To be totally honest, I don’t know if streaming services place any kind of extra time code in their streams but I would believe that they don’t. Usually time code (such as SMPTE) is used to synchronize various tracks, or even other media content, and time code is usually provided by the equipment itself unless for some reason it has been embedded into the show (in the case of Theatrical or other repetitive performances).
As I say, I am not savy enough to comment on whether this is used by any streaming services for any reason or if the just use the standard time that a track provides.
Having said that, you did give me an idea…
As I already know where the distortion happens (at least in the Madonna track) I can put that fragment of the track into a DAW and see what it shows.
Disclaimer: While I would be recording an extract from a song that is copyrighted and not owned by myself, I will only extract the part that I need to analyze (less than 15 seconds) to perform this test on my own PC. This will not be in any way used to create or distribute illegal copies of said track.
There’s no time-code data in streamed audio files for the major formats/providers. Some include a sync-code which indicates the start of each frame. This is a unique code, that won’t appear in the encoded sample data, used to support rapid navigation by allow direct identification of frames without having to decodeall the data up to that point.
Causes of the distortion you’re hearing may be chain-specific. I’m not sure what the entire chain is, but possibilities include:
You may have a DAC that is more susceptible to inter-sample overs (which seem to occur more frequently with lossy-encoded material, and Spotify - or Vorbis - may exacerbate this*). These should not be directly audible in most cases, but if the DAC had an already hot output, and/or the amp being fed didn’t have much input headroom, it’s possible that the overshoot in decoding pushes the DAC’s output high enough to clip the amp’s input and that WILL be audible).
Not saying that is what is happening, but it’s one possibility.
*I have speculated that this is why I find the Topping D50 to be very fatiguing for me when paired with Spotify. Dropping the output to the D50 to -3 dB makes is it much more tolerable, even when subsequently listening at the same level (i.e. turning up the volume to compensate). If that is the cause of the fatigue I get, I could see it being similar with other ESS 9038-based DACs with the same content and settings. It’s possible the choice of filter (I used linear, fast - which I think is option 5 on the D50) may have an effect here, too.
my wife most of the time Amazon Unlimited, Spotify Premium, FLACs ripped from our CDs and in the old Volvo V70 only CDs.
I use most of the time Tidal Masters(mqa) over ifi xDSD, own Flac Files, a few bought DSDs, Spotify Premium and CDs in my Volvo C30 on the 10 minute way to work and back
at home while cooking most of the times spotify premium because of support in Google Home Mini
at my workstation at home I use foobar
from my android phone I use the app “usb audio player pro” with tidal mqa unfold > otg cable > ifi xDSD or Earstudio ES 100 with BT LDAC connection for conveniance
after using Spotify Premium and adding Tidal to our arsenal - I syncronised the playlists and found out, Tidal missing a lot of songs. But I prefer the quality and we still buy often new CDs and rip them to FLACs. So I have a lot lossless with me on the phone
Wish Spotify would jump on the lossless train with mqa support. So I could quit Tidal.
Question about Qobuz/Tidal. Do I need a separated software to play from the hi-res plans of these two or just hit the play and go( like Amazon music or Spotify)?
For some reason I’m more attracted to Qobuz, since I’m not into pop, rap or hip-hop music and I’m not so shure about the MQA thing …
Is just subscribe, play ( and pay) and go or do I need a specific player ?
Thanks in advance .
Note that it’s subscribe and play for up to Redbook (CD) quality. On most computer OS’s you are fine beyond that (Regular hig-res). You may need a DAC to get the best resolution.
On mobile OS’s it’s a little trickier (at least with TIDAL, I don’t have Qobuz). Android OS’s have some internal sampling that you should bypass for Hi-Res or MQA. (There is a section here that has plenty of details and discussion). You won’t get better than Redbook out of iOS without a DAC.
If you want MQA playback, then you need the DAC to be an MQA capable DAC.
But in all cases you can get CD quality with a decent connection and no special software.
Thanks for the input. During the laptop (windows) session I’ll be using the Ifi micro BL and with the cell ( iPhone) I’m assuming the Dragonfly Red will do the work.
85% of the music of my interest I already have it on FLAC files or CD, but is a pain going around with the hard drive.
An extra software to play the albums was my main concern since the simple the better for me.
Price per pound this is great: https://audirvana.com/
Which has probably the best “sound” profile as they do some 001100010 tech wizardry to the audio
But if you have an extensive FLAC library then an investment in Roon is good(but expensive $400 for lifetime last I checked) and probably the most flexible player.
But if you are just getting into streaming and mostly listening off of your MiBL or a dragonfly then I would just use the inbuilt player for Tidal Or Qobuz =)
Thanks!! I’m going to explore audirvana, but I’m a big fan of the simple stuff. Besides, when using my laptop and MiBL ( love the name), or Modi 3/Vali 2 I also use Sonarwork True Fi for my HD800 and Elear and that already do some magic.
I’ve been quite pleased with Audirvana for many years, especially since they finally got a Windows 10 version. I also like Tidal music service. It does everything I want it to do.
I am trying out Qobuz currently and it is the first time that I have heard Hi Res quality above CD. It is simply amazing and I have to say I am hooked. Even straight out of my MacBook, it is so much better. I have tasted what a good amp/dac sounds like with Hi Res as well. I think the Hi Res combined with a great quality recording has to come first (before significant money on an amp/dac). Is this the general thinking?
I liked Apple Music and love the lyrics capability. Do you think lyrics is in the future of Qobuz? Maybe Roon provides lyrics and I am sure I can look this up. I wish Qobuz had a lifetime option and hope they are making lots of money so it will survive years in the future.
After only a few days I have been pleasantly surprised by the success rate at finding the recordings that I have searched for. I have focused on jazz however and understand it is one of their areas covered pretty well.
I love Qobuz. I signed up for a UK Qobuz account, and I think the catalog is a bit better populated than the US version, particularly in classical and jazz (though that may be getting better the older the US service gets). I love the Panoramas and playlists - I think their curation is top notch. Integration with Roon (I’m a lifetime subscriber) is the icing on the cake.
I also subscribe to Primephonic, a dedicated classical streaming service. Curation is A++, and the interface, which suffered from some fatal flaws early on, has really come a long way since then. No Roon integration, though they recently integrated Chromecast, which makes me happy now when I’m sitting on the couch with the iPad pro.
One nice thing with Roon is that you can build playlists that incorporate music pulled from your local library, TIDAL and Qobuz transparently and seamlessly in a single playlist.
Edit: this was prior in another thread my response to playlists, in general. @pennstac
was in the tape/walkman and later Mini-disk times, if you will
later on with CDs I rarely burnt a CD as kind of a playlist
and with Spotify premium it started again to make sense
now I got used to it for a while with Tidal+Spotify.
With qobuz it’s more a collecting of favorites, since we started a few weeks ago.
Still have to sit down and copy the Tidal playlists until end of this month to qobuz, when the Tidal subscribtion ends
