I Must Say...Tidal’s Blowin’ My Mind!

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Khorn, May 24, 2020.

  1. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    The premium hifi fi high res streaming via Tidal is gonna be wasted just streaming through any tablet or phone and plugging in a headset or (worse) Bluetooth. The last consideration of engineering in those devices is the DAC. Might as well just stream radio stations that play your kind of music. To get the full benefit of the higher resolution Tidal streaming you've got to forget about those devices as anything other than your Internet connection. You need to use a device with USB out to an external DAC and at least an integrated amp and good speakers (or good headphones connected to amp). You'll hear a world of difference. HiFi isn't a very portable state it takes reasonably good components to get full resolution.

     
    Brenald79 likes this.
  2. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Having great fun with Tidal. It's like being in world's largest music store and I can buy as much as I want for my $19 membership fee. Wow!!

    Found three jazz trio albums on Tidal that sound great very full lots of fidelity rich nuanced textures and details: Trios by Carla Bley, Songs: Art of the Trio by Brad Mehldau, and Standards Live by Keith Jarrett.

    But it's amazing the variance in quality I'm finding. Joanne Brackeen's Six Ate was very compressed sounding and poor.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  3. Brenald79

    Brenald79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    I appreciate the feedback but I definitely think Tidal on portable devices right into headphones sounds spectacular and obviously better than a radio station lol.
     
  4. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    Love this logic.. find an article from a company that doesn't want to produce MQA equipment, dumping on MQA, and then advise people to avoid MQA because of said article.

    Ignore the fact that with some money spent, the MQA recordings sound significantly better than their FLAC counterparts to me. I can listen to both with the click of a button. I suggest you afford yourself the opportunity. Whether the obvious increase in sound quality is worth the cost of admission is an individual decision.

    If it goes away, it goes away. But relying on an article from a manufacturer avoiding MQA seems pretty silly.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  5. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Well said.
    After two years with Tidal I feel MQA is as good as it gets, hands down.
     
    Slimwhit33 likes this.
  6. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    I've had it for two years and think it's the best ever.
    How many years did you have it and with which server and equipment ?
     
  7. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    You two fanboys logic to me is no better. As I have said I don’t think it sounds as good as real high resolution does. I don’t need to waste my money on it. My post shows that you aren’t getting full lossless high resolution. I’d rather get my money’s worth for the real thing. Which one can do for less money too if they have access to Qobuz or Amazon HD.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2020
  8. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    My logic is listening... yours was posting an irrelevant article.
     
  9. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    It’s nice after reading an interesting review of an Album to immediately check it out. Hey, if you love what you hear great. All this is instantly available without going downtown or ordering the disc on line and waiting for it.
    If for some reason you feel need the hard copy you can always get it.
    To be honest maybe when I was a kid it was a ritual and fun to do the sale day record thing but not at my age.
    Hell, where have all the record stores gone?
    Long time passing.
     
    Brenald79 likes this.
  10. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I have listened to it. It’s not an irreverent article it’s proof as to what you are paying for. You might dismiss it but others may not.
     
  11. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    I don't avoid using alternative energy sources because the coal lobby writes an article saying they are a dying industry. Hence, your article is silly to me.

    I'm happy to hear that you have listened to MQA files. Your personal opinion would mean more to people than that article.
     
  12. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    In your opinion. People think differently too though. They weren’t the only manufacturer to agree with it either. Nor do others(people in general) think it sounds good either. Even still there are other people that are are either unaware or don’t care at all about it. Opinions are good but so is information to go along with it as it helps some to make their own decision on it for different reasons of their own.
     
  13. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    Source matters.. that's all I'm saying. The fact that you are not willing to acknowledge that the source of your article is problematic is tarnishing any credibility you might have on this topic.
     
  14. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I was saying that paying for the Premium service might be a waste of money I doubt if you could tell difference between their Premium and regular using just a phone or tablet and plugging in headphones. Those devices is just not built for playing hi res like that. To get full benefit you have to use an external DAC , good integrated amp, and good speakers. Or at least DAC/ headphone amp and your headphones. The stuff in a tablet or phone to decode and play the music - the DAC - isn't high quality. Neither is the amplification method.

    I'm glad Tidal sounds spectacular - think of what it would sound like in a full-blown DAC/AMP/Speaker configuration :) That's where you get your money's worth for sure. Toidal is pretty amazing for sure!


     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2020
  15. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Exactly. I'm searching reviews of jazz albums for potential candidates, finding them on Tidal, adding to collection, and playing. I can tell on first track if the mix and production and mastering are good. I'll delete if it sounds bad (ex: Allen Toussaint albums). I'll keep the good ones. The great one's I'll consider buying CD: I still think the CD's sound better than the streaming. maybe it's my ISP. I dunno. The CD is gonna be consistent there's less in the way. But I'm only now considering what I think is a fantastic album music-wise and mastering-wise. Otherwise I'll just continue to stream it from Tidal. The poorly mastered and compressed flat sounding albums I'll listen to once and then delete from My Collection. Great $19 a month value!!!

    Yeah when I was a kid in SF Valley in LA we'd goto the record store in Topanga Plaza Mall (early 70's) and try out albums in their listening booths.

     
    Khorn likes this.
  16. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    I’m getting what is I believe substantially better SQ with streaming than I previously had with cd/sacd.
    Now this is with my system, my room and my ears. I’m overjoyed with the result.
    Now again that’s just me. Maybe I’m some kind of anomaly but that’s just the way it is.
    I’m really hearing the Music now.
     
    Slimwhit33 likes this.
  17. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    Same.. I picked up the Auralic about a year ago, and it has blown my mind since day 1.

    The Roon/Tidal combo allows me so many opportunities to find new music. There are Saturday and Sunday mornings where I just wander through recommendations for hours upon hours, listening to new artists while reading about them and their albums. It's really a whole other level of enjoyment for me. My vinyl is a bit neglected right now tbh but my digital setup just sounds better.
     
    Kristofa likes this.
  18. manxman

    manxman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Isle of Man
    Are you saying that an MQA file – folded, with lossy compression, and then unfolded again – sounds better than the same 96/24 file in FLAC? I've never heard MQA so I can't contradict you, but I also can't see how that statement could logically be true.
     
    Rockin' Robby and Sevoflurane like this.
  19. Slimwhit33

    Slimwhit33 Forum Resident

    Location:
    N America
    I am solely talking about listening to Tidal, through Roon, with my Auralic Vega. Tidal MQA tracks sound better than Tidal FLAC files. The MQA Rumours for example sounds significantly better than its FLAC counterpart. The easiest way to describe the difference in my setup is that the MQA files have a much wider and detailed soundstage. They are easily identifiable.
     
    manxman likes this.
  20. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I'm using my older Mac Air, then USB to external DAC. I can't afford any Auralic. Same DAC that CD's run through. It may vary by ISP and network.


     
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  21. Brenald79

    Brenald79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Before I got Tidal Premium last month I had Apple Music and noticed a huge sound quality improvement on my IPad Pro and IPhone 6 straight into Seinheiser HD 599. About the same amount of improvement as my own ALAC on my devices compared to Apple Music. However, my main priority is improving my portable set up as most of my listening is headphones. Do you recommend any particular DAC/ headphone amp for my set up, IPad Pro/IPhone to headphones?
     
  22. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Gone back to Tidal after about a year away . The sound quality is awesome but I am occasionally having trouble with interrupted streaming , A problem I do not have with Amazon .The sound quality of Amazon is a notch under Tidal [ my ears are 67 years old] Listening tonight to EoB 'Earth' on Tidal I suffered interrupted streaming on seven occasions , played the same recording on Amazon with no problem .
    I stream thru my Asus laptop into a project Dac and also use the laptop to browse the web , nothing much beyond news ,sports and music websites.
    Back last year when I stopped my Tidal subscription I e mailed them with my gripes about their service but received no reply.
    Anyone out there have any idea of what is wrong!
     
  23. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    wifi or wire?
     
    florandia likes this.
  24. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    wifi
     
  25. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    Look at your WiFi and see what your RSSI figure is. -60 to -50 are probably a good quality range. If you are worse than that, you’ll have issues. Also, look at your WiFi channels and work with those to find something strong with less interference. Maybe a static address for your renderer might help.
     

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