[redcracker]

My Tidal subscription runs out on 22 Mar and I have no intentions of renewing. Spotify, take my money already!

 

[peterinvan]

My Tidal subscription runs out on 22 Mar and I have no intentions of renewing. Spotify, take my money already!

Not me! I have many, many hours invested in creating Tidal favourites and playlists. I play Tidal on my iOS devices and have a great Offline library on my phone. I love the MQA results through my Explorer2 DAC into my stereo tower speaker system.

My wish is that Tidal would pay Roon for their great GUI (and metadata) and replace the existing Tidal front end completely.

 

[tmarshl]

Not me! I have many, many hours invested in creating Tidal favourites and playlists. I play Tidal on my iOS devices and have a great Offline library on my phone. I love the MQA results through my Explorer2 DAC into my stereo tower speaker system.

My wish is that Tidal would pay Roon for their great GUI (and metadata) and replace the existing Tidal front end completely.

I use Roon with Tidal, and feel it brings out the best of both:  Roon brings a great interface+metadata and Tidal brings great music+SQ.  What a combination!

 

[Thenazgul]

 
My Tidal subscription runs out on 22 Mar and I have no intentions of renewing. Spotify, take my money already!

Nope. Tidal have some artists that Spotify lacks, MQA(Masters), support of WASAPI bit-perfect etc.  Roon + Tidal is the best./ 

 

[JerseyD]

Nope. Tidal have some artists that Spotify lacks, MQA(Masters), support of WASAPI bit-perfect etc.  Roon + Tidal is the best./ 

Guess it depends what you listen to...
I have Spotify and Tidal, and find that Spotify has more artists (but Tidal sounds better). I also like the Tidal iOS interface much more.

 

[djnsmith7]

I skimmed through this thread and noticed some folks were trying to figure out what the deal is with Tidal's file format.  
 
Here's the file location on my LG V20:  Android/data/com.aspiro.title/files/offline
 
I transferred a half dozen files to my PC and haven't been able to gather any useful data on the files, other than the file sizes. At a quick glance, and a skim of about 100 files, Tidal Hi-Fi files appear to be, on average, at least 10 - 15mb smaller than those in my CD-ripped FLAC library.
 
As an example for comparison purposes, from my FLAC library, since I have the 2 Pac All Eyez On Me Disc 1 folder open:
 
47, 47, 42, 53, 48, 42, 63, 48, 51, 50, 56, 65, 50 & 52mb.
 
Now, I'll grab the same number of random Tidal Hi-Fi files (I can't decipher song titles in the file names):
 
27, 18, 26, 27, 32, 27, 39, 27, 26, 38, 29, 18, 21 & 22mb.
 
I ripped all of my CD's with dbpoweramp, so I know they're all legitimately 1400+ kbps.  Something about the numbers has placed a ? on the Tidal files for me.
 
I could double, triple or quadruple the example above, but I believe the results would be similar.  If you guys are interested, I have over 200 ripped CD's into uncompressed FLAC format @ 1400+, so I could do another 1 or 2 comparisons.  At this point, I'd like to know which tool they're using to extract the files & why their file sizes are so damn small (a lot of their files are <22mb).
 
On a more positive note, it's awesome that Tidal has the Bay Area artists that I've listened since the 90s:
EA Ski, Messy Marv, The Frontline (2 CAL graduates, 1 pending PhD), Mac Dre, San Quinn & Keek Da Sneak.

 

[musickid]

ive read i think chairman of tidal saying desktop version is close to OS so the audio is bit perfect. is this true? i use tidal hifi very happily and have no experience of programs like audirvana plus, amarra. im not that interested in eq'ing etc. do these programs really make a big difference? im worried about messing with the sound. if tidal is bit perfect thats ok for me. any advice appreciated. thanks mk

 

[djnsmith7]

I'm confident in saying my audio preferences are a bit on the unorthodox side, meaning I like my audio clean, clear & crisp.  I can't speak to whether or not the audio provided is bit perfect, but I can say that for my listening preferences, I can't tolerate the Tidal player as-is, so I run an Android EQ.    

 

[musickid]

Which elements can you not stand? how do you know by eq'ing you are not changing the intended sound signature of a particular track.

 

[wink]

I'm at a loss with Tidal streaming.....  

 

[sc2806]

  ive read i think chairman of tidal saying desktop version is close to OS so the audio is bit perfect. is this true? i use tidal hifi very happily and have no experience of programs like audirvana plus, amarra. im not that interested in eq'ing etc. do these programs really make a big difference? im worried about messing with the sound. if tidal is bit perfect thats ok for me. any advice appreciated. thanks mk

If you don't have any digital masters then you do need something like Tidal.  
If you understood what that gentleman from Playback was saying about Tidal & MQA in the Youtube video, then the MQA files after decoding couldn't be called bit perfect.  I don't know if that's important to you.
If you have some digital masters, and if you care how good they sound.  Listen to them with something like audirvana+ or Pure Music then compare it to the Tidal MQA "masters".  Hopefully, you'll understand what I mean.
I don't use Audirvana, so I can't be sure how much the difference is btw that and with Pure Music. But I do find the difference to be substantial in my system with PM. (given the digital masters are of comparable spec)  cheers, sc 

 

 

[musickid]

i will study the relevant software packages, a+,amarra etc and then i may trial. not feeling any real compulsion though. if tidal lossless with the right gear shines where is the motive.

 

[djnsmith7]

  Which elements can you not stand? how do you know by eq'ing you are not changing the intended sound signature of a particular track.

To my ears, it lacks clarity and overall audio presence and character.  I've always EQ'd my music & tailored it to what I like.  The Tidal player does have a nice bass punch, so I'll give it due credit.  

 

[wood1030]

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TIDAL MASTERS (MQA) SECTION?
 
After an update today (to version 2.1.5.228), the list of available Masters recordings is no longer present on the "What's New" page. 
 
Where'd they go?
 

 
 

 

[MacedonianHero]

  WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TIDAL MASTERS (MQA) SECTION?
 
After an update today (to version 2.1.5.228), the list of available Masters recordings is no longer present on the "What's New" page. 
 
Where'd they go?
 

 
 

Not sure...I've got the latest version on my computer and its there for both Audirvana 3 and the Tidal App. FWIW, I'm using an iMac.