We speak of CD-quality when these files are encoded in 16 bits / 44.1 kHz.Ģ4 bits / 96 kHz files are called Lossless or HiFi. These guarantee a truly HiFi sound quality, emphasizing the fidelity and clarity of the songs. Thankfully, the development of lossless audio compression techniques makes it possible to encode high-fidelity audio files: AAC, MQA, or FLAC. However, much musical data is wasted due to significant compression, so while listening to MP3 encoded music, you may lack detail and subtlety, especially in the midrange and treble. MP3 is one of the most famous music formats, which showed up in the early 2000s. Do you want to learn more about each of these options? Which HiFi music service should you use? Read further to dig deeper into all possibilities. For example, Deezer Hi-Fi, Qobuz, TIDAL, Apple Music, or Amazon Music offer lossless streaming, providing access to an extensive catalog of high-definition music. Today, users can choose from a wide range of outstanding audio quality services. but FWIW I do think Tidal's 320 kbps AAC "high quality" setting sounds better than any other lossy service/format, to my ears at least, that I've come across.HiFi streaming services have become a new trend among true music lovers. And I mostly avoid lossy over lossless, as by and large most every lossy format-and-bitrate combination I've personally tried ends up leaving me wanting. The gap in library size between it and Qobuz seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the month, but having Tidal with Qobuz, within Roon, still does afford some "discovery" opportunities only made possible because of Tidal. That and I just don't really like MQA, as a personal preference.īut Tidal has a giant library of lossless FLAC, which I like. Yuja Wang's Sonata's and Etude's is my go-to for finding it, FWIW. For one thing, every once in a while I have been able to identify the "watermark" on Tidal stuff that people talk about. I do think it has some very small-but-real sound quality benefits over Tidal. I add-and-subtract Tidal, month-to-month, as I see fit (mostly when I'm at home a lot, like during Quarantine, over the Christmas holiday season, or the Summer months, when I"m on my home network and have a lot of access to my Roon server). I subscribe to Qobuz on an annual subscription (the Sublime+ tier because I also like to purchase music). I would love to know if any of you have experienced similar variances between the streaming giants. And I think, based on this, I will be cancelling my Tidal subscription. Unfortunately the song is not available as MQA, so it was the battle of the FLACs. I repeated this test over and over, and Deezer HiFi was the winner every time. Tidal HiFi was close, but it sounded almost too clean for my ears - less natural. And to my surprise, Deezer HiFi sounded the most natural and airy, and the most analogue. So then I switched to listening to the same FLAC song streamed via Tidal HiFi and Deezer HiFi. My conclusions: Spotify Premium’s MP3 sounded really good, but there is a noticeable difference one you listen to the same song on Tidal HiFi or Deezer HiFi. And I played it a multitude of times back and forth at the same volume to make sure I was hearing the right notes. The song was played via each streaming service’s desktop app on my Apple MacBook Pro. The gear I used to test was my Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 Ohm headphones driven through my iFi Zen Dac (which it the bigger cousin of the newly released iFi Hip Dac). There’s a particular shimmer to the cymbals in this great jazz piece, and was listening out to see which one sounded the most natural (or analogue), and which one provided the best imaging and soundstage. James Infirmary” by Allen Toussaint from the album “The Bright Mississippi”. I did the test with the same song across all 3 platforms - which was “St. While Spotify Premium only streams MP3s up to 320kbps, Deezer HiFi streams FLAC at 1,411Kbps, Tidal HiFi also streams FLAC at 1,411Kbps, and higher with their MQA library of music. So recently I decided to do a sound test between streaming audio services - I am subscribed to Spotify Premium, Tidal HiFi and Deezer HiFi.
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