[Phoniac]

Not true. RCA and XLR always run at the same time.

 

[BrainFood]

..edit, never mind

 

[mixman]

Not true. RCA and XLR always run at the same time.

Yep found that out the hard way. I have my monitor speakers on the RCA's and my THX 789 on the XLR's They will both be on unless I turn off one or the other.

 

[oxide7]

My wife thought going to Tidal was a huge leap forward in sound and she's not an audiophile. She was listening on a single Sonos 1 too. If that's any indication. She rolled her eyes at me when I first signed up for Tidal and wouldn't listen to it. Then one day out of the blue (about a 1.5 years later) she decided to listen to a song on tidal and made this comment.

Just a quick update: I got a tidal trial and have been listening to tracks, including "masters". The difference between those tracks and Apple Music is barely perceivable, by me at least. And by barely, in those rare times it may just be placebo. It honestly sounds almost exactly the same. Few caveats to anyone paying attention to this: a lot of the stuff I listen to is studio stuff: hiphop, electronic, etc. MAYBE if I only listened to orchestra or something it would be more apparent. But in some of those trials I couldn't tell... again I'm just an "enthusiast" but that's what I'm hearing. These were also done on my IEMs, maybe the real headphones may sound diff, to which I'll report back.

The one thing I do like about Tidal is the "radio" next track suggestions, and recommended music. With Apple it just plays what I ask and that's it. So i always have to interact w/ it, and its annoying. I found Tidal to be superb at just keeping the music going in line with my first request, and also Spotify does that well too, but Apple is the worst. But since my whole family has macs and iphones the integration and ease is great considering my liberal-arts wife, and young kids.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

Just a quick update: I got a tidal trial and have been listening to tracks, including "masters". The difference between those tracks and Apple Music is barely perceivable, by me at least. And by barely, in those rare times it may just be placebo. It honestly sounds almost exactly the same. Few caveats to anyone paying attention to this: a lot of the stuff I listen to is studio stuff: hiphop, electronic, etc. MAYBE if I only listened to orchestra or something it would be more apparent. But in some of those trials I couldn't tell... again I'm just an "enthusiast" but that's what I'm hearing. These were also done on my IEMs, maybe the real headphones may sound diff, to which I'll report back.

The one thing I do like about Tidal is the "radio" next track suggestions, and recommended music. With Apple it just plays what I ask and that's it. So i always have to interact w/ it, and its annoying. I found Tidal to be superb at just keeping the music going in line with my first request, and also Spotify does that well too, but Apple is the worst. But since my whole family has macs and iphones the integration and ease is great considering my liberal-arts wife, and young kids.

I've noticed a difference between having FLAC files ranging from 16bit 24bit and files that are AAC or WAV or ALAC.

I think Tidal premium offers lower quality than Tidal Hifi. and i think Tidal Hifi only offers up to a maximum of FLAC 16bit /44.1 which is CD quality.

you wont hear anything higher than 16bit / 44.1 from Tidal if that what you're hoping for.

 

[jerick70]

I've noticed a difference between having FLAC files ranging from 16bit 24bit and files that are AAC or WAV or ALAC.

I think Tidal premium offers lower quality than Tidal Hifi. and i think Tidal Hifi only offers up to a maximum of FLAC 16bit /44.1 which is CD quality.

you wont hear anything higher than 16bit / 44.1 from Tidal if that what you're hoping for.

Most Tidal masters are 96 kHz / 24 bit.

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS

 

[Tsukuyomi]

Most Tidal masters are 96 kHz / 24 bit.

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS

How does the "MQA Masters" file look on a waveguide bar? is it the full bar or does it have headroom?

 

[Anaz]

Just a quick update: I got a tidal trial and have been listening to tracks, including "masters". The difference between those tracks and Apple Music is barely perceivable, by me at least. And by barely, in those rare times it may just be placebo. It honestly sounds almost exactly the same. Few caveats to anyone paying attention to this: a lot of the stuff I listen to is studio stuff: hiphop, electronic, etc. MAYBE if I only listened to orchestra or something it would be more apparent. But in some of those trials I couldn't tell... again I'm just an "enthusiast" but that's what I'm hearing. These were also done on my IEMs, maybe the real headphones may sound diff, to which I'll report back.

The one thing I do like about Tidal is the "radio" next track suggestions, and recommended music. With Apple it just plays what I ask and that's it. So i always have to interact w/ it, and its annoying. I found Tidal to be superb at just keeping the music going in line with my first request, and also Spotify does that well too, but Apple is the worst. But since my whole family has macs and iphones the integration and ease is great considering my liberal-arts wife, and young kids.

On Apple Music, I believe “Create Station” from a song does what you’re looking for.

 

[jerick70]

Just a quick update: I got a tidal trial and have been listening to tracks, including "masters". The difference between those tracks and Apple Music is barely perceivable, by me at least. And by barely, in those rare times it may just be placebo. It honestly sounds almost exactly the same. Few caveats to anyone paying attention to this: a lot of the stuff I listen to is studio stuff: hiphop, electronic, etc. MAYBE if I only listened to orchestra or something it would be more apparent. But in some of those trials I couldn't tell... again I'm just an "enthusiast" but that's what I'm hearing. These were also done on my IEMs, maybe the real headphones may sound diff, to which I'll report back.

The one thing I do like about Tidal is the "radio" next track suggestions, and recommended music. With Apple it just plays what I ask and that's it. So i always have to interact w/ it, and its annoying. I found Tidal to be superb at just keeping the music going in line with my first request, and also Spotify does that well too, but Apple is the worst. But since my whole family has macs and iphones the integration and ease is great considering my liberal-arts wife, and young kids.

I'm going to agree with @Tsukuyomi. Except that Tidal offers master MQA recordings that are 96 Khz / 24 bit. It sounds like you are using the HiFi trial so you should get the full monty.

One thing that I have noticed with Tidal is some recordings are not the best. I would compare quite a few tracks and see what you get. Also you need to compare the same albums from each service because there is a large variation is recording quality from album to album. I think the LCD-Xs that you have may give you a better feel for the differences of Tidal to Apple music. There is a difference when I've compared. Especially with Tidal Masters recordings.

 

[jerick70]

How does the "MQA Masters" file look on a waveguide bar? is it the full bar or does it have headroom?

I've haven't done any measurements myself. This guy has some interesting takes on MQA...

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2016/01/measurements-mqa-master-quality.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/07/measurements-mqa-filters-on-mytek.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/02/musingsmeasurements-on-blurring-and-why.html

 

[Tsukuyomi]

I'm going to agree with @Tsukuyomi. Except that Tidal offers master MQA recordings that are 96 Khz / 24 bit. It sounds like you are using the HiFi trial so you should get the full monty.

One thing that I have noticed with Tidal is some recordings are not the best. I would compare quite a few tracks and see what you get. Also you need to compare the same albums from each service because there is a large variation is recording quality from album to album. I think the LCD-Xs that you have may give you a better feel for the differences of Tidal to Apple music. There is a difference when I've compared. Especially with Tidal Masters recordings.

I've found from my personal experience that apple really supports the "loudness wars". almost every recording ive heard of itunes store sounds a bit shouty. but when i re-listen to the same song from a CD rip that ive done myself and pushed to 16/44.1 it sounds a lot less shouty and more clean. I think apple prides themselfs on making music fast downloading, easily stream-able and decent sounding (they would say excellent for Marketing purposes) for the mass of the population that doesnt engage in this hobby or who thinks apple airpods are good enough quality for their music means.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

I've haven't done any measurements myself. This guy has some interesting takes on MQA...

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2016/01/measurements-mqa-master-quality.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/07/measurements-mqa-filters-on-mytek.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/02/musingsmeasurements-on-blurring-and-why.html

From the quick read i had it seems they're just re-labeling 16bit audio as 24bit MQA. . . :/ thats underhanded!

 

[jerick70]

From the quick read i had it seems they're just re-labeling 16bit audio as 24bit MQA. . . :/ thats underhanded!

If you look further down he comes to the conclusion that he can't measure properly because of the proprietary nature of how MQA is encoded / decoded. But he did do a A/B/X test with his wife, she's a piano player, and she said the MQA file sounded artificial compared to the original DAT file. But the resolution and technicalities were there. The artificial sound could be due to the filters they used to encode the file into MQA though so they could make the song more appealing to more people. I mean MQA is not just for audiophiles it is gear towards the apple music folks too.

 

[eargasam]

Question could I run the rme off the microsoft surface rt. It's a little old but just wondering if you could run it.

 

[jerick70]

Question could I run the rme off the microsoft surface rt. It's a little old but just wondering if you could run it.

Yes you should be able to.