analog front end gear on a different power conditioner…. My DAC has a well constructed Faraday cage as it lives in both worlds. I have it plugged in on the analog side but waterfall a separate power conditioner to it. Extreme ? Maybe… fun fun and musical
the streamer opens up entire worlds previously unknown  to me…
best to you and your son on the adventure 
jim
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 


riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook


THIS IS GOING TO UPSET A FEW.

I just found another interesting fact you can do from the Dynamic Range Data Base site. You can arrange years of date of issue from old to new or new to old

Here is "all" of 273 Springsteen’s albums even re-issues sorted in year from "oldest 1st page" to "youngest 3 page"

Look at what happens to the great dynamic range in the 1st page then deteriorates the more pages you go and the younger the albums get (in re-issues).

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/year?artist=Bruce+Springsteen

Now I really feel sorry for those acquaintances of mine that didn’t save all their original 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s vinyl or cd collections, and why they command big money now on ebay
And realize now why so many audiophile friends drop out of the audio club scene after they went to streaming and downloading after selling all their collections.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 


Same goes for all Elton John’s "year" released versions, but look what happened in 2019? SHM-CD???
Had to look it up. Some are saying it adds a sheen to the sound??? "false dynamic reading" maybe???
"SHM-CD (Super High Material CD) is a superior quality CD fully compatible with all CD players."

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/year?artist=elton+john

Cheers George

sd40
40 posts
 
Look at what happens to the great dynamic range in the 1st page then deteriorates the more pages you go and the younger the albums get (in re-issues).
What I have been saying!  Try it with Mark Knopfler, Enya, Bruce Hornsby, Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell, Donald Fagen, Sting, Tears for Fears, U2, and Yes.  This short list is drawn from a list of discs that I own and could easily be expanded.  Norah Jones is not included, for instance, because a boxed set of SACD's released in 2012 came with dynamic range between 11 and 14 and allowed me to dispose of some CD's of the same titles that had much poorer DR.

SHM-CD??? Had to look it up. Some are saying it adds a sheen to the sound??? "false dynamic reading" maybe???

SHM-CD is simply a high quality CD, most often made and sold in Japan.  While these releases tend to be mastered a bit bright, that seems to be common with Japanese remasters generally and is unrelated to the technology so far as I know.  I gather that you encountered SHM-CD in connection with Elton John.  The SHM-CD remasters released in 2019 are very highly regarded.  The seven that I own have DR ranging from 12 to 14.
vitussl101's avatar
vitussl101
296 posts
 
You're exactly right.  I have listened to some serious streaming components and hear the same thing.  Sometimes, in fleeting moments the streamed music can be very good but on a whole it's just so so.  Now a setup that uses a hard drive (NBS) can sound great.  A dealer in town demonstrated for me their setup and it frankly blew my mind.  Their twelve thousand record collection plus master tapes, even original mofi cassettes, not to mention cd's, etc., all sixteen terabytes worth available through an iPad changed my world view about recorded music.  But this is a unique situation; one owner is a recording engineer who uses I don't know, one or two hundred grand worth of Nagra equipment.  These rips are like no other that I ever listened to.  In one two hour listening session I sat on the sofa picking any music that came to mind; jazz, blues, rock, prog rock, classical, even some recordings of mine and well, streaming systems, are not even close.  And one killer example of a rip of many was listening to the Solti Vienna Wagner ring lp collection, ripped from an unopened box set that I somehow ran into.  The idea of not flipping through all those lp's and when directly comparing the rips to the original vinyl, not a whole lot of difference and not enough if any to bother me.  I just wish I had the space for something like that.
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