MnyB hit the nail on the head, and in summary there are a lot of intricacies that impact the quality besides format.
I've not tried Tidal, but I do have all my local music in FLAC and run Spotty at it's highest settings. I generally don't tell a difference between the two other than volume (thanks for the tip on the setting for streaming as I didn't know there was one there). On the rare occasions I do hear differences, I can usually attribute it to different source (remasters, original cd releases, bit-rate and frequency, etc). Stepping back a bit, though, I mostly like Spotty because of its library, and in most casual listening environments, I can try before I buy, which has saved me money in the long run and allowed me to entertain my need for the ultimate versions of albums. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ emalvick's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=35382 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=110076 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles