Archimago's Musings: Do CD and lossless streaming sound the same?

[Mark1]

I just ran across this blog https://archimago.blogspot.com/2025/02/do-cd-and-lossless-streaming-sound-same.html. The blog installment is discussing the title question but goes into several related topics and is pretty interesting. It agrees with a lot of things stated here about analog and digital's superiority, streaming, mastering, DACs all being mostly transparent etc. . It mentions that CDs are experiencing somewhat of a revival. Another thing it talks about is packet loss with streaming and that it is not really an issue for streaming audio because of TCP correction but is an issue with Bluetooth. It also discusses why do audiophiles make everything overly complicated.

 

[Rednaxela]

That was a great read, thanks.

 

[hashhar]

That blog is a very good long running blog, quite technical and very very experimental (i.e. tries things out, confirms why things behave the way they do etc.).

I'll highly recommend reading one article a week from there from his back catalog too - lots of gems there.

 

[Mark1]

That blog is a very good long running blog, quite technical and very very experimental (i.e. tries things out, confirms why things behave the way they do etc.).

I'll highly recommend reading one article a week from there from his back catalog too - lots of gems there.

Yeah that's what it seemed like to me when i ran across it. It seems to agree with info on this site and could be a good secondary source to review topics in a one concise blog.

 

[Heatransfer]

That blog is a very good long running blog, quite technical and very very experimental (i.e. tries things out, confirms why things behave the way they do etc.).

I'll highly recommend reading one article a week from there from his back catalog too - lots of gems there.

Agreed.

His recent post about ferrofluid replacement in an older speaker is excellent reading for those who may be using speakers that are getting older... Best of all, the before and after replacement are supported by measurements.

DIY: Tweeter Ferrofluid Change - with pre- and post- frequency & distortion changes. And on-line amiability among hobbyists.

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

 

[boxerfan88]

nice article!


And I'm kinda guilty of this

6. Endless Tinkering – Some just enjoy the process of swapping components, tweaking EQs, and experimenting, even if it’s not necessary for great sound.

 

[JSmith]

I did like this part at the end;

Be careful with UFO believers, paranormal advocates, voodoo quasi-religious ideas, and just plain "magic" in audio playback; in other words, the plethora of snake oil for sale. Among the masses of opinions and information on the Internet (especially on YouTube and social media), I wish you wisdom and discernment to find truth. Or at least the self-discipline to avoid getting sucked into hours and hours of potential misinformation by running your own listening tests, controlled and blinded as best you can!

Oh and this was gold;

BTW: some individuals like Hans Beekhuyzen still put out videos trying to impress his viewers about the complexity of digital audio playback, highlighting things like "jitter". It's not Y2K anymore Hans, modern devices in the last decade have all but eliminated issues like jitter (which was never significantly audible except maybe in the worst devices).
No reason to believe Beekhuyzen knows what he's talking about nor does he have the hearing ability to be credible for multiple reasons.

JSmith

 

[Brian Hall]

Streaming is like using a longer cable to your CD player. Bits are bits. Both are sending the same bits to your dac.

 

[Mark1]

Streaming is like using a longer cable to your CD player. Bits are bits. Both are sending the same bits to your dac.

Yeah that's something the blog mentioned too. That music streaming sources use TCP error correction and buffering so there is no loss of data.

 

[Barry_Sound]

Streaming is like using a longer cable to your CD player. Bits are bits. Both are sending the same bits to your dac.

Except, you have no idea what CD is actually playing. I have multiple copies of albums I like from first issues to remasters to re-remasters and SACD where the standard CD track is downsampled from the high res track.

 

[pma]

Streaming is like using a longer cable to your CD player. Bits are bits. Both are sending the same bits to your dac.

Except, you have no idea what streaming services did with the original data releases.

 

[Talisman]

Except, you have no idea what streaming services did with the original data releases.

This is not an issue about streaming technology versus CD technology