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RE: yes, but ...

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on October 18, 2017 at 11:58:15

In Reply to: yes, but ... posted by maxim on October 11, 2017 at 02:15:53:

If you look closely you will see that the first step in the chain is the Tidal stream, and it clearly says "MP3". This means it was encoded with lossy compression that discards most of the actual audio data. A decoder for MP3 is built into virtually all audio playback software, including Roon. The data rate for MP3 is fixed. Roon probably uses either 256kb/s or 320kb/s to transmit the lossy file. The decoder in Roon expands it back to 44.1kHz/16 bits, but with lower resolution than 44.1kHz/16 is capable of. True 44.1/16 requires 1411kb/s unless it is compressed. To avoid losing resolution one must use lossless compression such as FLAC. Tidal will stream the higher resolution if you pay twice as much per month for the "Hi-Fi" service. Apparently you are only paying $10 per month for the lossy service.

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