NZ Herald columnist Karl Puschmann carried out an act of outstanding service to music-lovers on Friday – a totally unscientific comparison of the two big online music purveyors Spotify and Tidal with older formats vinyl and CD.
Matching the streaming formats with vinyl & CDs from his own collection (a selection of Brian Eno/David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Guns N’ Roses) he conducted blind tests first on himself, then on his partner.
The result was clear on all fronts:
- Vinyl
- CD
- Tidal
- Spotify
“Kicking off with the vinyl, I was enveloped in a vast airy sound stage,” he wrote. “Things got deliberately murky at times, but from the audible swamp, Bowie’s vocals – chrystal-clear and dramatic – would startlingly emerge.
“The CDs didn’t complete – and the two streamers didn’t come close. They were louder, but all Bowie’s drama was smoothed out and gone.”
There’s more – much more – here
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