That is correct, but neither has that resampling anything to do with compression nor is there any difference when it comes to “dac direct mode”. That mode (WASAPI/DirectSound/etc) still go through the audio driver and may be affected by wrong settings.
that is hilarious
If it is not an ABx test or if it isn’t at least blind, then it is affected by placebo.
I don’t notice any difference between magenta and green hahaha. In principle it is in magenta if it is playing a mqa.
Well, I tried that one and the hip dac, even with the highest quality setting, still shows a green light.
I find that Tidal and Spotify are both pretty crap. I didn’t hear a difference until I jumped on Qobuz and promptly canceled my Spotify account. Since then I’ve joined Deezer, it gave me the perfect mix of music I listen to and high quality. It’s not quite as good as Qobuz audio wise but that difference is much smaller than the difference between deezer and spotify.
they may be better, but their libraries are not. tidal gives me the best sound quality of platforms that actually have a variety of music. and you can make w/e claims of a good library…but when i use them, 90% of songs i try to find are not on them.
edit: i also mostly listen to music while doing other things. i can notice a difference instantly when its amazon or spotify vs tidal. i cant say the same thing about jumping to qobuz. to hear the difference, i must be in a dedicated listening session.
I think that tidal hifi sounds better then the standard Spotify and the master quality mqa b.s. that crushes dynamics within tidal. I haven’t tries the higher end Spotify but I also didn’t like Spotify layout personally. You can pay for the hifi tidal now only without mqa which is nice.
I’ve listened to Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Youtube Music. I cannot reliably discern a difference. I’ve also listened to plenty of 24bit flac stuff. Same story. Did the online ABX thing, could not tell a difference. Now I haven’t tested it on all combinations of my equipment, but I’m satisfied to stick with Spotify due to their (IMO) better user experience as well as my own inertia.
That’s fair. I prefer Spotify’s interface, library size, social sharing and playlists to Qobuz, and it’s also a big plus that most of my friends and family are on Spotify.
But I’m sticking with Qobuz for now because it just sounds so much better than Spotify 320 kbps. I will happily return to Spotify if its touted high-res streaming ever comes to market and sounds good.
What if you can hear a difference between Qobuz and Spotify 320 kbps? Your comment above seems to infer there is no difference other than the placebo effect.
There is a difference, but it’s doesn’t sound how I imagined. I thought Qobuz high-res streams would sound like crystal-clear mountain air compared to the audio smog of Spotify. Not so. There’s really not that much difference in terms of clarity.
But the difference is audibly noticeable in details, imaging, separation and the “fullness” of the sound. You can really hear the compression of the lossy Spotify format compared to the lossless streams of Qobuz.
Spotify sounds clear but narrow. Compressed, as it should sound. Qobuz sounds clear but wider and more full because it’s not compressed.
I feel as though I’m not too experienced or knowledgable to really chime in here, however, I do hear a difference when I’ve gone from Spotify to Apple Music using the Hi-Res lossless format. I truly don’t think it’s a placebo. Apple music feels more open, more airy with lower hitting bass and a higher resolution. I can audibly hear this. I’ve now successfully tried all the major streaming services besides deezer and there is really so little difference between them when it comes to all of them besides Spotify. This is the way my ears perceived them:
Apple Music is the one I landed on simply because I enjoy the interface, the music selection and the price. The sound difference is honestly is so minimal, that I don’t feel the need to pay the extra for Qobuz or Tidal. Apple Music sounds good enough for me.
But like I said in the beginning of my post - what the hell do I know? Just goes to show things in this hobby are so subjective.
There is a difference in the data, but it’s almost inaudible and to the extend that it is perceivable, it won’t manifest in better sound
That reads to me like someone giving their account of a placebo. “Compressed, as it should sound” is the evidence (compressed music shouldn’t sound compressed, it should sound indistinguishable… that is a goal of lossy compression). No ABX test and no blind test have been carried out.
EDIT: I repeat what I said before: In cases like this I recommend against those kind of tests… they only lead to disillusion and disappointment.
I think that’s simply false. You can hear it, you just don’t know what to hear. I dare to say this because that’s how I got to this hobby. By mistake I downloaded a FLAC file on my phone and the difference was very noticeable. At that point of time, I didn’t know what was the cause. I thought Adam Young simply made a great music, so I looked more of his album, but none sounded the same and long story short I learned that the album that I downloaded was a FLAC file.
If there were no difference what so ever, then I would never be here. So take it what you will. Even to this day I can spot MP3 and FLAC sources pretty easily. In my local library, I purposely put some albums in FLAC and MP3, just for the fun of it. So when that album comes up I’ll guess whether it’s an MP3 or FLAC and I’m always right. So it is noticeable.
You say all this, but you don’t mention how those mp3s you comparing flacs with got encoded.
In another post in this thread I made it clear that I too can very easily distinguish between some mp3s and flacs, but not other mp3s and flacs. It all depends on the encoding. Not all mp3s are encoded the same way.
Is it just me or has nobody mentioned that the versions and mastering between these streaming services can differ between each one? Not every streaming service has the same master or recording of a specific track/album so that’s another thing to consider when accounting for this difference. I know that the way these streaming service programs interface with the dac can differ as well so that’s another potential thing to account for
Since ABX has been thrown around alot, once you learn to listen between the differences for lossy vs lossless audio with a decent quality recording, it becomes fairly easy to tell the difference and it becomes basic pattern recognition. On some recordings it may be incredibly apparent in a decent system, on others it might be negligible, comes down the quality of the recording in the end. Generally I think in most cases even with average quality recordings for music the difference between lossless vs lossy is pretty clear once you know what to listen for and once you get a decent audio setup to replay that. Objectively lossless audio is better than lossy, there’s no arguing that, if it’s actually noticeably audible to the person listening really depends on the listener, music, and gear at hand, but really I think you’ll find the majority of people in this hobby (or at least enough to be statistically significant) to agree lossless generally is noticeably better most of the time, and to claim that all to boil down to placebo is lazy and questionable justification for an opinion
My take on this is to just go with lossless if possible, doesn’t have to be high res or whatever other format, just regular redbook lossless, but in the end the quality of the recording and mastering is going to be more important, so if there’s a subpar master in lossless vs a higher quality master in lossy, I wouldn’t be surprised if some will prefer the lossy simply due to the better master. But otherwise, if it’s the same recording and mastering, just go lossless if possible. Even if you feel you can’t discern the difference now, there’s a good chance you will later with more experience, and regardless it’s also now something you don’t have to think about so piece of mind if you don’t really care how it sounds in the end
Just use whatever you, the listener, think sounds better, since that’s really what matters in the end
It’s because my point was to share my experience, but sure I’ll share those info as well.
The Pinnacle of Chesky Voice
There are 2 other albums, but I have to go through my library to find it.
Totally agree with this. And for me, the more I force myself to hear the difference of something, the more similar they sound, weirdly enough. So, just enjoy your music and eventually you’ll understand what it is that everyone’s hearing.
Because you’ll end up biasing yourself more that way than just simply listening to it normally lol. I think the easiest way to make a meaningful test is to just introduce lossless and lossy versions of a recording into a playlist tagged the same so you can’t tell which is which (this really only works if you listen to locally stored music), and listen over a period of the week, you’ll eventually come to realize the difference without even trying to figure out which is which if you are at least listening actively. Since that’s really what matters in the end, who really cares if differences either do or don’t manifest themselves in short quick testing, you don’t listen to music like that, so it’s more important to focus on the differences that show themselves with real world listening since that’s what actually matters
I make abx tests on qobuz changing the sound quality and cant notice which is that.
Qobuz doesnt have discounts.
Spotify hifi is closed right now
I agree.
I have a short experience with Tidal, but I have the feeling that what they have on Master quality are already very good productions. They sound great, but when I go to Spotify they also sound great there.
I still don’t know if there’s a sound quality difference or not, and that’s why I will keep Spotify. Because I already have found that Tidal lacks a lot of electronic music…
For me, I went from Apple Music, which seemed hard to stream anything above “basic” lossless, whatever it means, to Tidal… I also thought I heard more “richness” in Tidal. Had a HipDac, honestly couldn’t tell any difference going between Mqa and Apple. It just made me spend more money in the end. I’ve settled on Deezer for the time being, but only from my old android, I do feel that it does put out better quality than my IPhone.
I’m busy just trying to build up a nice library of good quality music that I like, and going from there, playing with different amps and what not