Audio Quality Comparison of Various Sources

[herbu]

Now that I've moved into the "New Millenium", as the kids like to tell me, I'm curious about audio quality of the various sources available in my gear.

Without too much technical jargon, can ya'll rank audio sources in order of quality? I have a number of choices, but among them are not what seem to be the best for audiophiles, like SACD and some acronyms I don't understand.

I'm particularly interested in the sources I see w/ my current equipment.

iPhone w/ iTunes (via USB or Airplay to my AVR)
CDs (via HDMI to my AVR)
Pandora (via DSL and wireless router to my AVR)
Internet Radio w/ various bitrates (via DSL and w/l router to my AVR)
Dish Network music channels (via satellite & HDMI to my AVR)

I can hear that CDs seem to be the best of what I have. To my ear, none of the other sources particularly distinguishes itself from the others.

What is the fact?

Thanks,

 

[shadyJ]

CDs will be the highest resolution format from those. Whether you can hear the difference is another story. The rest can have variable resolutions, so they can't properly be compared by an absolute standard. I believe Pandora would probably be the worst, unless you are a subscriber whereby you get a boost to 192kbps.

 

[TLS Guy]

Now that I've moved into the "New Millenium", as the kids like to tell me, I'm curious about audio quality of the various sources available in my gear.

Without too much technical jargon, can ya'll rank audio sources in order of quality? I have a number of choices, but among them are not what seem to be the best for audiophiles, like SACD and some acronyms I don't understand.

I'm particularly interested in the sources I see w/ my current equipment.

iPhone w/ iTunes (via USB or Airplay to my AVR)
CDs (via HDMI to my AVR)
Pandora (via DSL and wireless router to my AVR)
Internet Radio w/ various bitrates (via DSL and w/l router to my AVR)
Dish Network music channels (via satellite & HDMI to my AVR)

I can hear that CDs seem to be the best of what I have. To my ear, none of the other sources particularly distinguishes itself from the others.

What is the fact?

Thanks,

Of all those sources only the CD and loss less iTunes are listenable. The worst is Dish.

There are no internet radio stations in the US that have a high enough bit rate be listenable. Spotify does have a 320kbs AAC stream that I have tested and it is excellent. Anything mp3 is hopeless, the codec just does not sound right.

I have been listening to the BBC radio 3 stream and iPlayer UK, via a VPN link and their 320 kbs AAC stream is excellent and well above the best analog FM quality. In my view a 180 kbs AAC stream gets very close, to FM quality and exceeds it in dynamic range.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Of all those sources only the CD and loss less iTunes are listenable. The worst is Dish.

There are no internet radio stations in the US that have a high enough bit rate be listenable. Spotify does have a 320kbs AAC stream that I have tested and it is excellent. Anything mp3 is hopeless, the codec just does not sound right.

I have been listening to the BBC radio 3 stream and iPlayer UK, via a VPN link and their 320 kbs AAC stream is excellent and well above the best analog FM quality. In my view a 180 kbs AAC stream gets very close, to FM quality and exceeds it in dynamic range.

+1 that.

Sat radio is the worst by far
HD (aka Hybrid Digital) is slightly better
good FM receiver and strong reception give you decent sound (except most content is typically repeating crap)
180-192Kbs streams is where quality is very close to CD which is the bitrate for Pandora Premium (not free)
Turntable.fm could have very high quality songs, but it is not consistent - still great place for music discovery

 

[Hobbit]

I would lump the Internet Radio with iTunes because most I'm aware of can play music from either iTunes or any music saved and shared on your computer through your home Wifi network. The actual "internet radio" part of it is limited by what the stations (including Pandora, iheart, etc.) stream. As mentioned some stations do stream at very good bit rates.