The problems we are encountering have also served to illuminate an issue I have been going on about for several years. People frequently compare the quality of a streamed song versus their FLAC rip. They then use this to state, as fact, that streaming sounds inferior compared to their FLAC rips.
I frequently reply, on this and other forums, and ask if they are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges.
When I encountered a problem streaming my Peter Tosh track on QOBUZ, I streamed the same song on TIDAL. It sounded awful. I then played one of my RIPS of the same song . Likewise it sounded awful. Even though the song was “the same” in each case, Stepping Razor, each file was different and unique. One was high res, one was from an actual album (who knows which version and which mastering), one was from a compilation etc.
Each one sounded completely different yet it was the same song. Despite this many will declare ripped files sound better than streamed ones, and vice versa. I maintain it is just about impossible to make a statement about whether streaming sounds better or worse than one’s own ripped files, unless one can definitively ascertain the track in question is the EXACT same.
As an end user It is impossible to determine this because we do not know which version of the song is being supplied to the streaming service. Frequently they are different - so ultimately the comparison we are trying to make is not one of apples to apples, but rather apples to oranges