Tidal Lossless Streaming
Feb 3, 2018 at 4:22 PM Post #3,768 of 5,229
Hey guys looking for some advice.

I am currently running a FIIO X3 gen 2 with an A5 amp and oppo PM3 (All FLAC files). Love the sound but looking to purchase tidal to expand my library.

I was wondering if I should run it through my smart phone (SONY Z5) with an oppo ha2se amp, or buy a DAP for a similar price that will support tidal offline?

Do smartphones compress tidal music offline before sending it through to an external DAC? Is there an app I can download to stop this?

Thanks for the advice, there are so many options!
 
Feb 4, 2018 at 12:08 PM Post #3,769 of 5,229
Hey guys looking for some advice.

I am currently running a FIIO X3 gen 2 with an A5 amp and oppo PM3 (All FLAC files). Love the sound but looking to purchase tidal to expand my library.

I was wondering if I should run it through my smart phone (SONY Z5) with an oppo ha2se amp, or buy a DAP for a similar price that will support tidal offline?

Do smartphones compress tidal music offline before sending it through to an external DAC? Is there an app I can download to stop this?

Thanks for the advice, there are so many options!

You might consider Dragonfly Red with your phone. I personally use Oppo PM3 with my old iPhone re-purposed to be a dedicated Tidal streaming device on WiFi.

The Tidal app wll send lossless stream to your DAC
 
Feb 4, 2018 at 3:40 PM Post #3,770 of 5,229
You might consider Dragonfly Red with your phone. I personally use Oppo PM3 with my old iPhone re-purposed to be a dedicated Tidal streaming device on WiFi.

The Tidal app wll send lossless stream to your DAC

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I thought I read somewhere in this thread that android phones change the sample rates before sending it to an external DAC.

Does the dragonfly red have an amp as well or is it only a DAC.

I would like to buy a fiio x5 gen3 but I have read that it is terrible with tidal off-line.
 
Feb 7, 2018 at 1:28 PM Post #3,771 of 5,229
Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I thought I read somewhere in this thread that android phones change the sample rates before sending it to an external DAC.

Does the dragonfly red have an amp as well or is it only a DAC.

I would like to buy a fiio x5 gen3 but I have read that it is terrible with tidal off-line.

Dragonfly red does have an amp, although the power is significantly reduced when hooked to my Note 8 as opposed to my MacBook Pro........I assume this is to reduce the battery drain on mobile devices. It's still plenty for efficient IEM and headphones though. It needs to be used with an app like UAPP to bypass android's resampling natively. The only problem with that setup is you cannot access Tidal downloads through UAPP, only the streaming content. Only workaround that I've read about on here by a couple other headfiers is using an old Sony Z3 as your source with a rollback to android 4.4.4 or something like that. This will supposedly allow playing of Tidal downloads thru UAPP. I'm considering this approach myself as it seems like the best answer other than the new Hiby dap coming soon.
 
Feb 8, 2018 at 4:22 AM Post #3,772 of 5,229
Dragonfly red does have an amp, although the power is significantly reduced when hooked to my Note 8 as opposed to my MacBook Pro........I assume this is to reduce the battery drain on mobile devices. It's still plenty for efficient IEM and headphones though. It needs to be used with an app like UAPP to bypass android's resampling natively. The only problem with that setup is you cannot access Tidal downloads through UAPP, only the streaming content. Only workaround that I've read about on here by a couple other headfiers is using an old Sony Z3 as your source with a rollback to android 4.4.4 or something like that. This will supposedly allow playing of Tidal downloads thru UAPP. I'm considering this approach myself as it seems like the best answer other than the new Hiby dap coming soon.

Thanks for the reply,

I might just keep ripping cds to Flac and purchase the fiio x5 3 to keep the superior sound quality in lieu of tidal. It would have been great to use the program but it seems tricky to set up with a few bugs to sort out.
 
Feb 8, 2018 at 3:12 PM Post #3,773 of 5,229
Thanks for the reply,

I might just keep ripping cds to Flac and purchase the fiio x5 3 to keep the superior sound quality in lieu of tidal. It would have been great to use the program but it seems tricky to set up with a few bugs to sort out.
You might want to check out the Pioneer XDP 300r instead. I have the X5iii and the Pioneer is a better player both sonics wise and UI. Definitely streams Tidal better as well.
 
Feb 9, 2018 at 8:00 PM Post #3,774 of 5,229
You might want to check out the Pioneer XDP 300r instead. I have the X5iii and the Pioneer is a better player both sonics wise and UI. Definitely streams Tidal better as well.

Thanks for the reply.
I was looking at that dap but I read people were having trouble with broken headphone sockets and poor battery life. Have you experienced such issues?
 
Feb 9, 2018 at 11:43 PM Post #3,775 of 5,229
Thanks for the reply.
I was looking at that dap but I read people were having trouble with broken headphone sockets and poor battery life. Have you experienced such issues?
No problem with my headphones jacks at all......I think that was for a previous iteration or model. As for battery life, while it's not terrific, it's been ok if listening with screen off and not streaming. I use downloaded Tidal mostly along with some hires files. Thru UAPP, it will also stream hires files natively.
 
Feb 10, 2018 at 3:27 PM Post #3,776 of 5,229
I have a few questions Tidal related.

Is Tidal still the best quality out there or are there alternatives?

I heard that Tidal has some kind of overlay as their "copyright signature" on their flac songs. Is this true?

When I record songs from Tidal via Audials is quality lost?

And something I probably nobody can answer but does anybody know if Spotify ever will use flac music to stream?
 
Feb 10, 2018 at 5:00 PM Post #3,777 of 5,229
I have a few questions Tidal related.

Is Tidal still the best quality out there or are there alternatives?

I heard that Tidal has some kind of overlay as their "copyright signature" on their flac songs. Is this true?

When I record songs from Tidal via Audials is quality lost?

And something I probably nobody can answer but does anybody know if Spotify ever will use flac music to stream?
Depends on the music choice preffered. There is also the Qobuz which is more for classical.
The audio watermark is everywhere, even if you buy the flac music online. This has nothing to do with the Tidal, but with the label who want to control the distribution of their files.
 
Feb 13, 2018 at 8:49 AM Post #3,778 of 5,229
In my PC Tidal playback is so bright and fatiguing while Spotify is close to natural ... Do any experience similar behavior ? T.T
 
Feb 15, 2018 at 7:50 AM Post #3,779 of 5,229
In my PC Tidal playback is so bright and fatiguing while Spotify is close to natural ... Do any experience similar behavior ? T.T
I used Jplay and it helps a lot to shave off almost all brightness ! just need a hint tuning to eliminate the last bit of brightness
 
Feb 24, 2018 at 4:51 PM Post #3,780 of 5,229
The UI is so frustrating. Now I remember why I cancelled two years ago. Nothing's changed. Not being able to download your favourite tracks, lag during playback and sluggish desktop app. Saved albums don't appear in your track list. You have to go through each song individually and add it to a playlist. Forget about highlighting more than a handful of songs though because the desktop or web app can't handle it. Is it any better on DAP's or more of the same ?
 
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