Qobuz v Amazon UHD
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La Casta
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I make music independently, so I have the master files that distributed to Qobuz and Amazon.
Both streaming waveforms match the original perfectly.
However, this is just speculation, but I think that in some cases engineers may fine-tune the mastering for each platform.
I'm not good at English, so I reposted several times. I apologize to anyone who received an email with an incorrect post.
Both streaming waveforms match the original perfectly.
However, this is just speculation, but I think that in some cases engineers may fine-tune the mastering for each platform.
I'm not good at English, so I reposted several times. I apologize to anyone who received an email with an incorrect post.
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Staresyj
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Spot on. I started getting back into hifi by investing in an external DAC and recently purchased a headphone Amp and a 2nd DAC to have a separate headphone system for digital listening. Can hunting right now! One of the reasons for testing out AUHD was to compare on the headphones.
Brantome
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Any particular albums/ tracks where you feel the difference is clearly heard? Although my kit might be able to demonstrate that, not sure my ears would but I’d like to try 
I believe that every streaming platform applies a certain amount of engineering before streaming content.
If this were not the case and they transmitted the masters as they receive them, they should all sound the same.
Or not?
If this were not the case and they transmitted the masters as they receive them, they should all sound the same.
Or not?
Could be... But as exemple, Quadrophenia motion picture soundtrack, on qobuz has all track in CD quality and constant results, while Amazon goes from 192khz 24bit to 44.1 16bit, even for The Who's songs, without logic and with very different results for each song. Generally Am hires have wider (fake?) stereo image and sometimes seems played from the basement...
I'm sure other albums show this inexplicable variance on am, compared to qobuz. It's harder believe to rights possession than a variable and sloppy post-production from am... Wait! Maybe both causes superimpose...
Staresyj
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Haven’t got the cans yet! Arriving tomorrow. My headphone rig will be, Wiim Pro to Modi 3e to Heretic to Hifiman HE400 SE’s. Will post findings in the days and weeks to come.Any particular albums/ tracks where you feel the difference is clearly heard? Although my kit might be able to demonstrate that, not sure my ears would but I’d like to try
Try Eva Cassidy, Patricia Barber, and Roberta Flak as a start.Any particular albums/ tracks where you feel the difference is clearly heard? Although my kit might be able to demonstrate that, not sure my ears would but I’d like to try
As far I heard, new average productions generally give same results on different services.
I found (variable) difference, among AM vs rest of the world, on old, digitized and upsampled material.
I believe AM pushes more on some post production filters, when it digitize something...
La Casta
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I have verified again with the latest firmware.
I streamed my own work on Amazon & Qobuz, and then compared waveforms captured via COAX with the original masters.
I inverted the phase of one and mixed. In both cases, there was complete silence. This means that waveforms match exactly.
I have to conclude that both Amazon and Qobuz are streaming in a completely bit-perfect (excluding the issue of the first 0.0x seconds, which has already been pointed out in another thread).
By the way, it is unlikely for a platform to modify data without the consent of the rights holder, as it action has the potential to violate the master rights. I think.
I streamed my own work on Amazon & Qobuz, and then compared waveforms captured via COAX with the original masters.
I inverted the phase of one and mixed. In both cases, there was complete silence. This means that waveforms match exactly.
I have to conclude that both Amazon and Qobuz are streaming in a completely bit-perfect (excluding the issue of the first 0.0x seconds, which has already been pointed out in another thread).
By the way, it is unlikely for a platform to modify data without the consent of the rights holder, as it action has the potential to violate the master rights. I think.
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Thanks, this is great insight. Even tough the master file might not be modified itself, there could be slight changes applied by the streaming app. If I turn on normalization of volume in tidal app, it Sounds noticeable different (worse).
You told me one of several things I wanted to know. Thank you.
you can easily hear differences from AM and Qobuz, in "Quadrophenia motion picture soundtrack" or in all Ramones production for example, or generally with famous old tunes.
Maybe there are different agreements for old analogue productions.
As i wrote before, i did not hear different sound character on recent productions.
Can you provide the exact title example? Possible that there are different editions available on AM an Qobuz.
i just stopped AM subscription so i can't exactly verify. If i'm not wrong, was a song from third to seventh position on Quadrophenia, where, besides a wider stereo image, that song was particularly bad on AM. As far for Ramones, as example, any song on their first album was "wider" in some way on AM and in both services there were no specific notes about edition.
Anyway, what i was meaning for, is that sometimes, services slightly differ, not in every case...
A spectrogram difference for Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones, 96/24 left channel, taken from AM and Qobuz:
Just a very short fade difference.
on AM was 192KHz on Qobuz 96KHz. The difference was on stereo image, did you ear the songs in instant switching? Looking a graph, can be hard to catch that difference.
Obviously, I could be wrong or the dac reacted differently to 192 and 96, who knows?
Nevertheless, the reason i resigned AM, is the app, since those "phantom" differences they didn't say one was necessarily wrong...
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I can capture and compare the right channel as well but I doubt I would find a different behavior when left channel is the same.
Of course it's a different story when source resolutions differ, I didn't even take it into consideration.