Web Rip vs CD Rip

[cjf]

Breaking out my shovel to dig this back up based on my own recent experience.

 

I've just started a Trial of Qobuzz and this is my 2nd time trying streaming after a long hiatus with first trying Tidal. Anyway, I agree 100%, so far, with the original poster.

 

I'm not even finding it subtle the difference in SQ between full CD Rip of Redbook quality Albums vs what looks to be the same version of the albums I've tried so far found on QoBuzz. The whole soundstage is shrunk, the level of output in terms of volume is reduced and the bass is flabby and not accurate sounding at all.

 

Its not likely anything to do with my Internet connection, its speed nor other network equipment involved. Basically the outcome is the same as my previous attempt to dip my toe into the streaming waters. For any serious listening its the wrong tool for the job IMO and IME thus far but for discovery purposes its perfectly great and I have no complaints in that regard. I've certainly wasted more money on a given day on dumb stuff than it cost to discover music you don't currently own yet but were always curious about trying.

 

So in summary I think it certainly sounds better than any .mp3 version of a given album but not at the same level as a local CD rip or even a straight up download of an album from the same company. Something is being lost in translation from point A to B. Honestly it sounds very close to what I hear when comparing wireless to wired ETH connections while playing music.

[cjf]

Thanks for the kind words Chris and likewise to your setup as well.

 

Just to add two specific examples. A few months back I purchased/downloaded Tool's new album Fear Inoculum in 24/96 .wav format from QoBuzz. IMO this album is the best one the band has made in terms of musical content and SQ and I've come to know it very well since that time (probably have heard it upwards of 20 times now). Just for giggles I cued up Track #2 "Pneuma" from my Local copy version and then I also cued up the same song at the same Bit/Sample Rate directly from the QoBuzz streaming catalog (all via Roon) and had them both in my playback queue in Roon.

 

I then proceeded to conduct a caveman version of a blind test against the two songs. With the songs in the queue I repeatedly tapped the Shuffle button at least 10 or so times so that I didn't know which one was playing. After the song played twice I proceeded to tap the Shuffle button again 10 or so more times to mix it up again. Long story short, I listened to the song 4 times back to back. After each pair of playback sessions I picked which version I preferred. In short, I picked the Local downloaded version both times correctly as sounding noticeably better. Not the most scientific test but close enough for my purposes.

 

The same test was performed again using another Album/Track I know very well that I own the download of which is Led Zeppelin II (Track #1 Whole Lotta Love) in 24/96 .wav. During this test the Local copy was picked again both times as the preferred version in the same blind fashion over the streamed version.

 

To be clear, I am in no way blaming QoBuzz for their services but simply saying that I feel there is something about the streamed version of the songs that is quite different sounding than the Local downloaded version. I may still choose to purchase a monthly subscription from QoBuzz despite this finding because I do find it nice to be able to listen to pretty much anything at any time I wish even if its just for background music while doing other things around the house.

 

One thing that would be interesting to try (if it were an option while using Roon as the host system to connect to QoBuzz) would be to pull the tracks down in "Offline Mode" to listen to instead of streaming them from the Cloud directly. I know this option exists for the QoBuzz App but I didn't see it as an option within Roon. I may have just missed it though. In theory listening to the albums in offline mode should eliminate the differences heard in SQ I would think but who knows.

 

 

[cjf]

2 hours ago, firedog said:

The streaming, download, and physical  versions are not necessarily the same - even when they seem to be. The hi-res ripped and downloaded version of the White Album remix don't sound the same, even though ostenibly they are both `'the 24/96 version". Apparently slightly different masterings. Streamed version sounds like the downoad, not the rip. 

In the Tool album example I gave there is only one version available on QoBuzz. I suppose its possible the stream could be a different version but not sure why they would bother having a different version for download vs streamed in that case.

 

The playback buffering scheme is probably different though when pointing to a Local download on your NAS vs the same songs coming from the Cloud which could be one factor at play.

 

There are ways to capture and analyze both versions using other software which I wont explain how to accomplish here other than to say that both spectrum plots could be exported to a .txt file and compared using Excel. I'll let those interested in that more scientific analysis find out how to do so on there own.