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Didital Things
Topic: Not a bad thing but still an obstacle course

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 11-04-2014
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A quick look at the Dally Audiophile web site suggest that anybody mention the new Tidal’s Music Streaming Service. That is a new 16/44.1 Streaming Service that the call "High Fidelity streaming service" by subscription only.  There is nothing wrong with it but for whatever reason I am very skeptical. The question is: where those people will be getting the material. The claim 20K recordings including the catalogs of some major labels. So, do you think that DG, EMI, Sony and the rest of then give to them access to their 44K muster dubs. Not to mention that they mostly recorded in 48X and any 44X dubs would be garbage to begin with? A am sure it is not the case and the honorable Tidal people just ripped a pile of CDs, in best cases, witch defeats all purpose.  I said in "best cases" because I know that behind the curtain of those companies are industry people and for them to cheat, deceive and to lie is a second nature. Since there is no regulated digital hygiene control in audio industry and the stupid audio consumers have no listening integrity and will buy anything I can give you an absolute assurance that is a few week somebody will discover that "High Fidelity streaming service" source MP3 files or does own  DSP application to hide the source. So, I am subscribe the new as skeptic and feel that it is not necessary service.

Posted by xandcg on 02-27-2015
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Romy,

I don't understand all hype around the Tidal service, like a saint graal or something, since it's not new at all (high resolution audio streaming). There are Qobuz (also a store) doing that for a few years. Most of the titles from them seems to be reliable but when Zaz launched the 'Recto Verso' album they sell a 24/192 (or 24/88-96, can't remember now) version which was nothing more than the 44/16 after some machinery. But to be fair they removed that one a week later. I know that fact just because I know one person who bought and had a look on the file in a DAW.

http://www.qobuz.com

Cheers.

Posted by steverino on 03-01-2015
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I think conceptually it would be great if everything were streamed even at CD levels. For 90% or more of listeners that would be an improvement. Given the wide scale manipulations in the remasterings being done by the iphone listening staff at the remaining labels, it is quite possible that a needledrop from an existing record might be a better listening experience though. At least the record has mastering constraints that are waved off in digital land.

At best CD level or higher streaming may make a difference if it is sent to a reasonable quality server but how typical is that? Most people listen most of the time on their mobile and that may include the people with the decent music servers. It seems like a valid niche market but that begs the question as to how all these streamers stay in business? Given the financial problems already evident in some of them I guess the question is being answered.

It does seem as if we are in a situation somewhat like the old quad sound where the equipment has capabilities that most users ignore. Almost all DACs , players and servers can play higher res files of some kind. Even DVD players can do that. Yet a tiny percentage use the feature or are even aware of it. It seems that folks in pop music at least who are interested in a non digital file sound are mainly gravitating back to the LP rather than rushing to the latest digital incarnation. If the streamers are dependent on classical and jazz then they might as well fold up now.

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