After trying all the main music streaming services available in Brazil, I chose two platforms: Tidal and Qobuz. It is important to mention that this decision was made considering the balance between music availability, application interface and support for lossless file transmission in bit perfect.
For those who want to enjoy the best quality of their favorite artist’s album, it is essential that the streaming service has at least the option of transmitting tracks with the same quality found on a CD (44.1kHz/16bit), which is the resolution where it is considered “lossless”. Consequently, Spotify ends up being left out, as it still does not have this capability, despite having announced that it would implement it on its platform. The worst streaming subscription in terms of bitrate [1] is YouTube Music, as there is no consistency in the quality of the service’s library, as it includes uploads from users of the YouTube video platform, thus bringing a great distortion in the sound of several tracks.
[1] Bitrate is the audio bitrate transmitted in the music file you are playing. Every second that passes from music, an amount of data (or bits) is transferred, and when we deal with audio files, this is quantified in kilobits of data per second. Example: 320 kbps MP3 file.
Out of all streaming services, Tidal and Qobuz are my pick
Interference-free streaming of device operating systems
Even disabling the “normalize volume” function [2] and by changing the music transmission quality in the settings to the maximum that the streaming service allows, the operating system (OS) will still be able to influence the sound quality. When there is no OS influence on the transmission of the audio signal, we say that the application supports “bit perfect” connectivity.
There are a few ways to tell whether or not you’re getting “bit perfect” connectivity in your streaming app. To confirm this capability, you must first connect a USB DAC/amp to your smartphone, tablet or computer. Once that’s done, test whether the device’s OS volume has been disabled.
Example: When playing the music and pressing the volume button on the smartphone, the height at which the sound is will not be changed, but if you turn the DAC/amp volume knob (or press the button responsible for the function) and notice that the sound became louder, it means that the OS volume was disabled.
Another factor that must be observed is the change in the sample rate (sample rate) [3]. The correct thing is for the DAC to show on the screen (or by changing colors) that it has changed when the streaming application switches to a song that has a different sample rate.
Example: The first song played is 96Khz, but the next track is 192Khz. If connectivity is bit perfect, the DAC/amp will display a different sample rate value (or change LED colors) when the next track starts playing.
Finally, another way to tell regarding “bit perfect” connectivity is with the presence of a feature called “exclusive mode”. It is featured on Amazon Music, Tidal, and Qobuz desktop apps. This functionality is linked to the use of Windows WASAPI and ASIO audio drivers, which we comment on in this article regarding the differences between them and others that exist in Microsoft’s operating system.
[2] The “normalize volume” function is used to that the user does not have to keep changing the volume of his device every time he changes music tracks in a playlist or in the case of a Single (single song that does not belong to any album). The process for this to happen occurs before the music is played on the audio device, so there is no influence from the smartphone, laptop or player on music playback in this situation. However, when it comes to psychoacoustics (auditory sensations), there is a change in the way a person perceives sound depending on the variation of music style and even within an album that he wants to listen to in its entirety. This causes a nuisance when it comes to the volume level according to the specific dynamics of the song or album style.
In the case of an album, there is no need to use the “normalize volume” function, because during the mastering of the tracks, the constancy of the whole is already thought of when going through the tracks. By activating the volume in this case, you can generate a tonal imbalance (imbalance between bass, mids and treble) psychoacoustically. Ideally, any changes to the music should be made while mixing and mastering the music tracks.
[3] Article “Difference between sample rate, frequency response and frequency range”
Conclusion
Unfortunately, not all lossless music streaming services deliver “bit perfect” connectivity in their apps across platforms (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android). In our article on this topic, we came to the conclusion that Tidal and Qobuz are the apps that best deliver this feature, although in Qobuz you still need to use third-party apps on Android, such as USB Audio Pro Player (UAPP) to achieve “bit perfect” connectivity.
It’s important to mention that the Deezer, Spotify, YouTube Music and Amazon Music apps lack “bit perfect” connectivity. In some cases, the use of a “streamer”, for example, the Wiim mini, allows this problem to be circumvented in Amazon Music.