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Why is Streaming so much better than anything else?

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Danathepill

Well-Known Member
Any time i compare any other source to streaming it’s always a night and day difference that streaming is WAY better. I have a decent system with decent sources but it’s really that big of a difference that it blows me away. Are streaming sources just better now or am I doing something wrong?
 
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A very open-ended question. Unless you're streaming higher resolution that you are able to get from your own sources, it should be the opposite.
Maybe the services you listen to are using EQ and compression/limiting to change the sound more to your liking?

What are your home sources, and what streaming do you listen to on what device?

Wanna' hear some god-awful stream quality? Listen to Classic Rock 109. They play some great deep cuts from the best bands, but at anything above the quietest background levels, it's unlistenable.
 
ibog1 said:
Agreed, streaming is really good now. That is my primary listening source.
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Was listening to Ball and Buscuit by the White Strips on an album and then streamed it for comparison and it’s crazy how much better it is. It goes from ok to an absolute ripper. It seems that either I’m conditioned to like the sound that streaming produces or it’s just that much better for most people
 
Danathepill said:
Was listening to Ball and Buscuit by the White Strips on an album and then streamed it for comparison and it’s crazy how much better it is. It goes from ok to an absolute ripper. It seems that either I’m conditioned to like the sound that streaming produces or it’s just that much better for most people
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Vinyl is not the magical fidelity solution many claim it to be. Lots of terrible sounding LPs out there.
 
streaming is 'hotter' but better? I don't think so. It's the loudness wars all over again.

I'll keep my digital (ripped from my own cd's, dvd's, blu-rays) thank you very much.

My experience has been less then spectacular when comparing various streaming tracks vs the cd/dvd/blu-ray versions.

sounds better at first, sure, but tiring, and irritating upon longer term listening. Not to mention when the bitrate drops, as it always does, it gets terrible.
 
jazzmans said:
streaming is 'hotter' but better? I don't think so. It's the loudness wars all over again.

I'll keep my digital (ripped from my own cd's, dvd's, blu-rays) thank you very much.
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Maybe that’s it. Maybe I just need to turn it up when playing other sources. I really have no idea why it’s so much better to me
 
It's like listening to 'the chain' off of Fleetwood Mac's most famous album. That guitar sounds so fantastic at first, it's almost awe-inspiring, but when the voices and other instruments kick in, it all goes 'bla' because of the massive compression in the original recording.


That's my opinion, anyway.
 
jazzmans said:
It's like listening to 'the chain' off of Fleetwood Mac's most famous album. That guitar sounds so fantastic at first, it's almost awe-inspiring, but when the voices and other instruments kick in, it all goes 'bla' because of the massive compression in the original recording.


That's my opinion, anyway.
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I’ll give it a listen right now
 
It would not surprise me if streaming companies are using different (and possibly better) re-masters of old tracks. I sometimes hear clear, new emphasis on parts that were rather submerged before. My friend says Apple is producing ATMOS versions of everything, for instance, with varying results that he thinks may be due to automation of the ATMOS re-masters (as in: did anybody listen to this? ;-)

The capability to separate out tracks from mixes digitally is fairly new, and getting used, I would suspect. Lots of new tricks in the bag, some with the help of AI, no doubt.
 
I have to be honest, depending on your definition, I am streaming, only it's from my own cd/dvd/blu-ray rips, uncompressed, mounted on my linux media servers and played using either audacious or on my android devices, poweramp pro, or in my vehicles, an alpine head unit.
On my home systems, I'm using DACs with fully balanced outputs to my bryston balanced preamps,and then on to ancient carver pro amps or (more and more) modern Fosi Audio chip amps with balanced inputs.
turns out, keeping my cd/dvd/blu-rays when everyone was claiming 'the cloud' was the future was a smart move.

just for the record, and all.
 
stereofanboy said:
So, signal comes out of that black box and goes to your amp, right? Where is it before it's in the black box? Or is the black box some sort of hard drive so that it just lives in there all the time?
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That black box is a Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer. It’s a source just like the SACD player or the TT that feeds into the pre amp, I’m listening to Pearljam Black on both he CD player and the streamer and I’m once again saying streaming sounds better
 
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