[Niitrogen]

Is it worth going to Tidal in 2020? i have a nice SMSL SP200 and SU-8 DAC... but am currently running Spotify. Anyone have A good TLDR for me?

 

[Nadek]

I use Tidal, Spotify, and Deezer.

Short answer is No.
I use Tidal through my iPhone, I also have access to their Master quality feature.
First for the Master quality. This feature is available in additional cost an IMO, I don't think it's worth it. While some of the best selling, famous songs/albums (particulary new age) are available through this option, the difference, IMO, is not worth it. Now if you only use their HiFi subscription, you get a more audible difference compared to Spotify (320kbps vs FLAC) but I find that compared to Spotify, their app is slow and uncomfortable to use. I plan to unsubscribe this month only because of speed issues and the app design.
I hope they improve those issues soon.

Now I didn't want to ditch the FLAC quality, so I searched for another option. I find Deezer to be somewhere in between Spotify and Tidal in terms of library size and app design, so I plan to stick with it for now. For loseless FLAC, go for Deezer HiFi. If you don't feel like there is much of difference, stick with Spotify.

EDIT:
In addition, If you look for new music flow based on your taste, Spotify is much better than the others. Both Deezer and Tidal fail at this feature, as if their algorithm is more simpler. (e.g. you like steve wonder? great! here are another 5 songs of him in a row... where in Spotify you will find more artists with similar taste... which some of them you probably didn't hear about before)
When I first installed Deezer, they asked me which artists I like. Now 95 percent of my flow playlist is made from artists and music I already know. That was kind of disappointing as I use Deezer as my main audio player, but I want to be exposed to new music as well.

 

[Infoseeker]

The mqa remasters are good for old songs that sound too boring from old equipment.

Yes mqa is just another unneeded codec alongside a new loudness war...but people forget they are Remasters too. Somebody put the effort to better the song (in their own vision) .

If you listen to a lot of YouTube remixers like NightCore stuff. They usually have a presence on Spotify over Tidal.



I use Spotify to follow YouTube people, but mostly use Tidal for original songs. Especially old albums remastered.

 

[SilverEars]

I use Tidal, Spotify, and Deezer.

Short answer is No.
I use Tidal through my iPhone, I also have access to their Master quality feature.
First for the Master quality. This feature is available in additional cost an IMO, I don't think it's worth it. While some of the best selling, famous songs/albums (particulary new age) are available through this option, the difference, IMO, is not worth it. Now if you only use their HiFi subscription, you get a more audible difference compared to Spotify (320kbps vs FLAC) but I find that compared to Spotify, their app is slow and uncomfortable to use. I plan to unsubscribe this month only because of speed issues and the app design.
I hope they improve those issues soon.

Now I didn't want to ditch the FLAC quality, so I searched for another option. I find Deezer to be somewhere in between Spotify and Tidal in terms of library size and app design, so I plan to stick with it for now. For loseless FLAC, go for Deezer HiFi. If you don't feel like there is much of difference, stick with Spotify.

EDIT:
In addition, If you look for new music flow based on your taste, Spotify is much better than the others. Both Deezer and Tidal fail at this feature, as if their algorithm is more simpler. (e.g. you like steve wonder? great! here are another 5 songs of him in a row... where in Spotify you will find more artists with similar taste... which some of them you probably didn't hear about before)
When I first installed Deezer, they asked me which artists I like. Now 95 percent of my flow playlist is made from artists and music I already know. That was kind of disappointing as I use Deezer as my main audio player, but I want to be exposed to new music as well.

For some reason when I go through Tidal, the music sound enhanced that as soon as I play it on another streaming player like Spotify, it doesn't sound as good. So, I feel like if I go through Spotify, I wouldn't be as enthused with varieties of genre/tracks due to masters not sounding as good through it even-though the collection is larger. I prefer good sounding streams to discover music basically.

So, how the recording is presented means a lot for somebody to dig them. At least for me. The gear matters, the mastering quality matters.

Let's take for example of an headphone that popular music sounds like doodoo and only audiophile tracks sound good. Do you want to listen to only the boring ass audiophiles tracks all day?

 

[Niitrogen]

In addition, If you look for new music flow based on your taste, Spotify is much better than the others.

I tend to forget how good spotify is at this. It is almost second nature at this point. Didn't realize Tidal would be that far behind in terms of searching algorithms.
Tidal does have a 60 day trial period so i guess i'll give it a shot for myself.

 

[Niitrogen]

For some reason when I go through Tidal, the music sound enhanced that as soon as I play it on another streaming player like Spotify, it doesn't sound as good. So, I feel like if I go through Spotify, I wouldn't be as enthused with varieties of genre/tracks due to masters not sounding as good through it even-though the collection is larger. I prefer good sounding streams to discover music basically.

Interesting! I'll keep an ear out and see how enhanced it sounds.

 

[MrNaturalAZ]

Maybe neither; have you had a look at Qobuz lately? (hey, somebody had to say it)

 

[SilverEars]

I tend to forget how good spotify is at this. It is almost second nature at this point. Didn't realize Tidal would be that far behind in terms of searching algorithms.
Tidal does have a 60 day trial period so i guess i'll give it a shot for myself.

I like Tidal's 'radio' or mix that automatically gets initiated once the tracks are finished playing. It's a bunch of tracks that's likely related to what you were listening to, and I find some really interesting stuff through the random playing of various related tracks. I really like it for music discovery, almost like Pandora. Those mixes are shown in your listening history as well, so you can revisit that mix again later in time.

The problem with Tidal is the size of the library, not as big as Spotify. Does Spotify have something similar? I don't have much experience with Spotify.

 

[ack84]

Late to the party but I only recently tried Tidal for the HiFi feature, was surprisrd they havent designed an EQ for IOS. This is a real deal breaker for me; I enjoy Spotify more when EQ’d even if the quality isn’t as good

 

[SilverEars]

Late to the party but I only recently tried Tidal for the HiFi feature, was surprisrd they havent designed an EQ for IOS. This is a real deal breaker for me; I enjoy Spotify more when EQ’d even if the quality isn’t as good

If you're going to use ios, it's not going to matter. Might as well use Spotify. Tidal is only useful with their Mac or Windows desktop PC software, or with Android's USB Audio Player Pro, which has an in app purchasable EQ.

 

[Infoseeker]

As SilverEars has said, Tidal "Radio" has taken the role Spotify had in discovering new music for me.

It does the job well.

 

[Deolum]

Keep in mind that you can convert playlists from spotify to tidal with "tunemymusic". That actually made me continue to use tidal.

 

[DaniRojo]

I'm only sticking with Spotify because of its larger catalog and new discoveries features. i will use a couple of examples. You cannot find Rammstein in Tidal, I would bet there are racist themed causes behind it, but whatever. Rammstein is a big enough band to let it go. New discoveries are undoubtedly much better in Spotify, no matter how you want to justify Tidal has this or that option. Oh, I almost forgot, Google Home integration in Tidal is quite less than ideal. I had to contact them in order to trying to solve a problem related to that (I could not play any Tidal music through my multi room system and they weren't able to solve it). So...

 

[Infoseeker]

I'm only sticking with Spotify because of its larger catalog and new discoveries features. i will use a couple of examples. You cannot find Rammstein in Tidal, I would bet there are racist themed causes behind it, but whatever. Rammstein is a big enough band to let it go. New discoveries are undoubtedly much better in Spotify, no matter how you want to justify Tidal has this or that option. Oh, I almost forgot, Google Home integration in Tidal is quite less than ideal. I had to contact them in order to trying to solve a problem related to that (I could not play any Tidal music through my multi room system and they weren't able to solve it). So...

Wierd, you are right Rammstein is there butbwith no albums.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Is it worth going to Tidal in 2020? i have a nice SMSL SP200 and SU-8 DAC... but am currently running Spotify. Anyone have A good TLDR for me?

Depends on your taste in music and hardware. I like Tidal hifi, it's very cheap here, and they have enough music I like. I have MQA DACs.