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TIDAL is NOT Worth it! Listening Test

pkane

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Recording is trigered when the level reaches -50.

Both are set into 16/48.

I can try with a longer one, but if I can listen to it, it is that different on all the track.

Post the matched spectrum comparison plot from DeltaWave. There is a small clock drift but DW corrects for that.
 

Soniclife

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Both are set into 16/48.
I'd try 16/44 throughout, I had problems getting a deep null before I did that. It's also possible one of the players resamples to match the sound card setting as it knows Windows is crap at it.
 

mvil

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Post the matched spectrum comparison plot from DeltaWave. There is a small clock drift but DW corrects for that.

matched.png
deltaspec.jpg
 

mvil

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I'd try 16/44 throughout, I had problems getting a deep null before I did that. It's also possible one of the players resamples to match the sound card setting as it knows Windows is crap at it.

Exactly the same.

Plus if i just put a picture of the spectrogram (recorded at 44.1) for the area that really sounded differently and made me start all of this study

Tidal on yellow, spotify on green

comparisospec.png


Just look how much stronger is the 10k-15k range (both files have the same level)
 

Soniclife

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Exactly the same.

Plus if i just put a picture of the spectrogram (recorded at 44.1) for the area that really sounded differently and made me start all of this study

Tidal on yellow, spotify on green

View attachment 35408

Just look how much stronger is the 10k-15k range (both files have the same level)
So the rest of the track is closer?
How do other tracks compare?
 

gustavjung

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Hey guys,

What is the best way to rip output of different streaming services like Tidal/Spotify/Deezer/Amazon?

It's just for AB testing. Will recording of system audio in Audacity work for this?
A long time ago I did a comparison but a volume match was done only by ear. Now I want to repeat the test in a foobar ABX comparator and match volume levels by a multi-meter.
 

folzag

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Hey guys,

What is the best way to rip output of different streaming services like Tidal/Spotify/Deezer/Amazon?

It's just for AB testing. Will recording of system audio in Audacity work for this?
A long time ago I did a comparison but a volume match was done only by ear. Now I want to repeat the test in a foobar ABX comparator and match volume levels by a multi-meter.

RE: Volume match. Both Amazon and Tidal have albums with test tones in their library.
 

gustavjung

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@folzag thanks, I thought about it as well.
Could you confirm please that if I record streaming audio with Audacity as a system audio there won't be any difference in sound compared to a case if I extract the source tracks from streaming services from urls/downloaders etc?
 

folzag

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@folzag thanks, I thought about it as well.
Could you confirm please that if I record streaming audio with Audacity as a system audio there won't be any difference in sound compared to a case if I extract the source tracks from streaming services from urls/downloaders etc?

Sorry, not an expert on that half of things.

I can say from engineering first principles that if your ADC is of equal or higher precision than your DAC, and your DAC is of equal or higher precision than your program stream, you would be able to capture any differences between program streams.
 
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