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A friend of mine recently acquired an Aurender A 10 , audio research LS 28 , audio research REF75SE and Harbeth SHL5 Plus loudspeakers . Cables are by Synergistic Research . He downloaded music from Spotify Premium via his I pad then through the Aurender A10 . My friends problem is the sound of his downloaded music is crap , specially when he plays commercially recorded music of pop stars . His wife is into Mariah Carey and it sounds crap in this expensive system . I told him to try to use a Cambridge CD player connected to an old audio research DAC 7 played through the ARC LS28 & REF 75SE . When playing Audiophile approved recordings the system sounds fantastic .
So how can he improve the sound of commercially downloaded music ?
Thanks in advance guys and stay safe
Follow Ups:
That makes sense to me, compressed music will sound like crap on any decent system. He'll have to upgrade from spotify to the highest tiers of Qobuz or Tidal or Amazon HD streaming services to get what he needs. There's a couple of places to buy lossless music but at this point it might make more sense for him to get that good streamer to start streaming lossless assuming that it can support such services and he has decent internet speed.
nt
I read an ipad and the Aurender conductor app is needed and you can get Tidal on the Aurender A10. Plug in ethernet wire from router to the Aurender A10 and control Tidal with the ipad and it plays on the A10. Recommend to sign up to highest Tidal tier.
There is no way to make the compressed files he has sound better with such a good system. Good luck.
When you order music downloads from a streaming service, you really don't know what you're getting......
It's not like ordering a CD, which you have control over which release you want...... There is no such knowledge of "pressing" with streaming.......
I haven't heard a streaming source that I thought came close in sonic performance to a good CD playback source.......
In my system (see profile), TIDAL through Roon sounds as good as an excellent CDP.And, you can pick the version of the CD you want to stream in most cases, because TIDAL often has all of them and Roon provides a nice easy way to choose the one you want to stream. Are you guaranteed to be listening to what they claim you are? No, but I've certainly been able to tell the difference between different versions.
And it doesn't have to be one or the other. I rip my CDs in full resolution to a HDD, which Roon also plays for me. And I have a nice turntable and plenty of records too.
But a good lossless streaming system sounds wonderful and, with the right DAC, every bit as good as any CD/CDP I've heard. And the notion that lossy Spotify files disproves that is baseless and a bad example to hang your hat on.
___
"If you are the owner of a new stereophonic system, this record will play with even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity. In short, you can purchase this record with no fear of its becoming obsolete in the future."
Edits: 09/22/20
"And, you can pick the version of the CD you want to stream in most cases, because TIDAL often has all of them...... "
There are a lot more variants to CD pressings than we'd like to believe..... I cannot count the number of times I've gotten a second CD of an album, how different is sounds....... (I recently recommended an Eva Cassidy CD to a friend, and the CD he purchased had Auto-Tune applied to Eva's voice. The CD I had did not. I ended up burning a CD-R copy of my CD for him, and we're all good now.)
"But a good lossless streaming system sounds wonderful and, with the right DAC, every bit as good as any CD/CDP I've heard."
To me, lossless played back in real-time (as opposed to decoded first and then played back) puts strange artifacts on the music..... Most notably a "smoothing out of vibrato" in a singer or musician..... Whenever I play music on a digital audio player, I always use uncompressed files.
All this said, the key is liking what you hear...... This is not the first respectful disagreement I've encountered, and it won't be the last.
...and can easily add more, or add different versions.Some from Tidal, some from Qobuz, some from my own CD rips:
Note the Tidal or Qobuz logo in the upper left of the album cover. If there is no logo there, it is from my own CD rip. The "new" banner on the album cover means I added it to my library recently.
Edits: 09/24/20
It was a white folded paper case (not jewel case)...... (In your pic, it's the bottom row, fifth from the left.) The "Auto-Tune" version had somewhat larger print on the front cover.
I checked YouTube, it seems like the web has resolved all video references to a single source (no duplicates are uploaded anymore), the version happens to be the "Auto-Tuned" version (link). (There is a different rendition of this song on a different Eva Cassidy album uploaded to YouTube, and that does not have Auto-Tune applied.)
You need to get out more.
WHich one would you recommend?
Cut to razor sounding violins
Streamed from a Raspberry Pi Model 4 USB into the DAC of your Choice.
I couldnt verify the sound quality.
1st off its like any other streaming scam. You can't actually test it until you give them a payment source. So while I created an account sans cc all I can get is 320k songs in 30 sec increments. So no way to actually test. Also the ASIO out is limited to 24/96 so not exactly the 24/192 they advertise for me. No big deal since no music I like is in 24/192
Was surprised at the catalog. It had a good range of the horrible music I like..
Cut to razor sounding violins
Who knows what/where the source material is really coming from...... It's not like you can request your favorite pressing of a given album......
We don't even know if we play an album at a given time, it will be the same pressing/resolution of the same played a few months later..... Too much out of our control.
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
"1st off its like any other streaming scam. You can't actually test it until you give them a payment source."I'd hardly call that a scam. That's how MOST online services operate whether they're audio streaming or otherwise. Welcome to the 21st century!
I'm happily streaming Qobuz at 16/44.1, 24/96, and 24/192. Too bad you're missing out because you think it's a scam. As an aside, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Tidal scam too ;-)
They all sound wonderful to me, through my cheap DIY Raspberry Pi or my Sonore microRendu streamers..... or directly from my Mac to DAC.
Edits: 09/20/20
I had deezer and spotify before and I know how the scam works. in my case I need to actually test the service before I give them money or a cc and then spend hours to find how to cancel. I think I had to call the cc company to cancel Deezer or spotify before. They don't make it easy to cancel. If its a free trial then why the credit card?
It doesn't make it right even if everyone is doing it. Like the airline fees for trip changes. It should be like software where you can try for 30 days and then you need a code.
In addition it IS a scam to not own your music. Best to put the money toward things you own IMHO.
Anyhow I couldnt actually test the quality so its a non starter.
Cut to razor sounding violins
I have Qobuz -- for $150 a year -- that would get me ten new CDs, give or take a few. Instead, I get access to 60 million albums in CD quality format or better.
To me, it is an incredible buy, especially compared to what one can spend on equipment.
Even if I eventually want to own some of the albums, Qobuz is a wonderful way to search for and find new music. That alone makes it worth it for me.
But, as they say, YMMV.
Why do I need to own every song or album I listen to once? How many albums do I need to buy on LP/CD/DVDA/SACD that never come out of the case again? How many albums would I never buy that I can listen to via streaming? How is it a scam that I pay $15/mo and get unlimited access to more music than I could possibly ever play, and frequently in hi-res? And I never have to get up from the couch to play it. Where is the scam in that?How is it a scam that I can play back all of this on equipment that costs a fraction of what some CD/DACs cost? What is the scam in DACs that cost $200 and streamers that cost $40? Where is the scam in the sound of this being better than a belt driven CD player that was painted green internally to minimize reflections? Talk about scams.
Edits: 09/20/20
From their website:
"Free trial with no strings attached."
That is a lie. The string is that your card needs to be on file and you need to cancel before 30 days or it gets charged.
Not sure why you are talking about dacs and cds as scams. I never said anything about them and certainly don't use a cdp. Just play rips.
I was merely trying to assess the sound quality to see if it is better but I can't do that.
Just seems like a waste to spend all that money and have nothing to show for it when the streaming services go bust. CDs or downloads you can rip and hold on to no matter who goes out of business.
Cut to razor sounding violins
d
Thanks for the reply Todd for me personally I would rather stick w/ Vinyl , Tape & CD's .
Stay safe ,
Mondial
"So how can he improve the sound of commercially downloaded music ?"
Don't download from Spotify or other services that use lossy compression.
Most mainstream services use lossy compression including Spotify, Apple Music and others.
You can stream high quality (lossless) music from Tidal and Qobuz, and you can download tunes for offline playback.
Thank you very much for the tip Abe , my friend was really upset / disappointed when he was downloading it from Apple & Spotify .
My kids all use Spotify, and when one was playing "September" by EW&F one time, streaming over Airplay to my kitchen RPi setup, I pulled a little trick by streaming the same track from Qobuz, which happens to be in 24/96, and interrupted her stream. She was amazed to hear how much better it sounded, deeper bass, clarity in the vocals.She still uses Spotify because everyone has the impression that it has everything, but I have yet to not find something I want on Qobuz. I told her to download it and try since it is already paid for but she still isn't interested. There are other aspects of Spotify that she likes, mostly in discovery and sharing.
Oh also, I gave her a setup for her car consisting of a camera adapter and ExtremPro X1 DAC (like a Dragonfly) and she didn't think it sounded as good as my setup, except I was using Qobuz when she heard it and she used Spotify. But she also had some problem with it. I'm going to try hers out today in my car to see if there is really something wrong.
Edits: 09/15/20
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