Compare streaming services with Spectrumgram

2024-01-05 08:45:38

Nowadays, streaming services is the most popular way that music source we can get.
I'm collecting favorite songs from them , but two things always bother me.
1. audio watermark
2. choose hires ver. or CD ver.
For the first question, this article¹
told me that Mora/HIGHRESAUDIO is the pure one.
For the second question, I used to prefer Mora_hires than others.
But with song collection grows, I have compared so many songs between these platforms. I found something interest.Writing this article pretends to help me find the key for these question. I'll show you.

Notice:
All files for campared audio md5 were transcode to ape with foobar2000 V2.0 by default
Samples are all Japenese pop songs from Mora/Qobuz/QQMusic² and others

1. Qobuz is quite pure:

1st sample:Uru - Freesia : 01.Freesia [FEB 15 2017]
platform	audio md5
Mora	F3131A73D856B412F78A1BB6AF7C5FAC
QQ	F3131A73D856B412F78A1BB6AF7C5FAC
Qobuz	F3131A73D856B412F78A1BB6AF7C5FAC
Amazon	215A426B6DBCDCC07C983CC44C220108
2nd sample:ado - kyougen(狂言): 02.Odo(踊) [Jan 26 2022]
platform	audio md5
Mora	1049F69A3D4F8A2CA7F6A09C45419751
QQ	9C68B627281B55EA423958B9D7D7D09A
Qobuz	6AD9A591FD67DEC816995B94BFDED51E
Amazon	9F90279680E3D55C315B7D9E85B166E1

1st case shows not all tracks contains watermark in Qobuz/qq...(actually includes Deezer)
2n case shows I found this album watermark may exist.

I have collected hundreds of albums from these platforms and compare many of them, but hardly find the md5 different (Except Amazon, its always different)
The 2nd sample is the only case that shows watermark existence, and still need other sample proof that Mora doesnt contain.
(In 1st case, I tried to extract watermark from amazon by AU, but amazon.ver duration is 5:35:406, others is 5:35:400.I cant exactly match them.)

2. Mora audio may resample UNATURALLY
Mora is nice and expensive for it's the subsidary of Sony, and pure.
But I find this:

Yoasobi - single album(called single later) [もう少しだけ] : 01.もう少しだけ [MAY 10 2021]³
track	spectrumgram
mora-single-24-96
qq-single-24-96
amazon-single-24-96
qobuz-single-16-44

It's really werid and I have asked here.
Though without an abx, I dont know if there is any difference listening. But by theorytical, " The 20kHz+ components might well be inaudible, but they occupy bit rate and they have the possibility of becoming audible as intermodulation, according to the characteristics of the reproduction equipment. "
I dont wanna collect a song like this.
At the sametime, qobuz_ver is 16/44.1. I suspect that the music producer offer CD to them. Qobuz did nothing and put on streaming. Mora up sampling it (mora never sells CD level, but may sell AAC ) with aweful algorithm/filter/...
QQ and Amazon looks the same? Dont know why....

There are more compare about this song . ⁴

3. Mora k2hd spectrumgram

from Mora cover 70's

from Mora moment

4. QQ Music 臻品母带(Great Master Tape) spectrumgram
The official said this quality is from lossy or lossless, by AI resample tech.

鹿乃 - 4th Album「すきなの。」
24-192	16-44.1

QQ AI Master Tape and K2HD, how to judge?Both crap made from consumerism?

Reference
1. by comparing Taylor Swift - Folklore : 14th track "Betty" on Netease、Qobuz、Tidal、Mora、HIGHRESAUDIO, show that many streaming platforms add audio watermark on songs.)
2. Sony is one of most famous music company in the world, Mora is from its subsidary.QQmusic is the biggest streaming service in
China, providing low/high quality(ogg)/super quality(flac, 16/44.1 or 24/48)/hi-res(24/96)/臻品母带(Great Master tape, by AI up Sampling)
3. I made a mistake in the last topic . Two song is not same album! Mora one is the single album with same name. Qobuz is from [The book2]
4. More compare about Yoasobi - もう少しだけ
This song exist in both single album of [もう少しだけ] and normal album [The book2].I use single and album to name cases.

name	mora-album-24-96	qobuz-album-24-96	qq-album-24-96	qq-single-24-96	qq-album-24-48	qq-single-24-48	mora-single-24-96	qobuz-single-16-44
md5	345298B373293A8C7E6B8490E0C0D472	345298B373293A8C7E6B8490E0C0D472	345298B373293A8C7E6B8490E0C0D472	93CEBAF83EBF07362F9CC4E12C28CE2B	8D4E2BC63DD5995BF495FC90FF704554	319AD80E4318B41F03E6424D7C21C789	1E4AE6BEA343845F31B172EAC834E2DE	8204AAC4A1D837D67FD081137862BFE2

This song only same on album-24-96 ver.. The single ver. just completely different from each other, even sample rate.
And qq-single-24-96 is different from qq-album-24-96, so it was not qq replace the single ver. by album ver..

Re: Compare streaming services with Spectrumgram

Reply #1 – 2024-01-11 06:59:30

Oh, hello fellow Spek user : p. I mainly used the program to ahem, just compare whether a file was actually flac or not. In some cases, I have had instances of flac files cutting off at 15 kHz, clearly an example that someone just resampled them, wasting space. But ahem, you do have really great files, one of them going all the way to 48 kHz. I currently have the Doors albums [well,except for the Soft Parade which is the worst] in flac and most of them tier away at the 30 mark though they are still noticeably better sounding than the ones on streaming services [ this was an exception case for me since for majority of the albums, my ears can't distinguish b/w a proper flac and 320 kbps mp3 despite a proper wired IEM].

Re: Compare streaming services with Spectrumgram

Reply #2 – 2024-02-24 08:06:53

It seems like you've put a lot of effort into comparing audio quality across different streaming platforms. The analysis of audio watermarking and potential unnatural resampling on Mora is insightful. The discrepancies in sample rates between Mora and Qobuz, especially in the case of Yoasobi's album, raise questions about the source and processing methods. The debate between QQ Music's AI Master Tape and Mora's K2HD is intriguing—both claim high quality but prompt skepticism. Your thorough examination provides valuable insights for fellow music enthusiasts navigating the intricacies of streaming services.