Hearing difference in Audio Quality

[jpaul]

But last few years, I struggle to hear improvement between normal and hifi tidal.

The quality of the source comes into play, not sure tidal have so much money so the recording being streamed maybe the cheapest remastered compressed version of the track from the distributor (excepting some of the 96Khz masters)

(it's a pretty brutally limited master to begin with)

yes .... potentially rubbish masters as he says.


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[Mr_Sukebe]

Things that do make a difference.

Buying good separates (even second hand from the bay will do)
Good speakers (ok you need these)
Good source (something that's at least not garbage)
Speaker positioning (move your speakers)
Speaker cables (pure copper of a good thinkness, the German DCSK cable is good)
Good interconnects (Maplins RCA cables are neutral and high quality)
Mains filters (the cheap £40 Tacima's do make a difference)
Isolating speakers from floor (2p coins stacked on top of each other to start with)
Checking bolts are tight that hold speakers in place (Even Yamaha speakers ship with loose speakers bolts, cost of an Alan key)

Blind tests have shown the difference between 320kbps and lossloss under any conditions is almost impossible to tell. However those things I listed above are easy to make an improvement, combine them together and you can make a dramatic difference to your audio listening quality.

What about the amplifier?

 

[JasonM]

What about the amplifier?

Fall's under good separates.

 

[jpaul]

I assumed it was a joke based on post #29 ?

 

[jpaul]

TIDAL have some subscription offers 3/6 months trial for hifi/premium look on hotuk ... went for hifi myself

 

[jpaul]

Is anyone using the TIDAL desktop/windows app ?
With the latest 2.2.3.0 version (auto-updated), it will not log me in, and crashes after providing password, previous one 2.1.23.0 is fine,
so I am currently regularly deleting update.exe from install directory to try and prevent auto-update working. (have sent them an email no reply & google did not help me)
.. otherwise the tidal mp3 offering is great .. did not stump up for full hifi,one.

Moreover, what is best bargain for a lossless service now, as, during free trial the tidal one had definitely sounded better on home hifi ?