[Vitaly2017]

Glad you got sorted. For streaming there's nothing better or more advanced than a modern smartphone. A high-end DAP does sound better, even with a dongle, but if you're only using it for streaming, you probably won't notice the difference. Also, you can't EQ Tidal MQA (or any MQA). That's part of the MQA spec, not a limitation of the DAP. As soon as you EQ MQA (if your player allows it) it's no longer MQA.

Dont be so quick on that judgment that you won't notice a difference if you use streaming apps...

You got a very high level entousiast here who listens to spotify and notices every single change in music and it scales enormously with high quality gear!

Hence if it wasn't worth it i would never invest so much time and money into this...!

 

[gLer]

Dont be so quick on that judgment that you won't notice a difference if you use streaming apps...

You got a very high level entousiast here who listens to spotify and notices every single change in music and it scales enormously with high quality gear!

Hence if it wasn't worth it i would never invest so much time and money into this...!

You're also using a Noir, Tiger. So of course you'll hear everything. This is a generalisation, but people usually use streaming while they're walking or on public transport or travelling. The minute you introduce any sort of outside noise, you're losing just about any gains made by going high-end IEM or high-end DAP. Sitting in a quiet room and focusing on the music is one thing, but as soon as you're on the move, using $3K plus gear doesn't really make much sense.

Only my opinion, don't take it as gospel! And you know how I feel about lossy music...

PS. I'll add that EDM and other electronic/modern pop music is far less affected by compression than say jazz, classical or 'refernece' type audiophile music. With high-energy music you're not really worried about nuances in a vocal performance or the subtle timbre shifts of an instrument, more about energy and rhythm. Again, just my opinion...

 

[blotmouse]

Glad you got sorted. For streaming there's nothing better or more advanced than a modern smartphone. A high-end DAP does sound better, even with a dongle, but if you're only using it for streaming, you probably won't notice the difference. Also, you can't EQ Tidal MQA (or any MQA). That's part of the MQA spec, not a limitation of the DAP. As soon as you EQ MQA (if your player allows it) it's no longer MQA.

Absolutely massive difference in sound quality over a smartphone. I'd say it matters less and less whether you are playing local files. Hard to tell the difference between local flac and streamed lossless on a great DAP. Change those same files to a smartphone and the toes stop tapping immediately. And now I don't even want to listen to music. It's depressing, actually.

 

[Whitigir]

Well, even Tidal live stream VS Offline into Shanling App, there is a huge differences in the performances. I recommend to just offline it all for your playlist

 

[Vitaly2017]

You're also using a Noir, Tiger. So of course you'll hear everything. This is a generalisation, but people usually use streaming while they're walking or on public transport or travelling. The minute you introduce any sort of outside noise, you're losing just about any gains made by going high-end IEM or high-end DAP. Sitting in a quiet room and focusing on the music is one thing, but as soon as you're on the move, using $3K plus gear doesn't really make much sense.

Only my opinion, don't take it as gospel! And you know how I feel about lossy music...

PS. I'll add that EDM and other electronic/modern pop music is far less affected by compression than say jazz, classical or 'refernece' type audiophile music. With high-energy music you're not really worried about nuances in a vocal performance or the subtle timbre shifts of an instrument, more about energy and rhythm. Again, just my opinion...

What you are saying is the ideology of an audiophile in reality its different.
We listen to music with different purposes on mind.

I wont speak for others but for its life and joy.
I spend my whole day driving a truck and that's around 10 hours a day, so I listen to music.
I need sound isolation, sound comfort, sound quality....

Tia fourte noir offers it all. Now to your question that being on the go and using a 3k plus setup is not worth? Well my answer is yes it does worth it. With isolation and apex you got it all!

I am in the minority probably doing this but I love spotify and I use the best possible gear to get the maximum of it I can.
And I am the highest peak of the everest mountain in the audio portable gear mate snd yet I am the biggest fool listening to spotify

Trust me the scale up level is enormous and every bite of gear upgrade helps!
Yes yes even the so scary mp3 spotify lol.

The difference isnt huge from real high res vs spotify premium. And tidal vs spotify I feel no difference.
By the way tidal is a fake compressed high res. Its mqa and mqa is not a true losseless highres... Its all compressed just like spotify.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Absolutely massive difference in sound quality over a smartphone. I'd say it matters less and less whether you are playing local files. Hard to tell the difference between local flac and streamed lossless on a great DAP. Change those same files to a smartphone and the toes stop tapping immediately. And now I don't even want to listen to music. It's depressing, actually.

Only in you head. As soon as you A/B in a blind test you won’t recognize any difference. That‘s been proven so many times I feel strange to even have to mention it. Even golden ears aren’t able to differentiate between a 9$ Apple Dongle and a 3k Audio Device when volume matched with the same source anymore, let alone hear any difference above 256kbit/s. Normally nobody can hear a difference above 160kbit/s as long as the source material is the same and the conversion was performed with a high quality software.

But I know, nobody wants to hear that on head-FI.

 

[gLer]

What you are saying is the ideology of an audiophile in reality its different.
We listen to music with different purposes on mind.

I wont speak for others but for its life and joy.
I spend my whole day driving a truck and that's around 10 hours a day, so I listen to music.
I need sound isolation, sound comfort, sound quality....

Tia fourte noir offers it all. Now to your question that being on the go and using a 3k plus setup is not worth? Well my answer is yes it does worth it. With isolation and apex you got it all!

I am in the minority probably doing this but I love spotify and I use the best possible gear to get the maximum of it I can.
And I am the highest peak of the everest mountain in the audio portable gear mate snd yet I am the biggest fool listening to spotify

Trust me the scale up level is enormous and every bite of gear upgrade helps!
Yes yes even the so scary mp3 spotify lol.

The difference isnt huge from real high res vs spotify premium. And tidal vs spotify I feel no difference.
By the way tidal is a fake compressed high res. Its mqa and mqa is not a true losseless highres... Its all compressed just like spotify.

Too true. Like I said don't take my opinion as gospel. I listen to music very differently. When I'm out and about I don't even bother taking my DAP or high-end IEMs, just my phone and BLONs! The good stuff is for when I'm home, relaxing, ans that's when I want maximum detail and fidelity, so it's DAP and local files only. I use Tidal when checking out new music or when I'm out and about, never for critical listening. And yes I know MQA is a lossy format, I normally listen to Tidal lossless, not MQA.

 

[gLer]

Well, even Tidal live stream VS Offline into Shanling App, there is a huge differences in the performances. I recommend to just offline it all for your playlist

So true. I wish more people would realise this. Even if it's only 5% or 10% better, the reason you buy high-end gear for thousands of dollars is for the last 5%-10% extra quality. So why throw that away? To each his own I guess.

You are not so much into tech, right? A digital copy is a digital copy is a digital copy. It doesn‘t matter if it was delivered a year ago, a day ago or a second ago. So no, there is definitely no difference with files on your card vs. streaming when set to the same quality both ways. Well, if your internet connection has a problem and can’t stream then it will be worse (studdering, stopping), of course.

I think you misunderstood @Whitigir, he's saying local files are better because local files are generally lossless and even high-res lossless, at a much higher bitrate than even lossless streamed music. Of course if your local files are lossy MP3s that's no different to streaming, but who buys a high-end DAP to listen to lossy local files? That's like buying a Ferrari to drive around the block in first gear. Again, to each his own...

 

[blotmouse]

Only in you head. As soon as you A/B in a blind test you won’t recognize any difference. That‘s been proven so many times I feel strange to even have to mention it. Even golden ears aren’t able to differentiate between a 9$ Apple Dongle and a 3k Audio Device when volume matched with the same source anymore, let alone hear any difference above 256kbit/s. Normally nobody can hear a difference above 160kbit/s as long as the source material is the same and the conversion was performed with a high quality software.
But I know, nobody wants to hear that on head-FI.

And I'm usually the nihilist on this topic.

 

[max1236]

What you are saying is the ideology of an audiophile in reality its different.
We listen to music with different purposes on mind.

I wont speak for others but for its life and joy.
I spend my whole day driving a truck and that's around 10 hours a day, so I listen to music.
I need sound isolation, sound comfort, sound quality....

Tia fourte noir offers it all. Now to your question that being on the go and using a 3k plus setup is not worth? Well my answer is yes it does worth it. With isolation and apex you got it all!

I am in the minority probably doing this but I love spotify and I use the best possible gear to get the maximum of it I can.
And I am the highest peak of the everest mountain in the audio portable gear mate snd yet I am the biggest fool listening to spotify

Trust me the scale up level is enormous and every bite of gear upgrade helps!
Yes yes even the so scary mp3 spotify lol.

The difference isnt huge from real high res vs spotify premium. And tidal vs spotify I feel no difference.
By the way tidal is a fake compressed high res. Its mqa and mqa is not a true losseless highres... Its all compressed just like spotify.

Wait you listen to your noirs while driving a truck isnt that too much isolation?

 

[CharlyBrown]

So true. I wish more people would realise this. Even if it's only 5% or 10% better, the reason you buy high-end gear for thousands of dollars is for the last 5%-10% extra quality. So why throw that away? To each his own I guess.

I think you misunderstood @Whitigir, he's saying local files are better because local files are generally lossless and even high-res lossless, at a much higher bitrate than even lossless streamed music. Of course if your local files are lossy MP3s that's no different to streaming, but who buys a high-end DAP to listen to lossy local files? That's like buying a Ferrari to drive around the block in first gear. Again, to each his own...

Yep, I misread and tried to delete the part but you where faster in your response

 

[Vitaly2017]

Wait you listen to your noirs while driving a truck isnt that too much isolation?

BIG TIMES. And always

But when I am home I listen on my home theater cinema speakers never use iems or daps or headphones lol.

I am more a speaker guy but my life style is that I am 5 days out of home....

 

[normie610]

I spend my whole day driving a truck and that's around 10 hours a day, so I listen to music.
I need sound isolation, sound comfort, sound quality....

Wow, stay safe and alert Tiger! I hope it doesn’t become dangerous when you have that level of isolation and music while driving your truck.

 

[blotmouse]

Too true. Like I said don't take my opinion as gospel. I listen to music very differently. When I'm out and about I don't even bother taking my DAP or high-end IEMs, just my phone and BLONs! The good stuff is for when I'm home, relaxing, ans that's when I want maximum detail and fidelity, so it's DAP and local files only. I use Tidal when checking out new music or when I'm out and about, never for critical listening. And yes I know MQA is a lossy format, I normally listen to Tidal lossless, not MQA.

I wish the majority of music I listen to was available in something higher resolution than MQA/flac/CD. It just doesn't exist for sale or exist period. I don't buy music for gear testing.

 

[gLer]

Wow, stay safe and alert Tiger! I hope it doesn’t become dangerous when you have that level of isolation and music while driving your truck.

I thought it was illegal to drive with any sort of headphones/hearing impediments? I know it is in my country.