Tidal is definitely lossless, and my mate can prove it

[What Hi-Fi?]

I decided to see what the real measurable differences were between the (hopefully) lossless service and the admitted lossy Spotify...

Tidal is definitely lossless, and my mate can prove it : Read more

 

[daveh75]

In the interests of objectivity (mostly an alien concept to WhatHifi, I know) maybe try some blind/ABX testing of lossy, lossless and hi-res formats.

Then maybe you'd realise SQ is mostly about the recording/mastering and not CODECs and bit rates!

 

[east_eight]

In the interests of objectivity (mostly an alien concept to WhatHifi, I know) maybe try some blind/ABX testing of lossy, lossless and hi-res formats.

Then maybe you'd realise SQ is mostly about the recording/mastering and not CODECs and bit rates!

But that's not what this test was designed to do.

We all know SQ is not just down to CODECs and bit rates; this test just sought to investigate Tidal's lossless claim and whether Spotify offered the same.

It's odd (but entirely predictable) that when What Hi-Fi does offer some empirical data - something they often get slated for not doing by 'audiophiles' - they get criticised nonetheless.

 

[checkbuzz]

In the interests of objectivity (mostly an alien concept to WhatHifi, I know) maybe try some blind/ABX testing of lossy, lossless and hi-res formats.

Then maybe you'd realise SQ is mostly about the recording/mastering and not CODECs and bit rates!

Do they really need to though?
Even my 'couldn't-care-less' wife can hear the obvious differences between the same track streamed at different bit rates e.g the same track streamed on Spotify and Amazon (in hi-res).
The CODEC doesn't matter, not for lossless anyway. Lossy is, well, just that. It can quite literally never be as good as the source.
Of course recording and mastering has a huge impact on SQ but that's not what anyone is talking about here, and for the same master the differences in bit rate are pretty clear to even a novice.
So please tell us, how is that overpriced Spotify subscription going for you?

 

[cubeover]

That dithering of hi-res tracks could be a tattoo (steganography) of the username who streams it, just in case the track is stolen (leaked to public, shared via torrents) and cyber-forensics folks need to prove "whodunnit".