Ripped vs Streaming music
joecoulson
Posts: 4,943
Having almost completed my very small library of CD music, I have been doing comparisons between Tidal, Qobuz (of which I have written about already) and the FLAC files I have created from EZ CD converter.
For my setup, it seems that my 44.1 files (of which the G1 Upsamples to 32 bit) outperform even MQA files from Tidal. The FLAC files I have coming from my network drive, are on par with the hi res files from Qobuz, if not beating those depending on the song.
This was curious to me because some companies advertise that streaming offers the same or better quality than CD’s and I have found this not to be the case.
Anyone else have similar or opposite results, please share.
For my setup, it seems that my 44.1 files (of which the G1 Upsamples to 32 bit) outperform even MQA files from Tidal. The FLAC files I have coming from my network drive, are on par with the hi res files from Qobuz, if not beating those depending on the song.
This was curious to me because some companies advertise that streaming offers the same or better quality than CD’s and I have found this not to be the case.
Anyone else have similar or opposite results, please share.
Comments
-
Curious to see what others say. I've heard mixed reviews both ways. Some saying streaming is just as good, some firmly believe CDs are still king, some say files only.
I haven't done enough comparisons to have a strong opinion, but it sounds like you're ears are telling you which way you should go.Analog: MoFi MasterTracker > MoFi UltraDeck > Sutherland 20/20
Digital: Cambridge CXC / Streaming > Cambridge CXN v2
MastersounD Dueventi > Rosso Fiorentino Certaldo or Arcam rHead > Hifiman HE4XX
Discogs -
I've been messing around in this game for a very long time. I feel like all streaming music is compressed in some shape or form . Even places like Tital don't hold up to a ripped CD or Flac High Rez file. I did many compassions when I was digging around in the DAC world and found the I'm not a huge fan of streaming other then to find new music. Streaming to date has not impressed me enough to sign up for a higher end service like qobuz. I did many A-B listening and always preferred my files over the streaming ones.
Back to back you can tell the difference but if you don't have the file qobuz sounds pretty good.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
When you do find the formula that works best for your ears it is an amazing thing. For those that don't have the time and resources I guess streaming would be the way to go. I'm just a spoiled High Rez Snob and no looking back for me. 😂🎩"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
***************************** -
I have difficulty discerning a difference between my CDs and my FLAC files ripped from the CDs (I use DB Power amp for ripping). Both sound better to me than Tidal. When it comes to high-res, the physical media (SACD & DVD-Audio) have a substantial edge over high-res files."Conservative Libertarians love the country, progressive leftists love the government." - Andrew Wilkow
“Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -
I might agree with all that. To the average non-audiophile, the differences won't be noticed. Heck, many still claim they can't hear a difference between MP3 files and CD's.
Physical media still has a slight edge over streamed, but that gap is getting closer and closer every year. My ripped files sound better than streamed, not by much, but it's there. On the other hand, I don't have 35-40 million songs ripped that I can stream, like a music service provides.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
I prefer the sound of spinning CDs to my ripped Flac streamed over DLNA/JRiver. But it’s close and the streaming is much more convenient. I’ve tried Tidal lossless and felt it was just slightly less than on my toe tapping scale. However I still think the original analog vinyl records (not the new digitally recorded and pressed vinyl crap) trumps them all.Oh, Listen here mister. We got no way of understandin' this world. But we got as much sense of this bird flyin in the sky. Now there is a lot that bird don't know, but it don't change the fact that the world is happening to him all the same. What I am tryin to say is, is that the course of your life, well its changing, and you don't even see it- Forest Bondurant
-
2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2
-
Granted, I haven't fully researched the intricacies of the actual process for ripping a disc, but it seems like there's a ton of different hardware and software variables to this process.
One that comes to mind is vibration. Most audiophiles try to mitigate extraneous vibrations from their megabuck systems, but when a CD is being ripped it's likely doing so at anywhere from 8-30x speeds. This causes an unusually high amount of noise and vibration as a result, as most under $100 computer drives that people use aren't exactly fully damped.
So, how does this vibration that's generated during the ripping process affect the end result? Would a dedicated CD ripper (Cocktail Audio, Blue Sound, etc) address this and therefore result in a more "pristine" or accurate rip? -
Granted, I haven't fully researched the intricacies of the actual process for ripping a disc, but it seems like there's a ton of different hardware and software variables to this process.
One that comes to mind is vibration. Most audiophiles try to mitigate extraneous vibrations from their megabuck systems, but when a CD is being ripped it's likely doing so at anywhere from 8-30x speeds. This causes an unusually high amount of noise and vibration as a result, as most under $100 computer drives that people use aren't exactly fully damped.
So, how does this vibration that's generated during the ripping process affect the end result? Would a dedicated CD ripper (Cocktail Audio, Blue Sound, etc) address this and therefore result in a more "pristine" or accurate rip?
Watch the video 😂😂"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
***************************** -
I tried to Johnny but he started playing lame music and I had to stop. What part does he discuss the actual ripping process?
-
I tried to Johnny but he started playing lame music and I had to stop. What part does he discuss the actual ripping process?
I don't know Drew and could care less. I've been at the game of ripping so long and hard with just about every variation of devices possible to come to the position of what works for me ..really works for me and results are very pleasing. I'll.admit the first 10k albums I ripped (which are floating around out there) were all at lower bit rates so redoing that portion sure slowed me down..and now I'm bumping all the serious jams up to crazy rates as my Vega G2 loves it and so do my ears.
Just build around it and they will come. 😄🎩🎩"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
***************************** -
A few weeks ago I was looking for info on the old Boston Acoustics M350 speakers that I've been after for a bit and ran across this interview with Marantz great, Ken Ishiwata.
http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/ken-ishiwata-man-and-his-listening-room
He shares some tips that are more know today but I wish there were more.Ken is naturally up to speed on computer audio and mentioned a couple of tricks that I intend to try, one of which was that defragging the hard drive on which you store your music is highly beneficial. He says that there is some Japanese software that’s great and will hopefully supply more detail in the near future. He also recommends setting up the PC to buffer music stored on an attached drive, especially if the PC has an SSD drive. He demonstrated the effectiveness of this set up with a mix of classic and lesser known tracks, of which that old hi-fi favourite Cantate Domino (SACD, Proprius) was among the most remarkable. The sense of a choir in the room was palpable, the imaging quite extraordinary especially given that I was sitting off centre. Ken sets up the Bostons so that their axes cross in front of the listener, which is a known technique for producing a wide sweet spot, but usually room reflections undermine its effectiveness. In this room you could close your eyes and hear all the voices spread across the soundstage.
An interesting point was made regarding modern DAC chips, Ken pointed out that all of them are delta-sigma or one bit devices, in other words PCM with its 16 or 24 bit depth is always converted to one bit. This does not happen with ladder DACs, which is one reason why they sound so good, but makes a good case for using DSD which is already one bit. The Marantz player/DAC can run at up to DSD128 or 24/192 but KI is of the opinion that CD rips are not far behind high resolution formats and played a number of them to make his point. He also mentioned that 24-bits gives you over 140dB of dynamic range, something that no amplifier and speaker combination is able to turn into real world sound. Ken’s enthusiasm for DSD has lead to him archiving his vinyl to that format using a Korg recorder.
I want those speakers!
2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2 -
[url="https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/187096/qobuz-vs-tidal[/url]
"In the numerous tracks that I listened to I unanimously preferred Qobuz over Tidal for sound quality. I also thought my ripped recordings sounded better (most of the times) than both streaming options. If I ranked the options, ripped CD/SACD ≥ Qobuz > Tidal. I never selected Tidal as the best version."_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Ethernet Filter: GigaFOILv4 with Keces P3 LPS
Source: Roon via ethernet to DAC interface
DAC: Bricasti M1SE
Pre/Pro: Marantz AV8805
Tube Preamp Buffer: Tortuga TPB.V1
Amp1: Nord One NC1200DM Signature, Amp2: W4S MC-5, AMP3: W4S MMC-7
Front: Salk SoundScape 8's, Center: Salk SoundScape C7
Surround: Polk FXIA6, Surround Back: Polk RTIA9, Atmos: Polk 70-RT
Subs: 2 - Rythmik F25's
IC & Speaker Cables: Acoustic Zen, Wireworld, Signal Cable
Power Cables: Acoustic Zen, Wireworld, PS Audio
Room Treatments: GIK Acoustics -
I quickly skimmed the posts and don't think this was mentioned. I've been buying a lot of CDs lately to rip. And most older albums have multiple versions released over the years with differing sound quality. Here is my question, when you guys are comparing a CD to streaming, how do you know you are comparing that same album version? Does the streaming services give the information regarding that?
-
Here is my question, when you guys are comparing a CD to streaming, how do you know you are comparing that same album version? Does the streaming services give the information regarding that?
Yes, at least tidal does...Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
Game Room 5.1.4: Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
Bedroom 2.1 Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
I have come to a solid conclusion that the ripped FLACs are much better than the Tidal files from the same source/DAC - at least on my setup. I have had some time with this Vega now and definitely has me wanting to gather all the CDs I can to rip.
Thanks to @Clipdat for the trades! -
I rip all my music. One of these years I might try streaming, but I now have more music than I can listen to.Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits. -
I rip all my music, but I now have more music than I can listen to.
I know the feeling. And @joecoulson ..yes you are correct. Kinda why I keep Tophat Radio spinning non stop here!😂😂😂🎩
"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
*****************************
https://youtu.be/TIX-EQn3BYg
