[doctorjazz]

So yeah, I'm thinking Tidal is maybe not worth double the price of Spotify, given the much smaller music library.  Anyone know of any good deals for a new Spotify account?

Depends on how much the sound means to you...I have Tidal, mostly listen to it in my office. I also listen to over the air and internet radio (WFMU.org, the world's greatest radio station, or one of, at least, haven't heard them all...). Listen to a very good clock radio, not high end fare, but the old Cambridge Audio Kloss 88CD, sold for $300+ when it came out. Not your Krell/Wilson (pick your uber high end setup) gear, but pretty good for your casual office background stuff. Anyway, when I go from streaming or FM radio to Tidal, music just jumps out of my radio, it really does sound BETTER than the other things I can get, including the internet streams. I assume the regular Spotify and similar streams are about the same quality as the WFMU streams (can't directly compare, my office firewall blocks most of this kind of stuff, but I've found a few that slip by). So, I'm quite happy with Tidal (my kids would prefer I go back to Spotify), it still has rough edges, playlists not very extensive, some availability of albums, etc, but, when I get something I like going on it, have no regrets on paying for the difference.
Sounds like the Deezer Elite would be similar, but, as it is tied to Sonos at this time, and I'm not, not an option for me.

 

[HemiSam]

You can get Deezer Elite without the Sonos...I've used it via my iPhone and laptop but I don't know about the 50% off deal without the Sonos.
 
HS

 

[doctorjazz]

That's good to know, anyone have any sense of comparison between Deezer Elite and Tidal? The places I read said it was only connected to Sonos in the US, but they may be outdated.

 

[bavinck]

I honestly cannot notice much difference between spotify extreme and tidal. Certainly not enough difference for my money.

 

[doctorjazz]

Cool, you should save the money.

 

[money4me247]

I honestly cannot notice much difference between spotify extreme and tidal. Certainly not enough difference for my money.

me either lol

 

[doctorjazz]

OK, doesn't pay to spend twice if you don't find it an improvement. Me, I'm very happy with the sound improvement I note on TIDAL, worth it to me. Different strokes, and so on and so on and Scooby dooby dooby...

 

[Hansotek]

I honestly cannot notice much difference between spotify extreme and tidal. Certainly not enough difference for my money.

I don't notice much either. You do get a bit more extension into the highest treble frequencies on Tidal, but that's about it. Every once in a while it makes an image is a little touch crisper. Without a really good DAC, it is very hard to tell the difference.

 

[HemiSam]

I wish I could comment on Tidal but I've had no experience with it.  What I can offer is the following.  I listen to Deezer Elite via two basic rigs for the most part (unless I'm simply going through my iPhone and often I pick Beats for that (previously MOG) because the selection engine if you well is so darn good at recommending new music based on your tastes.  Anyhoo...I'll pump the Deezer to Sonos via wifi and to DAC via optical coax cable (so I go around the DAC in the Sonos).  Then I'll go out from my Beresford Caimain MkII via RCA either to the Woo WA7 which I mostly listen to with my HD650's (I have 700's and a Sony Z7 as well as a few other bits and bobs like ATH M50x) or I'll go to my Koss ESP-950's via the Koss amp electrostats.  So I can hear pretty well what's going on.
 
Most files are FLAC, but sometimes I'll check because I can tell it's not quite right and most the time I can tell when they revert to MP3 because that's all they have.  Sometimes a FLAC file will have a poor source recording (sadly a lot of 80's R&R is crap).  So my point is I can more often than not through my rig tell whether it's a 16/44 file or MP3.  Honestly, many of the MP3's sound really good too so it's not a night and day difference even on a rig that's pretty good.
 
Happy listening  This rig has been a game changer for me.  I quit ripping a huge CD collection I have which was tedious at best.
 
HS

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

When using Spotify premium, make sure quality settings are set to high quality stream if you're streaming via pc. This enables 320kbps instead of 160kbps. Same as goes with mobile devices except they call it "extreme quality." I use mine in offline mode on both my phone and dx100. The 320kbps feature is only available on premium, free service is stuck at 160kbps.

*edit: also be sure to uncheck sound leveling or volume equalization, which is default to on. It also can lower sq through digital attenuation.

Lastly if you're streaming via PC with a premium account be sure to check out Fidelify (not sure if it's Mac compatible). It's a Spotify premium player by an individual in Sweden and unlike the regular Spotify player, Fidelify supports WASAPI and ASIO which makes a big impact on sq on top of 320kbps. There's a head-fi thread for Fidelify for those interested in more info.

 

[bavinck]

When using Spotify premium, make sure quality settings are set to high quality stream if you're streaming via pc. This enables 320kbps instead of 160kbps. Same as goes with mobile devices except they call it "extreme quality." I use mine in offline mode on both my phone and dx100. The 320kbps feature is only available on premium, free service is stuck at 160kbps.

Lastly if you're streaming via PC with a premium account be sure to check out Fidelify (not sure if it's Mac compatible). It's a Spotify premium player by an individual in Sweden and unlike the regular Spotify player, Fidelify supports WASAPI and ASIO which makes a big impact on sq on top of 320kbps. There's a head-fi thread for Fidelify for those interested in more info.

Thanks for the tip on Fidelify. Never heard of it and I will definitely check it out. Running the HD tidal test everyone was talking about to Dragonfly 1.2 to Project Starlight to HD600 I could not tell the difference between the mp3 and flac. For me that means sticking with buying CDs and Spotify. If this player improves the Spotify sound I am down with it. Can you notice a difference?

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Apologies for the derailment. This is my final post on Spotify/Fidelify.

No problem, I've spoken to the software writer directly several times. The player still has a niggle here and there but I've watched it go through 5 versions and this seems to be a settled version. Only issue i have is sometimes not all my playlists will show on first load and have to hit the refresh list button.

I can hear an improvement in sq even with just my work speaker rig, most noticeably the highs seemed to be the most beneficial by taking off some harshness on a lot of tracks. Wasapi definitely trumps direct sound (Windows default) in sq.

The player also shows each tracks bit depth. I can say that most tracks now seem are 320kbps, whereas before all the streaming boom came out, there were more 160kbps tracks. So competition really shaped Spotify in a way..

 

[Hansotek]

Sorry. Continuing the derailment as I do a couple tests in the background at work.
 
Apparently, Tidal sounds quite a bit better through the web player in Chrome, compared to the Mac desktop app. I don't exactly know why, but I'm listening to it now, and it totally does. 

 

[RedJohn456]

When using Spotify premium, make sure quality settings are set to high quality stream if you're streaming via pc. This enables 320kbps instead of 160kbps. Same as goes with mobile devices except they call it "extreme quality." I use mine in offline mode on both my phone and dx100. The 320kbps feature is only available on premium, free service is stuck at 160kbps.

Lastly if you're streaming via PC with a premium account be sure to check out Fidelify (not sure if it's Mac compatible). It's a Spotify premium player by an individual in Sweden and unlike the regular Spotify player, Fidelify supports WASAPI and ASIO which makes a big impact on sq on top of 320kbps. There's a head-fi thread for Fidelify for those interested in more info.

Thats pretty cool, hope there is a mac version.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

I just looked and unfortunately Fidelify is only for PCs with Windows. How do Mac implement sound drivers? Maybe the system sounds already sends the raw data to dacs without an internal mixer?

I'm a tech for PCs by trade but when it comes to Mac I'm clueless.

Thats pretty cool, hope there is a mac version.