jdawghawk Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I put this in this category as i view this as a technical topic. I've been extremely happy with TIDAL music streaming. Their high bit rate and Masters collection is really incredible. .. TIDAL is delivering master-quality audio recordings directly from the source to HiFi members in partnership with MQA. I usually ask my friends to name the most obscure band they can think of and almost without fail Tidal has most if not the entire catalog. I think I pay 12 bucks a month and am entirely happy. Just thought I'd pass this along as people who value quality sound I think this is a really good option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I wanted to switch since I believe they have unlimited streams and a family plan. However, the family doesn't want to have to start over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 3 hours ago, jdawghawk said: I usually ask my friends to name the most obscure band they can think of and almost without fail Tidal has most if not the entire catalog. Try the obscure band Metallica. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I may not be looking in the right place but most of their Masters are hip hop and rap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 3 hours ago, jdawghawk said: I usually ask my friends to name the most obscure band they can think of and almost without fail Tidal has most if not the entire catalog. Just the other day I looked for Graeme Edge Band and Mark-Almond. They had bits and pieces but definitely not the whole catalog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdawghawk Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 55 minutes ago, CECAA850 said: Try the obscure band Metallica. correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 24 minutes ago, Tarheel said: I may not be looking in the right place but most of their Masters are hip hop and rap. There's a lot of other masters stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdawghawk Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Tom Petty - the vast majority are master quality etc. Its a little hit and miss as to Master quality but either way the quality at which they stream is better than most and lends itself to those that have quality equipment. Just my two cents. I've had it for two months and use it every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fido Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I used to use Spotify and it was free to me on the family membership we had but once I got Tidal I have pretty much switched over. I have made so many playlists of music I love now and most of them are not MQA but they are hifi or CD Quality and they sound damned good. I can not hear the difference between CD quality and MQA making buying an MQA Dac not a requirement for me. I think MQA might be a tad bit of hype but again I just could not hear the difference with the Blueos Node2 in MQA or the files in CD quality. I also have Tidal on my computer and play it thru my KEF LS50 Wirless speakers I have in my office and cant hear the difference on that system either. I found much more music I like on Tidal than I could find on Spotify but if I cant find it on Tidal I will head over to spotify. I have almost 300 vinyl records and thought that was great but I now have over 200 playlists probably the equivalent of over 600 albums. I pulled my cd player out of my stack.i dont have to skip songs etc and there are many playlists that have music that were never released on vinyl. For me the Denefrips Dac made everything less grainy or electronic sounding and I dont mind listening to streamed music now. Before the Denefrips Dac I totally preferred vinyl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacek Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I don't care about MQA, it's not lossless format anyway. It's disputable if its better than CD (16/44). So I'm using only CD quality from TIDAL. https://www.hifiplus.com/articles/highresaudio-to-stop-offering-mqa/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I roll with both Spotify and Tidal. While Tidal has better sound quality Spotify Premium still sounds pretty darn good. In my experience, Spotify's catalog is better (bigger) than Tidal's for the music I look for. Mostly Rock music. Can't stand that rap hip hop crap.Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 On 8/12/2020 at 4:39 PM, Edgar said: Just the other day I looked for Graeme Edge Band and Mark-Almond. They had bits and pieces but definitely not the whole catalog. Apologies for responding to my own post. I'm three weeks into my free 30 day Tidal trial period, and while I've been very pleased with the sound quality, I find the selection and presentation to be lacking. I'm not sure whether I'll continue past the trial. As I mentioned above; missing Graeme Edge, missing Mark-Almond. Since then I've searched for Triumvirat (nothing). They don't even have Manfred Mann's "The Roaring Silence". Early Supertramp? Good luck. What's worse; when you start they ask you to select as many of your favorite artists as you please, and then start listening to whatever strikes your fancy. Their "algorithm" is supposed to monitor your listening habits and suggest other music that is similar. Unfortunately I have found that not to be the case. The mixes that their algorithm creates consist of exactly the same tracks by exactly the same artists, over and over. (Bonnie Raitt has an extensive catalog, so why do I have to listen to "I Can't Make You Love Me" fourteen times? Same with Jethro Tull and "Locomotive Breath".) Often the same mix will contain the same track multiple times. Meanwhile some of the less "popular" artists that I chose never appear at all. So I'm torn. There is a streaming radio station http://www.musicheads.us/ out of Burlington, VT, that has a much better variety and selection of the music that I like, but the quality is not nearly as good. Or I can get high quality repetition from Tidal. Decisions, decisions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 I settled on Tidal for now after trying Spotify previously. I like the selection and borrowing of playlist on Spotify better but like you said Tidal wins for quality. I am disappointed in their selection of MQA recordings as the promise of better sound was a selling point.. Mostly hip hop and rap from what I can see and I listen to neither. May be user error as I have not spent a lot of time looking around. I do have a Tom Petty playlist with 51 selections and 11 are MQA.......not too bad. A lot of their CD quality offerings do not sound as good as the actual disc to me. Spotify keeps promising to up their quality by the end of 2020 and if that happens I will likely switch. After a week with no music I turned on the Primaluna yesterday but rather than streaming I played well recorded CDs through an old tubed Jolida JD100 CDP and a Maverick Tube Magic dac. Mucho mejor! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Slightly off topic, but if you already have a large digital library Roon has a pretty good algorithm, at least for my tastes. It also works with Tidal. I don't use it for that, just my own music of about 70K tracks. If it is your music presented to you not of your own choosing, you will probably like it. Can't count how many times I watched a partial movie when I stumbled upon it on TV...and actually have the DVD sitting on a shelf. You? Similar with my music I am finding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Spotify keeps promising to up their quality by the end of 2020 Really? As in CD/HI Rez quality like Tidal? That's good news. It's about time.[emoji1303]Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panelhead Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Qobuz has a lot of hi-Rez. 15.00/month or family for 25.00. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fido Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 13 hours ago, Tarheel said: I settled on Tidal for now after trying Spotify previously. I like the selection and borrowing of playlist on Spotify better but like you said Tidal wins for quality. I am disappointed in their selection of MQA recordings as the promise of better sound was a selling point.. Mostly hip hop and rap from what I can see and I listen to neither. May be user error as I have not spent a lot of time looking around. I do have a Tom Petty playlist with 51 selections and 11 are MQA.......not too bad. A lot of their CD quality offerings do not sound as good as the actual disc to me. Spotify keeps promising to up their quality by the end of 2020 and if that happens I will likely switch. After a week with no music I turned on the Primaluna yesterday but rather than streaming I played well recorded CDs through an old tubed Jolida JD100 CDP and a Maverick Tube Magic dac. Mucho mejor! Most of my musical tastes are aligned with Tom Petty, The Beach Boys, Foreigner, Styx, Jackson Browne, James Taylor and many more classic rock groups along with Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga etc etc etc --- I find 90% of what I like to listen to on Tidal but when I cant find it there I log on to Spotify - Been very happy with the quality of Tidal more than Spotify but lower res is OK when you cant find it in hi res on Tidal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blvdre Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 On 8/23/2020 at 9:30 AM, Edgar said: So I'm torn. There is a streaming radio station http://www.musicheads.us/ out of Burlington, VT, that has a much better variety and selection of the music that I like, but the quality is not nearly as good. Or I can get high quality repetition from Tidal. Decisions, decisions. Thanks for the tip. I live in Burlington, and had not heard of this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 On 8/24/2020 at 1:17 PM, Blvdre said: Thanks for the tip. I live in Burlington, and had not heard of this. Be aware that the right channel in their stream is consistently about 3 dB hotter than the left. I've sent messages to them to try to get this corrected, but it has not worked. If you can get past that (balance control does the job), the rest is pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blvdre Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 6 minutes ago, Edgar said: Be aware that the right channel in their stream is consistently about 3 dB hotter than the left. I've sent messages to them to try to get this corrected, but it has not worked. If you can get past that (balance control does the job), the rest is pretty good. Good to know. The local college station, WRUV (where Russ Kinsley started), had the same issue for years. Not a problem when recording to tape, but still irritating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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