Streamer selection

Hear Here said:
If you can't get sound quality at least as good as CD via a good streaming service, your equipment isn't up to scratch! A CD quality or HD quality service from Qobuz (or Tidal) should reach your ears sounding as good or better than a spinning CD.

I have a similar number of CDs that are ripped to hard drives, but I will normally choose to listen via Qobuz because they may well have the same album in HD quality. Also, it's a lot easier to search for the album via PC, iPad, phone, etc from your chair, rather than to get up, rummage through your collection, take out a CD from its jewel box, place into player - then repeat in reverse 60 minutes later!

Also, if you were to use Roon, after you've chosen a few favourite tracks, it will suggest others it thinks you will enjoy. Thus you are likely to discover new artists that you may never have heard of. Win-Win as far as I'm concerned! (y)
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I can guarantee you my "equipment is up to scratch". Obviously there are many many better systems than mine. But my gear certainly is up to snuff to tell the difference in a lower level digital versus top notch digital.

As I have stated, there is definite advantages to streaming, but better sound quality is not one of them.
 
brad225 said:
I didn't see the picks Dave. Very nice. Right now that snow looks good from here in Florida.
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Brad, I'd take that snow anyday as opposed to being in the path of a Florida hurricane !

Be safe this week !
 
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Randy Myers said:
Of course there is a variance in CDs, SACDs, high res digital files, etc. However, high res, especially DSD sounds much better than CDs or any streaming services (yes I have compared on both mine and other friends systems).

Even storing high res files on internal drives versus a NAS or other storage on your network does make a huge difference. I had a buddy who felt there was no way this could be the case. When I stayed with him for a few months before retiring and joining Cheryal at our new home we setup his new multi-room streaming setup. I showed him how copying files to the internal drive actually sounded better (he had an 4-8 TB SSD in his server). He was surprised and amazed. He does still stream quite a bit because he loves exploring new and different music. That is a great purpose for it.

There are many factors involved here. If you believe that wiring/cabling does make a difference in your audio quality then an obvious difference is eliminating wiring and devices that the signal travels through. As an IT guy I always thought it is just 1's and 0's so how can it make a difference. It was finally proven to me that it does, it really does. With streaming you are going through thousands and thousands of miles of cabling, and hundreds, maybe even thousands of other devices, switches, routers, etc., etc. I can assure you a majority of these "providers" or "routes" do not give a rats ass about the quality of the signal passing through.

If simply going straight from internal SSD drives (or even better M.2 drives) served straight to the DAC makes a difference compared to files from a NAS on your own network, how could signals coming from huge data banks (NAS's and a whole lot more) through thousands of miles of cabling and hundreds of random devices prior to even reaching your provider and then serving it to you through one of their mid-grade, at best, modems even compare. Obviously it doesn't.

There are pros to streaming, but having better digital sound in not one. My digital setup rivals my vinyl. It's that simple. No streaming service can come close to my vinyl setup in sound quality. Certainly they win in the convenience factor.
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Randy,

Even if you take the SQ question off the table, The benefits of streaming are crystal clear. A 1400 album library is not 1,000,000+.

Qobuz is so integrated with my library by ROON, I rarely even think about where a song or album is coming from. For that benefit, I am willing to pay the monthly fee.

If you don’t value that, then it doesn’t matter of the SQ is an issue or not.

(However, I would challenge anyone to correctly identify when I am streaming Qobuz or from the SSD inside my server without closely studied critical listening.)
 
crwilli said:
Randy,

Even if you take the SQ question off the table, The benefits of streaming are crystal clear. A 1400 album library is not 1,000,000+.

Qobuz is so integrated with my library by ROON, I rarely even think about where a song or album is coming from. For that benefit, I am willing to pay the monthly fee.

If you don’t value that, then it doesn’t matter of the SQ is an issue or not.

(However, I would challenge anyone to correctly identify when I am streaming Qobuz or from the SSD inside my server without closely studied critical listening.)
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I have just a few albums I listen over and over. All the other 999800 is good to find inspiration to new music and develop ideas for a new musical taste.

For me it is nice to “have” those favorite albums in the best sound quality possible and those new findings on streaming services will be bought on cd at the local music store.
 
NewAlkyogre said:
I have just a few albums I listen over and over. All the other 999800 is good to find inspiration to new music and develop ideas for a new musical taste.

For me it is nice to “have” those favorite albums in the best sound quality possible and those new findings on streaming services will be bought on cd at the local music store.
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That’s my strategy as well. I have been buying releases from Japan. In general, their remasters in SHM CD, SHM SACD, or Bluespec CD etc. have all been outstanding. I have ROON set to play from my hard drive as a preference even over a higher sample rate release on Qobuz.

But when I am simply listening, I often let ROON radio take over and just play what it suggests. That could come from both ‘locations’.
 
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one sideline about those high res discs. Those players are made with cheap plastic DVD player drives.

This is the reason my Marantz Sacd player is stored in the house and switched by my current Jkacoustics player.
 
crwilli said:
Randy,

Even if you take the SQ question off the table, The benefits of streaming are crystal clear. A 1400 album library is not 1,000,000+.

Qobuz is so integrated with my library by ROON, I rarely even think about where a song or album is coming from. For that benefit, I am willing to pay the monthly fee.

If you don’t value that, then it doesn’t matter of the SQ is an issue or not.

(However, I would challenge anyone to correctly identify when I am streaming Qobuz or from the SSD inside my server without closely studied critical listening.)
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As I said, I understand the benefits of streaming. However, to me I have a hard enough time picking what to listen to, and the SQ is much more important. There is 100% for sure a difference, and being a DSD fan there is truly no comparison.
 
I have my favorite artists and albums. However, over the last few years I have been enjoying searching for new music. Now, not necessarily new musicians, as I’m enjoying a lot more classical. Tidal and Qobuz do fine with that.
 
Randy Myers said:
As I said, I understand the benefits of streaming. However, to me I have a hard enough time picking what to listen to, and the SQ is much more important. There is 100% for sure a difference, and being a DSD fan there is truly no comparison.
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You can actually convert to DSD every single track from your streaming service. That means millions of “DSD” tracks.
I personally do not notice any improvement in SQ when streaming vs listening to same physical CDs.
 
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nicoff said:
You can actually convert to DSD every single track from your streaming service. That means millions of “DSD” tracks.
I personally do not notice any improvement in SQ when streaming vs listening to same physical CDs.
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This is true, however I do notice that the better the source file the better it comes out of HQPlayer. Everything does sound fantastic and even lower res is improved in my view. All else being equivalent, the higher the level of the file the better it sounds coming out of the HQPlayer engine. So DSD256 files up sample better than DSD64, or any PCM file for that matter. I am also sure my DAC being a DSD specialist does assist in this. Definitely the better in the better out as far as HQPlayer goes in my view.
 
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