02-Mar-2015, 12:30
Hi Guillaume, it sounds like you've had plenty of "fun" trying the various options. I've had a lot more experience with Qobuz than with Tidal and have made comparisons several times between Qobuz Desktop and iTunes CD Rips on my Mac streamed via AIR. A lot of the time the differences are not very significant though I still do tend to end up buying CDs or downloads (usually 24-bit) of the albums I really like as the SQ is slightly better (and I can play them in the car).
My understanding is that Qobuz desktop uses a 3 second buffer for music which is then streamed bit-perfectly to the soundcard i.e. AIR. If this is the case and the music source files are identical then I can't really see why the SQ should be any different from locally stored files played via iTunes. Apart, of course, from the 'noise' which the Mac or other components may introduce....?
My understanding is that Qobuz desktop uses a 3 second buffer for music which is then streamed bit-perfectly to the soundcard i.e. AIR. If this is the case and the music source files are identical then I can't really see why the SQ should be any different from locally stored files played via iTunes. Apart, of course, from the 'noise' which the Mac or other components may introduce....?
IMac macOS 10.15.3 (no link to Devialet 
) / MacBook Pro Retina OS X 10.14.4 / Linn LP12 / Devialet 200 / Wilson Benesch Discovery.
) / MacBook Pro Retina OS X 10.14.4 / Linn LP12 / Devialet 200 / Wilson Benesch Discovery. Qobuz Desktop Latest Version / Audirvana 3.2.18 / Audirvana Remote / iTunes 12.9 / AIR 3.0.4 / Wi-Fi / FW 8.1.0 / SAM 50%
Cambridge, UK (Updated 27th February, 2020)
