Lossless Streaming Comparisons.....

[GChief]

I don't have a good understanding of the relationship between the content providers and the music services. Perhaps they have stored a version of the recording at a higher bit rate (pre-dithering), and simply provide that to the music services. In this case, all the other work done during the mastering process (including DRC tailored to lower fidelity playback devices and noisier listening environments) will be retained.

I was not necessarily suggesting that the music services do their own mastering, as this would require access to the pre-mastered version of the recording. I guess that they could pay for such access, and pay a mastering engineer to produce an audiophile version, or more likely just pay the content owner to do the same. Either way, it seems to me that for the music services to offer truly higher quality recordings - rather than just higher bit rate recordings - this work (and expense) would be required.

I guess I am just beginning to appreciate the fact that the "high-res" (ie higher bit rate) content from the music services is not necessarily any better sounding than CD. Technically, the higher bit rates should have better extension and quality in the higher frequencies and a wider dynamic range...but over-use of DRC probably negates any benefit of wider dynamic range.

Perhaps the real advantages of the high-res music services - at least for content that is not remastered - are simply 1) CD quality (lossless vs lossy), 2) convenience, and 3) access to huge libraries. I had hope for better sounding recordings as well, but it may be that there is just not enough of a market to support the expense of remastering for audiophile users.

IME they are getting better. Of course this is all subjective to my likes (we all have them) but I rarely liked any of the "new" Hi-res remasters over the "originals" when they started coming out. For me they seem to be getting better, I am finding more that I like over the originals than before. Could just be that I am listening to them more often now with a decent streaming front end... whos knows All I know is for me I can always find a version that sounds good (enough) but I can also get past production problems and I know many cannot.

 

[spark1]

IME they are getting better. Of course this is all subjective to my likes (we all have them) but I rarely liked any of the "new" Hi-res remasters over the "originals" when they started coming out. For me they seem to be getting better, I am finding more that I like over the originals than before. Could just be that I am listening to them more often now with a decent streaming front end... whos knows All I know is for me I can always find a version that sounds good (enough) but I can also get past production problems and I know many cannot.

I can get past them, but would prefer not to be required to do so.

As always, recording quality is the long pole in the tent regardless of format...and there will always be variations in it. But I resent the intentional damage to sound quality that heavy-handed DRC causes. Now that there is no physical production required (CD is all but dead), I don't know why it would be difficult or expensive for the record companies to offer two versions, one tailored to computer speaker/smarphone/earbud listeners and one for stereo/home theater listeners.

If this was the case, there would be no need to go back and remaster to produce a higher quality recording...it would already be done.

 

[rajoo]

I started with MOG till Beats bought and killed them (I think), then Tidal, Amazon before AMHD and now Qobuz. I am quite satisfied and I do play occasional albums from my library if it s not on Qobuz it and found it to be comparable. Bluesound app on my iPad is what I mainly use to stream Qobuz and is very robust and seamless.

 

[NeilBEN]

That's strange. I also use Qobuz via a RPi4 running Volumio. Works great and never lost Qobuz. I've had to reimage and reinstall the OS a couple times when the power has gone out to get mine to work again, but not the issue you describe.

Really enjoy the combo, and it sounds much better than AMHD did via my windows laptop.

I reflashed Volumio and it is working again, I am glad to say.
My wish for the Radio Paradise plugin, is to be able to sign into your RP account - and then listen to your favorites; which you can do on a computer.
My wish for Qobuz on the Volumio is to have a better search function, and a easier way to make an album a favorite. This is really difficult to do, on a phone, in the Volumio interface.