Which streaming service sounds the BEST? | 哪種串流音樂服務音質最好聽？

KC | Preter Audio
Apr 8, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Apr 16, 2020

When the artist release their music to the internet they upload wave or aiff uncompressed audio file. However, the uncompressed audio file size is large. For example, a 3 minutes song will take from 30 MB up to 60 MB depends on the sample rate. This file size is too big to be streaming to the users. The ideal file size for streaming need to be 10 times smaller to play back normally.

The technology to achieve this task is call compression. The service provider compress that original uploaded audio to 3 MB from original 30 MB for a 3 minutes song. The way to achieve this is to remove the close musical data, super high frequency and super low frequency data. In another word is reduce the audio resolution. Use a TV example for easy understanding is to reduce the resolution from 4K to 480p. It looks like this :

Another better way to compress and reduce audio data size is the lossless compression call Free Lossless Audio Codec or FLAC. It uses the mathematical formula to reduce data size. It's similar to how you zip your office files before you email it. Here you can see the difference:

Which streaming service offers the best Audio Quality?

Now you know the science of the streaming audio. All music streaming services are offering High quality lossless compression audio nowadays from different price range. There is a very small quality difference from the service providers, like Spofity, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music premium, etc.

Why are we hearing it differently?

Our ability to hear the difference in audio quality also rely on one key fact. That is the playing back devices. If your system has limited audio reproduction frequency range and resolution. For example cheap earphone/headphones made from low quality speakers and preamp. You will not able to hear the difference between high quality uncompressed audio and compressed audio .This is like you are trying to play a color video on a black white TV. You will never get other colors. Best way is to find a friend who has the device can hear the difference and go to his place to listen. Decide yourself after if you want to upgrade your devices and services.

Here is an alternative.

OPSIS II 's internal processor recalculate compressed audio data and restore the lost data to let you hear the enhanced high quality audio in 360 degree. This allow your ears to hear more details and dynamic without upgrade your service. OPSIS II is an affordable alternative without break your wallets. We will publish more order information soon!

More info: www.preteraudio.com/opsis

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藝術家將音樂發佈到互聯網後，他們會上傳wave或aiff未壓縮的音頻格式，而未壓縮的數據文件通常很大。例如，一首3分鐘的歌曲將佔用30 MB到60 MB的數據（具體取決於採樣率），這樣無法將其流式線上傳輸給用戶。

音樂文件一般需要小10倍才能流傳輸數據，以便人們正常播放，實現此任務的技術稱為壓縮。服務提供商將原始音頻從原始30 MB壓縮到3 MB来播放3分鐘的歌曲。這樣做的方法是刪除接近的音樂數據、超高頻和超低頻數據，換句話說是降低音頻分辨率，使用電視示例以便於理解是從4K到480p。看起來像這樣：

壓縮和減少數據大小的另一種更好的方法是使用數學公式的無損壓縮文件格式FLAC。這類似於在發送電子郵件之前壓縮Office文件的方式。在這裡您可以看到區別：

哪種流媒體服務提供最佳的音頻質量？

現在您知道了串流音頻背後的原理。現在幾乎所有音樂流媒體服務都以不同的價格範圍提供不同高品質的無損壓縮音頻，不同的服務提供商之間的區別很小，比如KKBOX、Spotify、Apple Music, Line Music等等，因爲來源都是相同的，只是有些免費的音質會較差。

為何有些人仍然可以聽到區別呢?

我們辨別差異的能力還取決於一個關鍵事實，那就是播放設備。如果您的設備音頻再現頻率範圍和分辨率有限，例如，低品質揚聲器和前置放大器製成的廉價耳機，您將無法聽到高質量的未壓縮音頻和壓縮音頻之間的差異。這就像您試圖在黑白電視上播放彩色視頻一樣，永遠不會獲得其他顏色。最好的方法是找一個擁有高質量音響而且可以聽到區別的朋友，然後去他的地方試聽，然後再自行決定是否要升級設備和服務，因爲一般這些升級設備價格都比較貴而且設備大。