I watch a fair amount of audio related YouTube videos (mostly equipment reviews) and I’ve noticed a recent trend that is a bit disturbing for this diehard music streamer. The trend I’m referring to is the recent posting of several videos claiming that CDs sound better than streaming, aka “streaming bashing”.
While I fully understand that there many instances where the methods used to stream music can result in very poor sound, such as a low bit rate free streaming service played back using a mobile phone and Bluetooth, there are also many instances where the methods used can provide excellent sound quality that is the equal of CD playback. The YouTube videos in question do not bother to go into detail about the music streaming methods they are claiming sound so bad, they just make the false claim that CD playback sounds better than streaming.
I’ve commented on a few of these videos but the response to my comments leaves much to be desired. In many ways this trend reminds me of the old audiophile trick of first using a “broken” item in the playback chain, such as an old, worn out and cheap interconnect, only to be replaced by some hyper expensive audiophile item and then claiming amazing improvements. Well sure replacing a broken item with a properly functioning item almost always results in a vast sonic improvement.
Using a free low bit rate music streaming service is akin to playing a heavily scratched CD, which causes massive playback errors and lots of noise, and then declaring that CDs sound terrible.
I suppose it is something of a testament to the high end audio marketing departments that even the supposed “independent” YouTube presenters are using the same old audiophile tricks and nonsense to make their very invalid point appear valid. Sad.
Three little words: “bits are bits”. All audiophile tweaks in the digital domain come down, one way or another, to the denial of this fact. Bashing streaming is just one example, so I’m not surprised.
Human perception of sound is a funny thing. For some folks, the experience of handling physical media affects how their brains process what they are hearing. They actually hear more detail, a larger soundstage, more precise imaging, better instrument separation, and so forth even when the electrical signals driving their loudspeakers are provabley identical.
These folks are reluctant to give up their physical media rituals, which contribute nothing to sound quality but, apparently, quite a lot to their personal experience with music playback. Apart from any entertainment value they may have, the videos go sideways when presenters claim that their experiences are universal and transferable to all members of their audiences. Especially when they make conclusions that lossless streaming is generally of lower quality than physical media.
Often, the opposite is true when the masters are the same. Of course, mastering quality trumps delivery format. This is where owning a CD collection (or collection of ripped CDs) is advantageous. No one will come along later replace the albums in your library with versions that have been remastered for earbud listeners. Sadly, this happens from time to time with streaming providers.
Don’t forget that when streaming via Wi-Fi the humidity has a HUGE effect on the sound quality. Low humidity will make the sound crisp and fresh but high humidity will make the sound thick and slow. No proof needed because we have ears!!!
Oh, I’ve seen at least a dozen posts from folks who claim a lower noise floor after switching from cable internet service to fiber. It’s definitely a thing that people genuinely believe they are hearing.
Sounds a bit like people whining that CD (and digital in general) sounds so bad that their precious ears can only stand analogue sound from vinyl. I guess this movement got loud around 25 years ago, maybe even earlier.
We can learn something from what happened afterwards: music lovers (and audiophiles) were not really bothered and continued buying CDs. But with successor technologies appearing, particularly as dealers were picking up such arguments and expanding them to ´stereo sounds superior to surround´ or ´DVD sounds so bad´, it was in my understanding contributing to the failure of DVD-Audio and SACD in die early 2000s. And subsequently the fact that hi-fi and high end became a ´tiny niche for some nostalgic weirdos´, ignored by mainstream music lovers open to new technology.
The sad part of all these videos is that it is driving people away from hi-fi. Why can’t all music lovers just unite in the sense that they respect other people’s ways of enjoying their music? Why some people have to disparage what they perceive as mainstream technology?
Not only that. Many disparage things which are accessible to everyone, may it be MP3 players, iPhones or earbuds. Sometimes I have the feeling there are those audiophiles who dislike everything that is giving others the possibility to have fun with their preferred music. So they have to write fiery comments or to YT videos about bad remasterings, ´unaudiophile´ in-ear monitors, bad MP3 sound or how destroyed the youth´s ears are from loudness war.
I am not agreeing to all aspects of streaming (for example Spotify’s royalty policy is not particularly a nice thing for musicians), but in general nothing better could have happened to music and audio gear than the dawn of streaming services.
I don’t think bad publicity contributed to the failure of “post-CD” formats. (It certainly didn’t stop CDs from replacing vinyl.) The new things they brought - hi-res, multichannel and long play times - simply didn’t make enough of a difference to justify higher prices for discs and players. Add to that competition from streaming and digital downloads, which slowly made pretty much all physical media obsolete.
Arindal wrote:
Sounds a bit like people whining that CD (and digital in general) sounds so bad that their precious ears can only stand analogue sound from vinyl. I guess this movement got loud around 25 years ago, maybe even earlier.
Try 42 years ago. I remember all that stuff coming out when CDs were first introduced to the UK in 1983. I was on my audio operations ‘A’ course in the BBC engineering training college at the time and the discussions about this in the bar of an evening could get quite heated!
I reviewed a Gold Note CD player a while back that did indeed sound better than my then streaming setup. Notably better. And yes I ensured as level a playing field as possible.
I’m also about to review a decent DAC that I’ll use part of the time with a (hopefully) good CD transport. It will be interesting to see how things compare this time. I don’t have a view…yet!
Conversely the mid range CD transport that I currently own doesn’t match the streaming side of things. Methinks bits aren’t just bits…
The way the signal gets to the speakers is different because of the cd vs streaming playback chain so really hard to say. To me it seems the fewer moving parts the better but that’s just me.
Yes, but the bits are the same. There are a lot of hops data packets go through over the web and that doesn’t damage them in any way. If it did, we wouldn’t have Internet, and Roon users would hear different things when streaming on different continents.
If I were to remove “moving parts” from the playback chain, I’d start with spinning discs.
This reminded me of when Jeremy Clarkson - car & now farming celebrity, alround oaf - said his bank account was perfectly safe. To prove it he gave out his sort and account codes on live radio. The following day someone donated £500 of the money in Clarkson’s bank account to charity
Or do we…?