![]() The upshot of this latest Sonos/Qobuz upgrade is that end users now have the option to stream roughly 2% of the Qobuz library in 24bit/44.1kHz or 24bit/48kHz it also means that around 98% of that same library will still stream in the same CD-quality that Qobuz subscribers using Sonos have enjoyed since 2019 when the streaming service walked away from lossy MP3 encoding. Qobuz is currently available in twelve countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.In yesterday’s post, I spoke of how CD quality streaming on Qobuz bested by a country mile the same on Tidal. How could that be true? How could the identical file sent by one service sound different than by another? Technically, they should be the same. One question that has long plagued me and others (thanks Kent!) is how streaming services get their original files. Are they simply handed over by the labels? I suspect not in many cases. Spotify founder Daniel Ek speaks volumes of how difficult his company’s beginnings were when not one label would give him the time of day. This suggests the entire Spotify library, at least at the time, was ripped independently from commercially available media. Working with mastering engineer Gus Skinas for so many years I have come to understand how rare good sounding digital masters are. Just the act of transferring the original files-analog or digital-to a CD master has an enormous impact on how they sound. I have had this demonstrated to me too many times to even question it for a moment. Is it any wonder one streaming service sounds remarkably different than another? And we can easily demonstrate the transfer of digital audio to a commercially viable medium varies sound quality. It would be interesting to know how each of the two services got the bulk of their libraries. I think what you’re trying to say is the Bits which result from the process of mastering a CD are not necessarily the same as the Bits which are delivered by TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify, etc. ![]() And, to the core of your original point, the Bits provided by TIDAL are not necessarily the same as the Bits provided by Qobuz. In principle, if you had the time and resources to put into it, you could compare the Bit Streams of nominally identical tracks played on TIDAL and Qobuz and establish whether they are in fact different, but having done so, it would be nearly impossible to determine, from that analysis, the mastering processes used to generate them. If I was of a mind to do so, I could download an album in 128kbps MP3 format and convert those files to DSD64. Even though they were now in the DSD64 format, they would still sound just like 128kpbs MP3 files. I might then attempt to sell those off on the open market. ![]() Apart from listening to the files and declaring “Hey! Those sound like crap” it would actually be remarkably hard to forensically establish the provenance of those files. Sure, they would be in the DSD64 format, but the Bits would not be the same as the Bits on a proper Studio Release on SACD. I think many people (and labels) are confused by this question. I’m putting together a series of articles on the subject because I think it’s important to understand… not all music retailers offer the same sonic experience. Also because I want to know who’s messing with the music. It’s not always what we send out.Īll music retailers who offer streaming build their own app.
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