Last time we introduced our Greater Boston, MA readers to the high-resolution audio streaming services, Tidal and Qobuz. Both offer their subscribers the opportunity to choose exactly what they want to hear and hear it in full CD resolution...or better, selecting from vast libraries of recorded music. In this way they are distinguished from services like Pandora (adaptive playlists, not on-demand, and lower quality) and Spotify (on-demand, but not full resolution). Other full resolution services include Deezer and Amazon HD, but neither offers higher than CD resolution listening choices.

Over the last two months, Larry Goldberg, Natural Sound’s store manager in the Boston, MA area, gave his personal thoughts on the whys and wherefores of streaming high-end audio and music. This month’s blog delves into the “how we got there and where are we going” aspects of streaming and is by Lewis Dalven, one of NS’s technical experts.

Hello again from my home in Framingham. I’m looking out at the over a foot of snow and the swirling winds and thinking this is a good time to write part 2 of my thoughts about music and streaming.

In part 1--last month’s blog or newsletter that you hopefully read in your Boston MA, Metro West, North Shore, or South Shore area home--I talked about how streaming might not be the solution for replacing many of my favorite LP’s and even CD’s. I also promised I would tell you how I viewed the real value of streaming high-end audio and why it is “the dream” for many music lovers. Could be you already know all of this and might even have more useful ways of using streaming, but here are most of mine:

(This is kind of a personal article about my relationship to recorded music. Reader beware!)

If you had told me 15 years ago that I could pay $20 a month and hear almost any music I wanted to in very good fidelity on both my home audio system here in Framingham, MA and my cell phone, I would have laughed and said "Really, what an incredible bargain.” 

Streaming music actually started around 2005 and has gotten progressively more popular as more services have been developed and the fidelity has gone from OK to really good--purportedly as good as a CD or better. You know, high-res or MQA or something of the like.