I stream Tidal at 192 khz. through my PC. That is the maximal bit rate available through windows 10. Tidal is not native to my Cambridge Audio 851 so it limited to 44. I have yet to determine the quality difference at the difference bit rates aside to say they both sound excellent. Ill have to take the time to do critical A/B comparisons. I can definite say that high rez streamed material does subtly beat my phono setup which is not to shabby though its moving magnet based K SL1200G with ortofon 2mm black. Ive considered an a moving coil but additional multhousands seems to me pointless given stream audio's extraordinary quality with out having to worry about pops, dust, warping etc. I have found that the quality of modern day vynil pressings to be quite variable and that really good ones are ludicrously pricey. I just ordered a 75 dollar Elvis compendium from Acoustic sounds, lets see how that goes. The Abby Road recent release is excellent but again very expensive and yet streaming the same tracks from Tidal, the streamed material does sound better particularly as staging is concerned. I attribute that to the utterly silent background of the digital file. I have patiently matched the phono and and streamer levels to assure that they match to the db. Yet the small but discernible sound advantage of the streamed material is there.
|