Lately, have started to listen to my optical media collection more and streaming less. I had forgotten just how good a CD disc can sound. It’s nice to listen to an entire album and get the feel of what the artist(s) were trying to achieve.
For whatever reason, the sound from the optical media seems to be a tad more open/alive sounding than the streaming services. Not sure why this is, but it could be the difference in source material.
At any rate, it’s been fun to enjoy music with hard media again vice streaming.
The data stored on a CD-DA is 16-bit/44.1 kHz PCM, so it’s not fundamentally different from what lossless streaming services provide. If you’re only noticing this with certain tracks, it could simply be because they were mixed or mastered differently. Or perhaps some of the enjoyment comes from the tactile experience of actually handling a physical medium—much like with vinyl!
Mixing/Mastering differences are one source of noticeable differences. Using TIDAL for streaming, which is pretty good overall.
Using a Audiolab 9000cdt for CD source, which goes to a Topping D900/A900, or to a Cenever ZeroUno DAC/HPA. One item I find interesting is that TIDAL has not removed the MQA files in their library. The Canever ZeroUno DAC has a excellent MQA decoder built in, and there are still quite a number of files that enable the green or blue MQA light.