Tidal HiFi now $9.99

Your confusing MQA capability with a good MQA DAC.
I've made believers out of many without saying a word.
For me it's a steal at $19.95 per month.

 

Spotify is killing them...

 

Hi, I don’t quite understand what you’re saying here. What do you mean?

 

Although it might no be a good comparison I bought two Steely Dan MQA CDs when I had an Oppo 205. With the full MQA capability of the 205 I was not impressed with those MQA CDs. The issue with Tidal is I've never seen any wording on their site that says one needs an MQA DAC or player capability to take full advantage of their MQA offerings. So if it is true that one needs an MQA DAC or capable player then not many people are getting the best SQ if in fact they would at all. With that I also believe Tidal is not being totally transparent with their claims of superior SQ.

 

A good quality MQA dac, yes there super pricy, is the only way that I've found to experience the true quality of MQA.
I've had a DCS Bartok on long term long, ( a friends in Mexico for the winter ) looking for something cheaper but they all fail in one area or the other.

 

People have been recommending DACs in the 30k+ range to me. Hey, they look nice. Maybe I need spend $200K on a system so I can truly enjoy Tidal. Is that what you’re saying?

 

Yes I'm only paying $9.99 now I appreciate the lower costs.

 

I’m in Canada and as far as I can tell I’m still paying CDN $27.99 a month for Tidal HIFI.

 

Not sure how you're paying $27.99, there are only two tiers.

Tidal Hi-Fi: $9.99 or
Tidal Hi-Fi Plus: $19.99

 

When I check my upcoming payment it says Tidal HIFI $27.99. Nothing at all about any HIFI Plus. Bit of a rip off.

Correction. I’m getting what’s called HIFI Plus now but the price is still $27.99.
There is absolutely no difference from what I was getting previously.

 

That can't be right.

In the TIDAL app do the following.
1- Click on Tidal - Go to settings
2- Account/Manage subscriptions

Check your credit card statements, the charge should be from Tidal Music.

 

I was waiting to try Spotify Hi-Fi but that never happened, so I have a month with regular Tidal Hi-Fi. I do like I am able to cast to my older sonos with this, though a little glitchy. With Amazon music it wouldn't even recognize my sonos.

 

I would argue that there is no such thing as a "good MQA DAC" without being just a "good DAC".

MQA does not really require much processing at all so to graft its algorithm into any DAC is a matter of some firmware additions which "authenticates" the fingerprint, upsamples the folded data, and tells the microcontroller which low-tap FIR filter to use. Of yeah, and pay some $$$ to the MQA company for the license which is why MQA DACs cost a few more bucks.

I contend that there is still nothing special about the MQA data itself or what is being decoded. Compared to say a proper 24/96 lossless stream, the MQA information will be bit-depth reduced, partially lossy decoded, and played back with a low quality filter (totally antithetical to what Chord's doing with its WTA filter for example). The situation is even worse with MQA-CD which steals bits from an already "standard" resolution 16/44.1 signal.

Pricey $30k DACs are cool if you think it's worth it. But so one can just play the decoded "true quality MQA" signal which is demonstrably below the quality of truly lossless 24/96+? Given that we can subscribe to other services that provide true 24/96+ data, I cannot imagine spending more money on an expensive MQA DAC being worthwhile.

@Khorn , 3 friends I know here in Canada subscribing to TIDAL now on the $10/month plan. Definitely double check...

 

LOL

 

I won't argue the process, but the results when done right are stunning to everyone that hears it.

 

I'm a Roon user and just signed up for 3 months free with Qobuz, I already have Tidal sub with Best Buy but I want to compare the two. I like how Tidal gives me my mixes but I only have one MQA DAC which is my Bluesound Node 2i which is in my 2ch setup. My other Roon endpoint is my Oppo 203 which is located in my theater setup plus I have my Denon AVR (AirPlay only with Roon) and various Sonos through out the house.

 

When I was using Tidal on my Node 2i, through the analog outputs, are you saying I was missing a level?

 

At this point does anyone actually think Spotify lossless is actually going to happen? Very happy Qobuz subscriber here.

 

No. We've heard nothing since February. Hopefully I'm proved wrong though.

 

Remaining remotely competitive is not good business sense?

 

Best Buy sells a year subscription to HiFi Plus for $110 in the US. Do they have a similar deal in Canada? I took the savings and bought an annual subscription to Qobuz, as each service does some things that I like.

 

What is Tidal? Another version of Spotify?

 

Are you serious? No offense but if you are try Google or looking at the first post in this thread.

 

I took that comment as an unsuccessful attempt at trolling.

 

If so it's definitely a lame attempt for sure .