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Heefty
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Jan 28, 2019
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If I'm just casually listening while working, I don't notice the difference between 320kbps streaming from Spotify and lossless. It really depends on where my focus is though. When I'm going to critically listen to something for all of the details and just completely enjoy sound, I'm pulling up HDTracks and lossless CD rips. For my usage case, I can't justify the additional monthly costs of Tidal. Call me old fashioned if you want, but I feel obligated to help support an artist when I go to listen to their full album. I'm going to spend my money on the album I'm interested in instead of on a service which, like Spotify, which pays them some ridiculous pittance for their efforts. Spotify still has a use to me as a place to find new music to enjoy (similar to the radio of days past). My payments there perform the same role as the commercials that drive me away from radio. In my experience "Hi-Fi" as a thing is more of a logarithmic gradient, if that makes sense. With entry level gear, coming from crappy gear, you can make huge leaps in sound improvements, and beyond that your expenses keep going up but your improvements get smaller and smaller. To some these small differences make all the difference in the world, and to each their own. My point is that chasing this thing they call "Hi-Fi" can cost more than you're ever going to make and still leave you wanting more, if you let it. If you were happy with your gear once, but not any longer, try some new music first. If you really want to do more with your gear, go to your local stereo shop and listen to the gear first hand and do so for as long as they will let you. If they want you to spend a small fortune on their products, they better be willing to let you find out if it's really what you want first. If you want real Hi-Fi sound, go find the real thing. Buy a ticket to a show. The chances of getting recorded sounds to ever sound exactly like the original source, are slim in my opinion. There's too much ability to lose/degrade signal in any electronic chain, from the one recording the sound to the one replaying it. There's also no way to fully reproduce sound coming at you from a 3D space using a microphone/speaker that only has 1D capture/replay ability. I'm rambling again. Probably doesn't make sense, but I hope you can find something of value in my thoughts.
Jan 28, 2019
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