Which is music to your ears

[@otroligaollis3885]

This is the best hifi channel on the platform. Many thanks for your efforts!

[@budgetaudiophilelife-long5461]

THANKS KELVIN,FOR DOING US A REAL PUBLIC SERVICE 🤗 ALOT OF WORK 😅💚💚💚

[@bigblueocean]

".... I came up in the bronze age" 😂😂😂😂 thanks Kelvin. Funny and comprehensive

[@LifterplusLTD]

Please keep doing this amazing stuff on KZbin, we love it, Cheers from Tbilisi 👌🏻✌🏻🇬🇪

[@paulmurray6071]

Enjoy your cds vinyl and the pub Cheers 🍻

[@stereoreviewx]

yeah

[@MrBravo143]

A comparison between lossless giants Tidal vs Qobuz would be interesting ❤

[@anonimushbosh]

Every year or so I get fed up with Spotify trying to push podcasts when I’m in the mood for music & so I try Qobuz or Tidal to see what the fuss is about. But until I can press play on my phone, pause the same track with a remote for a different device and a minute later hit play on a 3rd or 4th device to start, stop or replay the same track in the same playlist I’ll always go back to Spotify. The convenience wins and I’ve never been able to notice that much of a difference in sound quality - for which the amp, speakers & recording itself makes a much much bigger difference anyway. Thoroughly enjoying these newer videos of yours… glad you started doing them again ✌️

[@andrehb]

Interesting, thanks -- would be cool if you compare Apple Music vs Qobuz next

[@TonyCottrell-iv2qv]

Thanks Kelvin, another good one. You seem to have a great knack for picking interesting topics!

[@trevorbartram5473]

Hi Kelvin, a few months ago I did a survey of US classical & jazz internet radio stations & there was a huge variation in MP3 audio quality. I settled on WCRB & WQXR for classical (they may even use similar equipment?), KKJZ for jazz & I'm very happy with the sound quality. There are differences in announcer audio too but that's probably down to the microphone, studio room & studio preferences? I doubt very much that Spotify tweaks each MP3 conversion. It's more likely you're hearing Spotify wide processing, MP3 artifacts or different masterings of the same recording. Cheers!

[@tonyhodgkinson4586]

Tidal for me and my own ripped cd’s and vinyl

[@garethparr9482]

Not entered the world of streaming as of yet. Suppose someday I will have to step in to this idiom. Great review as always kelvin 👍

[@jonpatrick66]

Man, Kelvin you had me grinning the whole time. A real rabbit hole, yeah ;⁠) I think a lot of people will feel the same as you with this comparison. It was fun watching you describe it all. Thanks for the effort. Cheers 🍻

[@stereoreviewx]

I won't do it again 😂promise

[@Broadmaynewood]

Hi Kelvin, another great video. I am in the position that I run both and they are similar money per month. I agree that Spotify seems to have got better. On my system Tidal occasionally buffers which is irritating …

[@IrenESorius]

Thank you ever so much for your time and work Mr,X,, 👍‍‍🌟👍‍‍ Cheers from Sweden,, 💖🙏💖

[@stereoreviewx]

cheers K

[@Michael-po3ne]

Old school years and years of working out what sounds better speakers or the amplifier thanks for your experience atb Michael 😊😊

[@DrNoahBoddy004]

I’m bronze-age, and while I congratulate, and appreciate your findings tremendously, I’m having a massive four antenna array on a 43 ft tower installed. I have FM Tuners from seven manufacturers and even with Full 50dB modulation/pre-amplifier boosted quieting (which is eerily profoundly SACD black) it’s still only 30Hz-15kHz which at my age, I consider just fine! DAB Tuners, which of course deliver SACD quality haven’t REALLY taken hold as well here in the U.S., and I’d be remiss if I left out Sirius satellite XM services. Which brings me to that central point that I’m a cheap git, who will hold on to what few bob he’s got left. Preferring to go all-out on where it all began, the wireless. I, believe it (or not) can still find outstanding programs on FM Stereo Radio and have planned on recording and preserving great hosts. Keep up the excellent work, please! I enjoy watching. 12:47

[@Ravan_Caw]

I don’t get sighing up to a streaming service, if an artist you like pulls the music what do you have, if a new release comes out that not as good as the previous version your left with that. As you say they will let you have the greatest hits. I’ve been buying CDS at 25p to a £1 and i physically own them. I will tend to download music on to my phone or to a hard drive and play from them. But I still own the music. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@James-tf8vg]

Kelvin never fails to give honest reviews. Love your videos.

[@stereoreviewx]

appreciated

[@6643bear]

Hi kev, another great informative video. I use apple and Amazon music, but I have found tidal pretty good , if I didn’t have apple I would have tidal instead. Regards mark

[@stevezeidman7224]

Interesting analysis. I’ve listened to both as well. I don’t think Spotify has changed their bit rate delivery. They have been promising lossless streaming for a couple of years. With the dac I’m using and my Cambridge streamer, I do hear a difference. Tidal is quite a bit better. In the car or portable headphones, Spotify is just fine.

[@myk6694]

I'll stick to the old cds,..now I'm off to the pub, thanks for that

[@Ricky-cl5bu]

Your exactly right Spotify is more basso and tidal has more detail

[@robertballard8833]

Good vid - I'm cheap, though lol. I just go with 1080 to 720 res on videos off youtube. I really save critical listening for my Albums and cds, but KZbin is darn good if its a higher res good quality download from a clean source

[@brucetungsten5714]

Is there a service that has non-bricked versions of popular newer pop songs? Tried two or three and all new stuff seems maxed out. The only other option seems to buy LPs and "rip" them... but I lack the proper setup.

[@jamesvozar1]

I could notice a difference switching from Spotify to Amazon lossless right away on a pair of old Elac bookshelf speakers with an SMSL dac and vintage Rotel amp, for me it was like listening to a CD compared to a good mp3. I found the low end a bit one notey with spotify and a bit less sparkle in the high end.

[@SvenfromKiel]

Great review..🎉 I come from a iMac directly with a toslink in a cheap SMSL SU1 dac in an active Dali Zensor 1. I listen to my old flac albums which is okay so far and listen to Jazz Internet radio via foobar (which sounds very good) but somehow I my old fat sound for a long time now. Because of this I bought again a NAD 3120 now and look for the right speaker. I think about an english sound speaker because I love that kind of sound. What do you think? The Monitor Audio MA 4 oder maybe an old B&W 600, Wharfedale? I look for a nice match. Please help me 😊

[@torchbox]

I have all three: Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. I’ve always had Spotify for discovery and Qobuz for quality but last few months I added Tidal as they are ditching MQA for FLAC lossless and they have Tidal Connect whereas Qobuz still doesn’t. Though Qobuz still has edge in sound quality I’m going to dump it for Tidal as it’s caught up and even surpassed in its recommendation engine.

[@stereoreviewx]

interesting thanks

[@cunningtim]

I’m in the US, and stream primarily on Amazon Music. Even for songs in their “Ultra HD” tier (which is actually a range), nothing sounds as good as a CD until you get at least to 24 bit/96 khz or higher.

[@ganck1147]

I stream music using spotify on my smart TV & that goes into a DAC which goes to my hifi setup. I never tried Tidal. My only reference here is CD. Most of the time the sound quality of spotify is good enough for me. Sometimes, for sake of comparison, i stream what i have on CD jus to see how much the differences are. Surprisingly, the difference is not that much. But its album dependant. For eg, Patricia barber’s cafe blue album sounded pretty flat on spotify. For most other music or albums, the difference between spotify & CD is not that huge. But i have a good DAC & that probably helps. Hv tried a couple of popular DACs & finally settled on a Beresford bushmaster & that’s an awesome DAC despite its low cost.

[@normanswift5048]

Interesting comparison - thanks Kelvin. We use Spotify when playing background music around the house using Sonos or requesting tracks through Google. I ditched Tidal as I didn't get on with MQA and am a very happy Qobuz listener on my 'proper ' hi-fi system.

[@MrBonger88]

I was definitely happy when Tidal ditched MQA. I have a couple of dacs that don’t support it and sound much better than the one that I have that does support MQA

[@normanswift5048]

@@MrBonger88 Totally agree. I have an old ARCAM DAC which sounds much better (to my old ears anyway) than the more expensive MQA ready SMSL that now takes a back seat.

[@briancampbell7712]

Tidal...easily using a formula dac and Lumin mini streamer

[@zenfishbike]

Good Sunday morning to you Kelvin, thanks for this update. It's been a few years now since I left Spotify for Tidal due to the differences in sound quality, I do run a fairly revealing system at home. The thing I do miss about Spotify is its robust playlist generator where you can play a song and it will carry on that theme on its own always changing up the songs randomly. With Tidal, it seems to always play songs from the same bucket, it has far less random variety. I did test the free version of Spotify out recently to see if its sound quality had gotten any better and it was immediately clear it hadn't with my system and my ears. I would tend to agree with you that either one should be sufficient with a less resolving system and/or earbuds.

[@michaeltong5049]

Agree with you on Spotify playlists but listening to Spotify free is only 160kbps as opposed to Spotify premium at 320kbps so no wonder you can't see an improvement in Spotify sound

[@zenfishbike]

@@michaeltong5049 Ahhh, OK, makes sense

[@michaelvincent8306]

I really don't know what you were talking about i don't use any digital medium am I missing out i wouldn't have a clue im off to the pub

[@stereoreviewx]

im already there 😎

[@Ricky-cl5bu]

Brilliant video kelvin 😊

[@Ricky-cl5bu]

Tidal is definitely better than Spotify but the best is Qobuz I’ve chord dac rega dac using streamer and Mac book through audervana

[@pauldionne2884]

Was wondering if either service has something like a test CD with pink noise and such.

[@dsyncd555]

I feel like Spotify has a better new music discovery algo. Also has a social aspect to it where you and your friends can build playlist together. I also like to be able to change songs from my phone as a remote control to other devices. Not sure if Tidal does that.

[@anivegmin]

It's all in the mastering. Were you listening to the original or good audiophile mastering of Thriller? The original has masses of dynamic range, this has been infamously crushed to death over the years by subsequent remasterings. The mastering is far more important than bitrate.

[@stereoreviewx]

yeah when I see remastered I think oh no . its meant to be better 😓isn't it am I missing something?

[@markwhitfield2629]

@@stereoreviewx No Kelvin, I don't think your missing something! I also find the same thing on most remastered tracks. I purposely hunt for "none remastered" which is sometimes either impossible or hard to find. Is this why live performances sound so much better? a good example is the live version of "Hotel California" on MTV 1994. If you listen either on headphones, cheaper equipment or higher end gear that track makes the neck hair stand up & I was never a real Eagles fan (am now)

[@medonk12rs]

Anyone with a half-decent system will hear the difference between lossy compression (AFAIK Spotify) and lossless compression (TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, others). If the difference is meaningful to your enjoyment of music is personal opinion.

[@mikeday62]

Daft Punk's music was genius and ahead of their time. Check out 'Technologic'.

[@Swipe650]

I dropped Spotify for Tidal as it's £1 cheaper. I heard Spotify will be charging £5 extra for their Hi-Res when it comes out so Tidal will be much better value in comparison.

[@BoredSilly666]

I still heard distinct differences between Tidal and Spotify. More Depth, Texture, Tone, Space and Air. Bigger soundstage with better Bass Transients and Tone. Imagine is more 3D and dimensional. Using SoTM streamer, Chord Dac, Naim and PMC speakers. However Qobuz sounds that bit better than Tidal. Been using the streaming services for several years now.

[@stereoreviewx]

great info thanks . I did think qubuz sounded a bit more midrange a tiny bit exaggerated middle ?

[@Vandyfw]

Thoughts on Amazon HD? I have most of the high resolution services, and prefer Amazon.

[@stereoreviewx]

I gotta say I just don't want to give amazon any more money 😥

[@troll7697]

Good work again..❤

[@lawrencesommaesq.9944]

Ummm … can you link to the lava lamps? Everything I’m finding here in the States look cheap. Would appreciate

[@thomasstone1363]

I have a feeling those are refurbished vintage lamps. Very few, if any, modern reproduction lamps look as good as the originals

[@DrOz-007]

Mathmos. The original and best. Based in England, but presume they distribute around the world...

[@stereoreviewx]

so funny only product I can promote is lave lamp . its Mathimos btw

[@lawrencesommaesq.9944]

Thanks gents … unfortunately not available in the USA. 😢

[@laurentzduba1298]

After listening a lot of streaming services during the last few years, to my own ears, none of them has bettered my good old fashioned CD collection. Even the supposedly hi-rez ones sounds compressed when compared to Redbook physical CDs. 🤔

[@jonathanparry6512]

Try radio paradise. Always surprised by the sound quality

[@alanrobinson2229]

I need some newbie advice please. I've been offered Elac ub 5.2 or Epos es 14,either for £400,which should I go for?

[@stereoreviewx]

Epos

[@superkev]

great video kelvin keep em coming please😬

[@stereoreviewx]

More to come!

[@sunilm3181]

Hi Kelvin, any experience with Sonneteer Alabaster amplifier? If yes, how does it compare to Sugden, Lavardin and LFD amplifiers?

[@jameshutton5979]

Thanks for that! 🍺

[@anoksf216]

What about dial a disc?

[@Chris-nd5se]

Thanks for the interesting video. Were you comparing Spotify Premium (320kbps) with the Tidal lossless (flac) tier as Tidal also have a lower quality tier (320 kbps bitrate) ?

[@stereoreviewx]

yes premium high quality tidal

[@Chris-nd5se]

Thanks.​@@stereoreviewx

[@EddyTeetree]

Hey Kelvin is that premium or free Spotify? They are very different. Premium has double the bitrate and user controls for bass treble etc. No horse in it as I prefer records. Blind tests tho seem to always come out as a guess with either expert or punters😊 Cheers big ears.

[@stereoreviewx]

premium

[@utredutredson1686]

I use Qobuz I understood that was best?

[@D1N02]

Doesn't really matter since Tidal has ditched MQA for FLAC. Tidal has a connect feature (if your streamer supports it) so you can use higher bitrates than using Chromecast with Qobuz.

[@utredutredson1686]

@@D1N02 interesting, I uses my samsung s21 qobuz ap and Bluetooth box connected to aux port on my basic cambridge audio amp. Is there a way to improve this?

[@D1N02]

@@utredutredson1686 yes, get a streamer like the WIIM pro or WIIM pro + (depending on wether your cambridge has a digital input, the pro plus has a better DAC chip so you can use the analog output, with the pro it is better to use the digital input of your amp. Using Bluetooth with Qobuz defeats the purpose of having a high res streaming subscription only for Bluetooth to compress the signal in the end.

[@slowpawstevet3676]

i am still in the bronze age or am i ? - latest highest level format is Chase the Dragon reel to reel from what ive found, latest state of the art ? Never tried streaming, life is complicated enough these days! (-;

[@birgerolovsson5203]

Roger Waters & Mike Oldfield, thinking of Amarok.

[@birgerolovsson5203]

Yes, absolutely no streaming for me.

[@shaneonpole]

A quick Google of "Spotify music quality"...result is that the "basic" Spotify service provides music at a very low 160 Kbp/s, whereas there "premium" paid-service provides music at a bit rate of 320 Kbp/s...good enough for potable music devices and cheap ear-buds. Spotify is basically playing compressed, lossy MP3 tracks which are limited to 320 Kbp/s bit rate...(definitely NOT audiophile-grade). Even the "premium" 320 Kbp/s is poor compared to a lossless FLAC of 24Bit/192 kHz which will playing over 1,500 Kbp/s. Tidal uses High Quality lossless FLAC files and lossless MQA files, hence the better quality digital-file input-source will be noticeable on good HiFi systems with good Amps and big wooden-box speakers...(all of which verifys and cofirms what you've just spoken about in your video Kelvin)...the extra quality that Tidal provides won't be resolved or audible on low-quality portable sound systems and ear-buds etc.

[@isupalodee]

Hi Kelvin. Would you have any spotify playlists to share for testing ?

[@stereoreviewx]

that's an idea thanks

[@Error2username]

A stream is like a river, but smaler c"?

[@Velvet_Torpedo]

As you mentioned around 11:00 mark, if you're listening on a $600 system you're probably not gonna notice a difference. If you're happy with what you have - great be happy! if, on the on hand, you listen to a synergistic, resolving system around $6000 you're probably gonna notice a difference. It also depends on how you listen. Are you critical listener? Or do you mostly listen to your music in the background.

[@iancatchpole5223]

Hi "Five" Kelvin , how does using good old CD's fare in comparison to these media servers...of course played on a excellent CD player...I am curious.. Thnxs as always for a un biased opinion.

[@stereoreviewx]

better than a cheap one equal to say 1000 CD player roughly

[@lizichell2]

I use qobuz

[@sbatty65227]

Tidal at home, Spotify in the car.

[@D1N02]

The more revealing your chain, the more clear the difference will be between lossless and lossy mp3. I experience it as a more relaxed wider sound. When streaming your streamer will make a big difference. Different power supply and or power cord also make a difference. Tidal and Spotify are now evenly priced, so why not Tidal. Podcasts you can listen anywhere.

[@ruk2023--]

I went back to Spotify after a couple of years on Tidal because the higher bitrate wasn't worth it for the worse music discovery. The reasons for the difference are a couple of things generally accepted by music producers (of which I am an amateur one) is that every song uploaded to streaming services is normalised and basically remastered so that it conforms to their loudness requirements. So it is compression that causes the differences but not bitrate compression but audio compression coming from a mastering limiter (and maybe EQ) being used. I can only hear it when I crank up my B&W 702'a. On everything else it's asnear as makes no difference to y ears. Another thing that can make a tangible difference is having "adjust all songs to the same level" turned on in Spotify. That really alters the sound.

[@stereoreviewx]

thanks that's helpful K

[@robertbosson5223]

Have you ever considered getting a pair of hands to set up a blind test?!

[@stereoreviewx]

yes am thinking about a blind test with four people

[@kymvalleygardensdesign5350]

Pub it is

[@yttean98]

If you like "old" Sound come and listen to this channel.

[@ianstreeter5291]

Nice one Kelvin 😂😂😂

[@si1208]

I wish my ears were lossless ... but they're not, so Spotify is fine for me.

[@gdwlaw5549]

Qobuz at home….vinyl too.

[@dsyncd555]

How's their discovery algo for new music?

[@gdwlaw5549]

@@dsyncd555 Spotify is probably best. My brain is fried …..can’t take in anything new these days. I just end up zapping

[@andrehb]

@@dsyncd555 Qobuz discovery is garbage

[@iancatchpole5223]

Purely taking about sound quality..

[@ColdGrayMorning]

Only Tidal

[@SidBonkers51]

I doubt if anyone over 35 or 40 years old can hear any difference in the bit rates as old ears just cant hear those missing frequencies.

[@karlmuller1976]

Qobuz! Waaaaaaaaaaay better than tidal

[@stereoreviewx]

could you describe at all I wonder if qubuz is exaggerating the middle frequencies

[@karlmuller1976]

@@stereoreviewx it must have something to do with the way that it's streamed. Qobuz has a lot more detail but most importantly the musicality and timing is akin too a really good cd player or vinyl. Tidal is better than Spotify in regards to resolution although I feel Spotify beats tidal in sounding more musical. It's hard for me to quantify without knowing the science but all I can say is that tidal sounds a bit soulless and flat. I think qobuz has even improved recently. If I do a direct comparison with tidal it's night and day for me. Qobuz has soul and timing and will get the feet tapping. Tidal doesn't do that for me. If Spotify with there catalogue can get the sound of qobuz it will be a no Brainer.

[@martinaston1715]

I have both can hear half of bugger all difference….

[@karlmuller1976]

@@martinaston1715 I don't think I'd have noticed if I hadn't improved my system quite significantly. Sadly upgrading is chasing rainbows though ... The more revealing the upgrade the more of a big difference things like cables and streaming platforms become. It's a bloody nightmare!

[@mikeday62]

Billie Jean. If MJ had stopped the plastic surgery on his face at this time, he looked good.

[@jozefserf2024]

It is a long rabbit hole. You have no way of knowing which particular mastering they are offering and thus no way of telling how much dynamic compression has been used. DR figures should be indicated alongside every single track so you dont have to waste time searching for the least compressed versions of favourite tracks.

[@stereoreviewx]

good point

[@mobileandhostile7895]

I must be stone age - vinyl sounds best 😅

[@stereoreviewx]

yes it does

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

Neither. They're both crap

[@Antibackgroundnoise]

😂😂

[@simonjones3410]

One's mp3 ,one's Flac, how do you qualify that statement ?

[@kostependrhs]

What are you talking about? Spotify and any other platform depends on the quality of the music was uploaded. Crap upload, crappier playback. All streaming plus dab radio sound like crap.