| > when Motion+ is connected to my phone via bluetooth, and when it's connected to my laptop via aux-in Why not for it's always interesting to experiment but one is lossy (all bluetooth codecs are lossy AFAIK) and the other is analog. Probably on top of an already lossy source too. They "sound" the same the same way a pixelized color print of Mona Lisa next to the real Mona Lisa looks identical if you're far enough. You may or may not be able to tell the difference but lossy Bluetooth and analog aux-in don't sound the same. I decided to go for a simple setup: a Yamaha fully integrated amp that does it all, including a network streamer. And I stream from Qobuz (lossless streaming) and from my own collection of CDs I ripped to FLAC (lossless and bit-perfect rips even though you're ripping from an audio CD, verified with an online DB of hashes from other people who did ripped the same CDs). So I know that up to amp, it's all lossless. Then the amp does its magic. It's simple really: even though I can't tell the difference between a pixelized color print of Mona Lisa and the real thing from far enough, I'd still prefer to know I'm actually looking at the real thing. A Qobuz (lossless) subscription doesn't cost more than a Spotify one (lossy although they announced they'd move to lossless IIRC). It's 2024: FLAC files are tiny compared to, say, even just a 1080p movie. Bandwith is plenty to stream lossless. Why even bother with lossy? Lossy audio is tech from a quarter of a century ago. |
I know I'm rehashing the same argument that has been had around and around for decades but - because it often doesn't matter. In 2024 a 320Kbps or whatever high quality lossy source over a recent bluetooth codec into a Chinesium amp + DAC into a mid-range $500 pair of speakers sounds _awesome_ and the amount of time and money you spend going above that may be a fun hobby but it's really not worth the effort for most people.