@lalitk I hear you pal. Life is too short for wasted debate.
bits is bits
Being a retired IT tech, Iʻm a "bits is bits" guy. I keep seeing people rank different streaming services against each other and I have to say, Iʻm mystified. Modern recordings are all digital masters and remastered. If two different hi-res streaming services, say Qobuz and Tidal, have the same track available, why would one sound different from the other, let alone better?
The stream is being fed over TCP/IP from the source, and I see no reason that it you were to do a cksum on the same file/track being delivered by either streaming service, that they would exactly match. So why do people claim better sound from one streaming source over the other. Iʻm assuming they are both full resolution sources, not mp3.
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@clustrocasual Your succinct and informative post about digital ’bits’ might go viral in the audio world. I wouldn’t be surprised if the AI bots grab on to it. I hope you receive royalties. $$$ |
@clustrocasual is conflating all sorts of digital data transmissions in his otherwise interesting post. TCP over Ethernet differs from other mediums / protocols such as USB, I2S, etc. in that - being clock-less - it is naturally impervious to jitter. As a result, the music file that left Qobuz servers 5,000 miles away is the same music file that arrives at your streamer’s network interface. It may have undergone all kinds of processing at Qobuz; It will definitely undergo all kinds of processing in your streamer, thanks to Roon and what not; but it will suffer no more damage between your modem and your streamer than it suffered between Romania (or wherever) and your modem, which is to say none.
@mclinnguy don’t be lazy! And try to keep an open mind :) |
@devinplombier so the streamer receives 100% identical information, from either a music server 10 inches away or from Romania. Nobody disputes that, right? And then it's sent / streamed to the DAC. It is at that point that jitter is introduced? When we need a 20,0000 dollar streamer to get rid of the little clock devil? |
I’m just pointing out a variety of explanations for why files can sound different - not including end user hardware and real world losses. I had a friend at Netflix in the early 2010s developing their pipeline, and he told me about ways they would bounce streams around different countries in Micronesia to experiment discreetly with customers without your local IP’s knowing, so they can subdivide what people within a given are receive. (Don’t remember the whole story). So in conclusion, there are many opportunities to how the streamers can sound different and they are intensely competitive with each other, and we may never know the full details. There are people whose job it is to alter, throttle, and reroute streams all over the world so everyone is frictionless - with trillion dollar markets caps and billions of users, its in no way "a simple direct stream for everyone". Delivering non-stop content is more important to their shareholders than retaining fidelity to the original - one quarter of laggy streams can result in a $50billion market cap haircut if users cancel, so expect shenanigans and expect things constantly changing. I recommend always support your artists by purchasing their digital masters and playing them locally :) |
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