[Tai1or Made]

Tidal available in Aus!

Will give it a go, as my music selection is generally of terrible quality.

But the GF has Spotify Premium so it'd have to be pretty amazing for me to have 2 music subscriptions in the one house.

Will wait till they re-release the desktop player.

 

[elnero]

  Does anyone have a link to download the desktop app? anyone have it in their downloads folder and willing to upload it? really want to use the spotify playlist exporter that it has.

Contact Tidal's customer service. I sent them an email asking about the desktop client and they sent me a link to download it (links expired now though).

 

[obsidyen]

Apparently Tidal has some exclusive content. I think this approach is bad for customers. Maybe Spotify, Qobuz etc. will try to have exclusive content too or worse Apple will try to do it when they launch their streaming service, and they have money to burn. So what, do I have to subscribe to every streaming service? Artist X will only be on Tidal whereas Artist B will only be on Spotify etc... 

 

[cuiter23]

With Tidal offering 320kbps will that mean all the current lossless files are just upsampled? Or I'm guessing Tidal has the original lossless and downsamples to 320kbps. The latter makes a lot more sense but can anyone clarify?

 

[zilch0md]

With Tidal offering 320kbps will that mean all the current lossless files are just upsampled? Or I'm guessing Tidal has the original lossless and downsamples to 320kbps. The latter makes a lot more sense but can anyone clarify?

 

 
Have a look at miceblue's post (#100) to this thread:
 
Quote:

CD-rip of Lindsey Stirling's debut album (track 1, Electric Daisy Violin)


Tidal on HiFi mode:

^ Background noise is due to my recorder and added gain without clipping in Audacity

They look pretty darn identical to me.
Fun song to listen to

 
For that one track, at least, it would seem that Tidal is not up-sampling MP3 files.  But I can tell by monitoring my network counters that I'm streaming much larger files than MP3.
 
I have no problem believing that when in HiFi mode, Tidal is streaming genuine 44/16 FLAC files, as advertised.
 
Mike

 

[sonitus mirus]

I've done tests using Tidal's FLAC and a CD I own that was ripped to FLAC with dBpoweramp and had similar results.  I was unable to hear a difference when using the Foobar ABX plugin.  
 
I also ripped the same CD to both AAC 320 (Tidal's lossy format) and a Lame-encoded VBR 0 mp3 file and had similar results attempting to ABX with the Foobar plugin.  However, I am able to hear a difference between the Tidal AAC 320 kbps lossy file and any of my lossy files or the FLAC files.  
 
While it seems unnecessary, either the encoding process is changing the sound signature with AAC 320 or they are intentionally changing the sound so that a difference can be heard, as is evident in the following analysis:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/743658/tidal-lossless-listening-test-whats-going-on-here/15#post_11077298
 
I can pass the Tidal listening test every time I've attempted it using a pair of Denon D5000 headphones with either an audioengine D1 dac or Nuforce Icon HDP as a dac to an Asgard amp or O2 amp.  I passed the test 15/15 3 consecutive times (45/45 total), and I did this in under 10 minutes.  After I knew what to listen for, which is elevated bass and treble, I was selecting the correct file in about 5-10 seconds.  It seems very suspicious that the same EQ-shaping applied to the lossy file matches exactly with what Tidal claims the listener should be hearing, weakened bass and high frequency cymbals.   Basically, the Tidal lossy versions are different from their lossless versions, but I don't believe it is necessary for them to be different, since I am able to encode these without any change to the lower and higher frequencies that can be identified in a double blind test. 
 
Based on these discoveries, I simply don't trust Tidal enough to give them any more of my money.
 
Edit: While not an exhaustive or conclusive test, I do test Google Music's files in a similar manner, and these have always been audibly transparent to my own FLAC rips.  The file properties for Google indicate that they use Lame version 3.98 320 kbps CBR files. (called "insane" quality)  Why Tidal is unable to provide audibly transparent AAC 320 kbps files is beyond me, as any competent encoder does not cause the bass and treble to be weakened slightly.
 
This is only my own experience, as I can't hear a difference between well encoded lossy and lossless. There could very well be differences others are able to hear that I am not capable of hearing.  

 

[zilch0md]

^ Very interesting!  

 

[inseconds99]

Does anyone have a link to the Pc desktop app?

 

[jazzfan]

I noticed Tidal is supports the Squeezebox platform.  As a Squeezebox Touch owner and a long time paid subscriber to Pandora, I thought it might be interesting to see how the two services compare on the SBTouch.  I began a Tidal HiFi (Lossless) 30 day free trial today.

To stream Tidal content via a Squeezebox Touch you must first satisfy the following minimum software requirements:

1. Logitech Media Server (LMS) version 7.7.0 or later installed (I run a Window 7 PC)
2. ickStream plugin must be installed on LMS

 
Basic installation instructions can be found here.  

After installing the ickStream plugin, here are a few Tidal pros/cons I've noted today.

Pros:

1. Large music library (est. 25 million songs)
2. Lossless streaming
3. Music quality seems good (need more time to evaluate)
4. Personal disc storage is no longer required (true with Pandora as well)
5. Uses the same Touch interface (if you like it, that's great)

Cons:

1. Uses the same Touch interface (limited to functionality of the Touch interface)
2. High subscription cost
3. Not all artist are currently available on Tidal (did not find Jacintha)
4. LMS must be running on an active server to stream Tidal content (this is not required for Pandora)
5. Does not have a "play similar music" function as with Pandora (see update below)
6. No automatic genre playlist (must manually select from a list)
7. Existing genre are not sub-divided into sub-genres
8. Encountered occasional rebuffering (could be an issue with my local wifi network)
9. Some songs would not play due to "getmusic" errors (for example, Adele - Skyfall)

 
If I have a chance, I'll update the list as I gain more experience with Tidal and the Squeezebox Touch.
 
04/02/15 Update
 
Cons:

1. Does not have a "play similar music" function as with Pandora (This function is implemented with the Artist Radio or Track Radio feature)
2. Optimized for Chrome (meaning, HiFi FLAC 1411 streaming is only available for Chrome.  I first used FireFox and discovered it only streams AAC 320)
3. Finding many artist album catalogs are incomplete (ie. Adele, Patricia Barber, Keith Richards, Eagles, Stevie Ray Vaughan to name a few)

 
04/04/15 Update

1. See thread post #685

 

[jagu]

   
Cons:

1. LMS must be running on an active server to stream Tidal content (this is not required for Pandora

 

In the Nordics, I use WiMP HIFI which is the origin of Tidal. They will change the name to Tidal. I've been using WiMP with my 4 Squeezeboxes (Touch, Boom, Radio) since 2013 and I don't need LMS to run WiMP. I use http://www.mysqueezebox.com instead. The downside is that you can't access your local library but like you, I find +25 million songs enough though I am missing the latest CDs from my favourite artist, David Sylvian, Hopefully, Tidal will be accessible from mysqueezebox soon which is a smoother setup than LMS.

 

[sausages]

I'd appreciate an upload of the Mac client - I'm trying to evaluate this, as a longtime Spotify Premium user.

 

[jazzfan]

  In the Nordics, I use WiMP HIFI which is the origin of Tidal. They will change the name to Tidal. I've been using WiMP with my 4 Squeezeboxes (Touch, Boom, Radio) since 2013 and I don't need LMS to run WiMP. I use http://www.mysqueezebox.com instead. The downside is that you can't access your local library but like you, I find +25 million songs enough though I am missing the latest CDs from my favourite artist, David Sylvian, Hopefully, Tidal will be accessible from mysqueezebox soon which is a smoother setup than LMS.

 
Tidal via mysqueezebox.com would be a fantastic development! Thank you for the update. I'll keep an eye out for an announcement. Having to run LMS is a big negative for me.

 

[jagu]

 In the Nordics, I use WiMP HIFI which is the origin of Tidal. They will change the name to Tidal. I've been using WiMP with my 4 Squeezeboxes (Touch, Boom, Radio) since 2013 and I don't need LMS to run WiMP. I use http://www.mysqueezebox.com instead. The downside is that you can't access your local library but like you, I find +25 million songs enough though I am missing the latest CDs from my favourite artist, David Sylvian, Hopefully, Tidal will be accessible from mysqueezebox soon which is a smoother setup than LMS.

 
Tidal via mysqueezebox.com would be a fantastic development! Thank you for the update. I'll keep an eye out for an announcement. Having to run LMS is a big negative for me.

From yesterday, I can now use my WiMP account to log on to Tidal. Maybe you should try your Tidal account to log on to WiMP to see if it works!

I just tapatalked!

 

[volly]

Can anyone get the free trial without having to pass on payment details? I received an email for a 30 day trial but as I was signing up I hit the pay wall and refused to continue further with the process!

 

[zilch0md]

No.