Are we, as a breed of 'Audiophiles' dying out?

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Currently playing an album on Tidal that is 24bit, 192Khz - and there is no other way to listen to it at that quality.
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The use of 'quality' here is a bit of a misnomer since the 'quality' would be identical if it were on CD. That is, for anyone unable to hear frequencies above 22Khz.

Only a handful of all recordings ever made have a dynamic range higher than 16 bits and you'd need a very quiet environment and a speaker system capable of very high SPL at very low distortion in order to reap the benefit, such as it is.

I certainly would not be paying extra for that benefit. What actually matters for quality is the mastering and that is where streaming has issues.

Over the last ten years I've become more and more convinced of the importance of good mastering, and hence I check out the specific release version of an album that I want to play where this is an option.

Streaming usually only seems to offer one version of each album and sometimes it isn't clear which one. Of course, a CD may be poorly mastered or a CD and a stream may share the same mastering file, but at least with albums that have been around for years you can shop around for the best CD mastering available.

If this seems to take things too far, then I'd respond that it's just as relevant as how some folks are passionate about cable A v cable B and in fact everything else about us audiophiles. For example the 2011 Wish You Were Here is obviously better than the 2016/2025.

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Just picking up on the subject of streaming quality. The inference that sample/bit rate will reduce at the supplier's will is illogical in my opinion - Spotify have (finally) responded to subscriber pressure and moved to "lossless" (CD quality) - but Tidal and Qobuz both offer "hi-res" as one of their USP's - so I doubt they will ever go backwards - particularly now that very high speed broadband is available almost everywhere for a reasonable cost. For me, 15 years ago I was spending at least £150 a month on CDs and to a lesser extent vinyl - I spend £40 odd a month on a family Spotify subscription and Tidal - the latter being my preferred choice for "proper" listening. Currently playing an album on Tidal that is 24bit, 192Khz - and there is no other way to listen to it at that quality. I do still buy CDs for stuff I can't stream (then rip and stream them) and some vinyl - in both cases especially to support artists I am a big fan of, but overall I have saved a lot of money not buying CDs "unheard" and that only ever get one or two plays.

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My comments were made after a cursory research on the Web, including AI summary. Clearly it needs to updated, but even if the quality of reproduction has been improved, the actual source material used by the servers could be compressed. Even remastered CDs are compressed compared to earlier versions.

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Originally Posted by Macca

What actually matters for quality is the mastering and that is where streaming has issues.

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+ 1

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Originally Posted by Tim

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Streaming has no issues with mastering.

It just streams whatever has been mastered.

Either goodly, or badly.

Absolutely, I agree with you 100% Justin - I think you misinterpreted what I was agreeing to with Martin, it's what that source material is they are streaming and as you rightly say, that can be either good or bad.

The problem can be it's sometimes not what they claim it to be.

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Originally Posted by User211

Streaming has no issues with mastering.

It just streams whatever has been mastered.

Either goodly, or badly.

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I was referring to there sometimes being a lack of choice of masterings on streaming services. Sometimes there is only one and it's not the best one.

Yup, I understood what you meant Martin - I think Justin took it too literally.

Streaming services do seem to be improving, I'm using Qobuz at the moment having tried Tidal and Spotify for extended periods. I still prefer to stream my own ripped FLAC files from a music server though, it's also my music bought and paid for and not going to disappear.

I use streaming for discovery more than anything else.

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Originally Posted by Tim

I use streaming for discovery more than anything else.

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I use Youtube for that, it usually has what I'm wanting to check out.

Yeah, I think we may well be. The near obsessive need for our music to sound a certain way is I think dead and ready to be buried. Why may well be the next big question. I think that humanity has given up. I think that most people these days are stricken with apathy. I certainly hope I am wrong.