I have a PS audio stellar gain cell dac/preamp and use Roon. To my ears the flac feed for JBRADIO2 (16/96) sounds better than Tidal lossless stream. I have compared exact same tracks and to my ears the JBRADIO2 feed sounds more dynamic and detailed. I am perplexed as to why this should be. Anybody else had the same experience? Any theory as to why?
If I were you I would trust my ears and go with the JBRADIO2 and care less as to why.
For many of us, the “why” is fascinating onto itself.
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@john1955 - I have been listening to JB Radio2 for 9 months, @brett66 turned me on to this station and it is amazing SQ. However, a tad bit bass. More of a fan of 101 smooth jazz just because content. This station is a staple for me and also 192/16.
You are listening to the 96/16 station, I like the 192/16
http://stream.jbradio2.ca:8888/flac?fbclid=IwAR3IJekFaoPl6qBNclZ_Tqs_xJTGTiJ4cPV_occ6V6MgYcfSBlwWryRuMUw
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Well, the first part of any comparison is making sure you are comparing what you think you are. I may be mistaken, but I thought the only files on Tidal that are 96k are 24/96 and MQA encoded. Quite different beasts. These wouldn’t qualify for the “exact same tracks”… and even two files labeled with the same resolution might be different masters.
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The streams from JBRADIO2 whether 16/96, 16/192 or even lossy 320k consistently sound different (to my ears better) than any stream on Tidal, or Deezer hifi for that matter. I suspect that they are applying some kind of DSP to change the sound.
They are definitely adding some DSP to spice it up a bit, too much from 200Hz down in my opinion but the airy, wide soundstage is fun