[happysappy]

Hello, I have been frustrated with Spotify's app lately (on Android), so I took time to explore other options. I am using Deezer HiFi (HQ setting) and Tidal HiFi (Master setting) on an LG V30+ with an HD660S (Asen Performance Series CB3L-SHP 1.3M cable) and Quad DAC option on. All songs are stored on the internal storage. No other DAC/Amp was used, and testing was done in a quiet bedroom.

I do not consider myself an audiophile, because I haven't really mastered the art of describing sound. My ears are sensitive enough to detect changes in audio quality though. Please bear with my substandard description.

Anyway, I played several songs on both apps. In general, I find that songs are louder on Deezer. The downside: hisses and noise are more noticeable. This is especially prominent in the song Exit Music (For a Film) (Remastered) by Radiohead. Vocals are louder and more forward, overpowering the rest of the music. On Tidal, quiet parts of the music are truly quiet. Songs sound more flat, with vocals not artificially boosted to sound louder. Music just sounds clearer and more pleasing. Even with Massive Attack's Paradise Circus, bass sounds deeper and more controlled at the 2 minute mark. Dynamic range is pretty impressive. Playing High Highs' Open Season on Deezer, the highs sound clanky and dry. Sound-wise, Tidal really wins over Deezer. At this point, I'm not really sure if I'm hearing FLAC vs MQA difference or Deezer vs Tidal magic. My dilemma will be explained below.

To be honest, I don't think walking around with the HD660S in the city is a smart choice. I tried the same songs on my Audio-Technica IM02, IM70 and an old ATH-M50, the differences are less "in your face" but they are definitely there. I want to try the desktop programs with a proper DAC and amp, but I am currently traveling with a laptop so that would have to wait. Of course, I also can't try out Chromecast support at the moment.

Personally, I like Deezer's UI. Tidal's app is slow and clunky. I am also unsure whether the song is being played in HiFi (FLAC) or Master (MQA) even if I checked Master in the settings. The HiFi icon is blue on the Now Playing screen, but I have no clue what it means. (Will it flash a Master or MQA overlay if it plays on Master? Thus my dilemma above.) On Deezer, there's an HQ icon overlay on the album art in the Now Playing screen. I also prefer Deezer's music discovery and show lyrics features. Flow is quite good at keeping me engaged with nice music while driving and stuck in traffic.

I can't really say if both options provide a comparable music selection, but Tidal seems to lean toward Hip Hop and RnB (both of which I don't listen to). Searching for the artist High Highs, Deezer returns the right artist as its top result, while Tidal returns it as the 12th result in "View All." It seems like more obscure artists get buried in the search results even if I typed the exact artist name correctly. I guess Tidal's search algorithm isn't as powerful as Deezer's.

Pricing-wise, Deezer wins hands down. In my country, Deezer is available for 5USD (converted) per month. I had to turn on my VPN just to create a Tidal account, plus, HiFi is 4x Deezer's asking price. I will be moving to another country where Tidal is supported though. If I can keep Deezer's cheaper pricing plan, then it would be a tough choice. Would Tidal's more expensive pricing be worth it? If Tidal provides an equally impressive experience on the desktop, then I would say it's definitely worth it. There's no way around it, Tidal's HiFi/Master quality is darn right sexy.

 

[voxie]

Hi happysappy..good post. before I can give some help, are you definitely listening to Deezers FLAC plan? In my country its €19.99 per month same as Tidal.

 

[happysappy]

Definitely. Deezer HiFi is flashed under My Music on the app. Deezer Premium+ is even cheaper at around 2.50USD/month.




The Philippines also has the cheapest Spotify plans in the world. Link to visualization.

 

[baseonmars]

Last week I had the same feeling as you about Deezer and was about to cancelled the trial. Earlier this week I picked up a new DAC/Amp and some Fostex headphones and I'm having a much harder time telling the difference. I'm starting to wonder if the problem was related to my OS sound settings.

Those prices are crazy good.

 

[Elecroestatico]

dezeer doesnt offer the ability to take exclusive control of your sound card on the desktop apps, thats why many audiphiles are not continuing their trial period. Too bad because tidal is a true turtle app but at least the sound quality is there and can skip your OS sound settings. The difference in quality is supposed to become more apparent the better your gear is, so if you can hear difference maybe the gear is not revealing detailed enough sound to hear the difference.

 

[baseonmars]

Yeah, Deezer also doesn't support gapless playback which can be REALLY annoying. I still prefer the music selection and most of the what the Deezer desktop app has to offer (given it's still in Beta anyway).

I've since bought a pair of Audeze LCD 3's and a Deckard, and although I haven't used Tidal since picking those up I'm still getting great audio results with Deezer. I've used Vox and Calibri with exclusive mode and I'll be honest - the only difference seems to be that in exclusive mode system sounds and web pages play through the internal speakers.

Perhaps exclusive mode is less of a big deal with Mac OS and Apple hardware?

 

[PANZERBERO]

Hello, I have been frustrated with Spotify's app lately (on Android), so I took time to explore other options. I am using Deezer HiFi (HQ setting) and Tidal HiFi (Master setting) on an LG V30+ with an HD660S (Asen Performance Series CB3L-SHP 1.3M cable) and Quad DAC option on. All songs are stored on the internal storage. No other DAC/Amp was used, and testing was done in a quiet bedroom.

I do not consider myself an audiophile, because I haven't really mastered the art of describing sound. My ears are sensitive enough to detect changes in audio quality though. Please bear with my substandard description.

Anyway, I played several songs on both apps. In general, I find that songs are louder on Deezer. The downside: hisses and noise are more noticeable. This is especially prominent in the song Exit Music (For a Film) (Remastered) by Radiohead. Vocals are louder and more forward, overpowering the rest of the music. On Tidal, quiet parts of the music are truly quiet. Songs sound more flat, with vocals not artificially boosted to sound louder. Music just sounds clearer and more pleasing. Even with Massive Attack's Paradise Circus, bass sounds deeper and more controlled at the 2 minute mark. Dynamic range is pretty impressive. Playing High Highs' Open Season on Deezer, the highs sound clanky and dry. Sound-wise, Tidal really wins over Deezer. At this point, I'm not really sure if I'm hearing FLAC vs MQA difference or Deezer vs Tidal magic. My dilemma will be explained below.

To be honest, I don't think walking around with the HD660S in the city is a smart choice. I tried the same songs on my Audio-Technica IM02, IM70 and an old ATH-M50, the differences are less "in your face" but they are definitely there. I want to try the desktop programs with a proper DAC and amp, but I am currently traveling with a laptop so that would have to wait. Of course, I also can't try out Chromecast support at the moment.

Personally, I like Deezer's UI. Tidal's app is slow and clunky. I am also unsure whether the song is being played in HiFi (FLAC) or Master (MQA) even if I checked Master in the settings. The HiFi icon is blue on the Now Playing screen, but I have no clue what it means. (Will it flash a Master or MQA overlay if it plays on Master? Thus my dilemma above.) On Deezer, there's an HQ icon overlay on the album art in the Now Playing screen. I also prefer Deezer's music discovery and show lyrics features. Flow is quite good at keeping me engaged with nice music while driving and stuck in traffic.

I can't really say if both options provide a comparable music selection, but Tidal seems to lean toward Hip Hop and RnB (both of which I don't listen to). Searching for the artist High Highs, Deezer returns the right artist as its top result, while Tidal returns it as the 12th result in "View All." It seems like more obscure artists get buried in the search results even if I typed the exact artist name correctly. I guess Tidal's search algorithm isn't as powerful as Deezer's.

Pricing-wise, Deezer wins hands down. In my country, Deezer is available for 5USD (converted) per month. I had to turn on my VPN just to create a Tidal account, plus, HiFi is 4x Deezer's asking price. I will be moving to another country where Tidal is supported though. If I can keep Deezer's cheaper pricing plan, then it would be a tough choice. Would Tidal's more expensive pricing be worth it? If Tidal provides an equally impressive experience on the desktop, then I would say it's definitely worth it. There's no way around it, Tidal's HiFi/Master quality is darn right sexy.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Hello, I have been frustrated with Spotify's app lately

What was it that was frustrating you with Spotify? I had both Spotify and Tidal for quite a while. Even though Tidal had notably better sound quality, I found Spotify's Discover Weekly, New Release Radar, and other curated playlists to be vastly superior. Ultimately I found those features (and Spotify's larger library) to be more valuable than the better sound quality... but it's been about a year since I stopped subscribing to Tidal. Has anything changed significantly?

I checked and Deezar costs $20/mo. in the U.S., so there's no incentive to try it that I can think of.

 

[danielbarakat]

Hey HiFi is not available on Deezer mobile app while tidal is. That's probably the difference youre hearing

 

[Papa253]

Hey HiFi is not available on Deezer mobile app while tidal is. That's probably the difference youre hearing

Really Deezer hifi not on mobile app??

 

[Trerit]

Perhaps exclusive mode is less of a big deal with Mac OS and Apple hardware?

Still the same deal, it has to do with the bitrate and bit depth of the album you are playing and the one set in system settings.

If the album you play has 44.100hz 16bit(CD quality), and your Mac is set to 192.000hz 24bit. your computer will up sample the CD. and depending on the sound card you may get intermodulation distortion.

Anyways, i hear a difference with my Yggdrasil DAC when using exclusive mode, mainly because the dac physicaly changes what chips it uses depending on the bitrate and depth it is being fed.
I do not hear a difference between exlusive mode when playing CD quality stuff beause my windows settings is set to 44.100hz 16bit. that might just be true for my DAC as i have not tested this with others.

 

[Elecroestatico]

Hello, I have been frustrated with Spotify's app lately (on Android), so I took time to explore other options. I am using Deezer HiFi (HQ setting) and Tidal HiFi (Master setting) on an LG V30+ with an HD660S (Asen Performance Series CB3L-SHP 1.3M cable) and Quad DAC option on. All songs are stored on the internal storage. No other DAC/Amp was used, and testing was done in a quiet bedroom.

I do not consider myself an audiophile, because I haven't really mastered the art of describing sound. My ears are sensitive enough to detect changes in audio quality though. Please bear with my substandard description.

Anyway, I played several songs on both apps. In general, I find that songs are louder on Deezer. The downside: hisses and noise are more noticeable. This is especially prominent in the song Exit Music (For a Film) (Remastered) by Radiohead. Vocals are louder and more forward, overpowering the rest of the music. On Tidal, quiet parts of the music are truly quiet. Songs sound more flat, with vocals not artificially boosted to sound louder. Music just sounds clearer and more pleasing. Even with Massive Attack's Paradise Circus, bass sounds deeper and more controlled at the 2 minute mark. Dynamic range is pretty impressive. Playing High Highs' Open Season on Deezer, the highs sound clanky and dry. Sound-wise, Tidal really wins over Deezer. At this point, I'm not really sure if I'm hearing FLAC vs MQA difference or Deezer vs Tidal magic. My dilemma will be explained below.

To be honest, I don't think walking around with the HD660S in the city is a smart choice. I tried the same songs on my Audio-Technica IM02, IM70 and an old ATH-M50, the differences are less "in your face" but they are definitely there. I want to try the desktop programs with a proper DAC and amp, but I am currently traveling with a laptop so that would have to wait. Of course, I also can't try out Chromecast support at the moment.

Personally, I like Deezer's UI. Tidal's app is slow and clunky. I am also unsure whether the song is being played in HiFi (FLAC) or Master (MQA) even if I checked Master in the settings. The HiFi icon is blue on the Now Playing screen, but I have no clue what it means. (Will it flash a Master or MQA overlay if it plays on Master? Thus my dilemma above.) On Deezer, there's an HQ icon overlay on the album art in the Now Playing screen. I also prefer Deezer's music discovery and show lyrics features. Flow is quite good at keeping me engaged with nice music while driving and stuck in traffic.

I can't really say if both options provide a comparable music selection, but Tidal seems to lean toward Hip Hop and RnB (both of which I don't listen to). Searching for the artist High Highs, Deezer returns the right artist as its top result, while Tidal returns it as the 12th result in "View All." It seems like more obscure artists get buried in the search results even if I typed the exact artist name correctly. I guess Tidal's search algorithm isn't as powerful as Deezer's.

Pricing-wise, Deezer wins hands down. In my country, Deezer is available for 5USD (converted) per month. I had to turn on my VPN just to create a Tidal account, plus, HiFi is 4x Deezer's asking price. I will be moving to another country where Tidal is supported though. If I can keep Deezer's cheaper pricing plan, then it would be a tough choice. Would Tidal's more expensive pricing be worth it? If Tidal provides an equally impressive experience on the desktop, then I would say it's definitely worth it. There's no way around it, Tidal's HiFi/Master quality is darn right sexy.

I been using tidal for like 3+ years but being frustrated with the interface ,connection lags and limitations on playlist playing and song browsing, I decided to try deezer as soon as became available in the US and I found the sound just the way you described it compare to tidal, also deezer's desktop app didn't have the ability to use exclusive mode of my sound card, that and the fact that you can't change that bright white background made me quickly move back to tidal in less than a week, besides conveniently as soon as deezer made their debut in the US tidal fixed nearly all server lag problems ,song navigation, and even gave a new fresh face to their interface. But ask me if they did anything to fix these when they didnt have competition, in 3 years they only offer me like 2 weeks of free tidal for my concerns on their program lol.