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Leaving Roon, Qobuz and Tidal

Snoopy

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No - I never found a way to do this . It allegedly picks the "best" version and therefore if the Tidal version (after MQA unfold ) is higher spec, its chooses that. I also think it defaults to Tidal if the files are "equal" - Tidal seems to have deeper integration.

I would guess the Qobuz file in your example was 24 bit 44.1 therefore technically Hi-Res but it picked the Tidal 24/44.1 but Im guessing at this point.

It was "harvest" by Neil young. Tidal is 44.1khz 16 bit and qobuz 192khz 24 bit.

And roon decided to play the tidal version.
 
OP
Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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It was "harvest" by Neil young. Tidal is 44.1khz 16 bit and qobuz 192khz 24 bit.

And roon decided to play the tidal version.
Huh. No idea then. As a side note Neil must have kissed and made up with tidal. Wonder if that was before he de - spotified.
 

G-rig

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Have been using Tidal as it just works well with my setups (including volumio 3). Have never looked into Deezer much, but wouldn't mind giving it a go. From all reports they have zero interest with helping to develop a volumio plugin so will give that a miss.

Seems like QoBuz is a bit more switched on with preventing use from other countries, wondering has anyone had any luck? It looks like the method here doesn't work anymore, but may get the trial again anyway to test out the noticeable SQ again vs Tidal Masters (as there's so much hate for MQA hehe). The CD quality albums without the master tag should still be 16 Bit 44.1kHz FLAC files, but people are saying where only one (Masters) version of the album exists then the hi-fi version is an MQA 16 bit file (whether your settings are on hi-fi or only pay for a hi-fi sub).

https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/lzf2t4
 

JanesJr1

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You’ve taken part in some of my tribulations Jimbob, distilled I’m giving up on streaming simply because it’s not actually the best audio available despite the marketing. Compressio, conversion, folding, unfolding, transport etc all have a noticeable effect on the actual reproduction. Streaming doesn’t actually sound better than CD in many cases (partially due to many albums being mastered for cd) and the best that you can get is the .wav from the likes of Bandcamp as those are often the direct files from the desk uncompressed (this has been confirmed to me by a couple of friends of mine in rather well known bands).

as for EQ/DSP I tend to avoid that stuff. That goes against the entire point of music reproduction in my opinion.

now there are those that’ll claim I’m wrong, but most of those folk are listening to kit on MidFi systems if that’s what makes them happy that’s cool, but if you’re looking for HiFi reproduction then it’s CD/SACD or WAV or signal degradation.
The quality of streaming, compared to CD, must depend on what you listen to. My experience is that most streaming selections sound as good or better than CD. Some re-masters are very good and some are fantastic. But although my listening is eclectic, at least half of it is classical and a majority is year 2000 or previous. Many selections (all genres) are also significantly better than LP version for non-audiophile labels.
 
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G-rig

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People get a bit carried away and obsess over all this instead of enjoying the music. As long as you're listening to CD quality or better it should be fine. Quickly makes you realise how bad mp3's and lossless quality streaming is - youtube music is awful, and have never being a spotify user their SQ isn't meant to be flash either compared to Tidal.

I'm starting to wonder now if there is a tagged Master copy and a hi-fi copy of the same album, is it better to listen to the hi-fi version (hoping it's a FLAC 16 bit 44.1 version? One of my DACs has MQA and one doesn't, but with all the hate towards MQA I assume this is what people are doing - opting for the CD quality version. Better off just listening to both and deciding for yourself. Master versions of some things give you a lot of extra stuff you'd never hear I think, but could be more to do with deluxe editions etc. I actually enjoy some of the Masters / different versions.. 88200 Hz should be enough.

You kind of need an on-the-fly analyser to know what you're getting.
 
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