Back to Tidal Hifi

[drummerman]

... after a year of Spotify Premium.

Surprised at how much better it sounds this time round.

Tighter, more precise, punchier and more texture. Spotify sounds more hollow, loose and rough.

Not sure if either have changed anything (not talking about masters) but I'm sure I didn't find the difference that obvious last time round.

 

[tino]

Am also currently enjoying the full Tidal experience free for 3 months courtesy of a £7 SanDisk USB memory stick purchase from PC World. It does sound good, but I can't see me paying £20 a month for it. I'll probably go back to using Deezer.

 

[muljao]

I thought by now there would be some news about that Spotify hifi thingy that was all over the web a few months back. Seems to have died before launching

 

[Pedro]

Call me crazy but I just moved from Tidal to Spotify Premium.
Tidal's SQ is better. Recently I compared both (FLAC vs Ogg) and the tracks I played were louder on Tidal. That can make a difference. At work using a laptop and a cheap stereo I can't tell the difference to be honest.

Spotify' classical catalogue and search engine are much better. Two worlds appart really. I also had loads of issues using Tidal at work. The web browser kept stopping during playback.

 

[davidf]

It's a shame TIDAL doesn't have the catalogue Spotify does, but it definitely has the better sound quality. And Masters takes things a step further.

 

[nopiano]

We are spoiled for choice! I'm happy with Qobuz, having trialled Tidal in between subscriptions. And now Primephonic is here - which I've yet to investigate, though I gather the musicians get a bigger share.

This seems like a race to the top, to me, which is commendable.

 

[davidf]

Too many will create confusion though, and just dilute memberships - not many will subscribe to two streaming services. From a personal point of view, I'd rather subscribe to Napster, as then I'd have a better chance of hearing a whole album after hearing a track in a film or on a radio station - if I like it enough, I'll then buy it. So for me, TIDAL for quality, and Napster for choice (and it's only a fiver).

 

[MajorFubar]

Question is, is there really a market for 'hifi' streaming services to ever get a strong foothold?

It would rely on people like us routinely choosing streaming over buying an album outright, either as a download or as a CD/LP. Because average Joe Punter who listens to lossy MP3s on his earbuds and thinks they're great certainly won't be shelling out on a premium service any time soon, and in my current mindset, nor will I.

It's too easy for the distributors and streaming services to take away albums or artists on a whim, or substitute favourite albums with e.g. horrid-sounding remasters which you don't like. Then on top of that, when your internet goes down, or their server goes down, you're basically sat there lstening to the clock tick.

I tolerate that unpredictability and fickleness when I'm paying half the price for a lossy service, and where my mindset is that if I want the best sounding version of an album, and I want to make sure I've got it forever, I'll go buy it. But I wouldn't tolerate it if streaming was my primary source.

 

[davidf]

I agree - on the whole, I'm against streaming services, particularly for one of the reasons you mentioned, but they're here to stay (unless people start leaving them in droves). I would hate to have been deprived of the physical memories I have from growing up in the late 70s and 80s which kids nowadays aren't going to experience - although I have come across a few customers who are purposely bringing up their kids with their own physical formats like CD and vinyl, which is good to see.

 

[tino]

I agree - on the whole, I'm against streaming services, particularly for one of the reasons you mentioned, but they're here to stay (unless people start leaving them in droves). I would hate to have been deprived of the physical memories I have from growing up in the late 70s and 80s which kids nowadays aren't going to experience - although I have come across a few customers who are purposely bringing up their kids with their own physical formats like CD and vinyl, which is good to see.

The kids of today will be fine ... I'm sure the will be able to find their digital audio memories anywhere on the internet, now and in the future. How many unlistened to CDs sit on shelves taking up space? I still think having a few treasured physical audio copies is a good thing, but we need far far less nowadays.

 

[insider9]

... after a year of Spotify Premium.

Surprised at how much better it sounds this time round.

Tighter, more precise, punchier and more texture. Spotify sounds more hollow, loose and rough.

Not sure if either have changed anything (not talking about masters) but I'm sure I didn't find the difference that obvious last time round.

No it's like it always sounded. For me the biggest difference has always been the size of the soundstage what you described as loose with Spotify. And that extra bit of clarity. Like David says Masters have taken it another step further.

But Spotify with it's great app and a big catalogue has it's place. Interesting mention of Napster here for discovery. I haven't tried it yet.

 

[davidf]

I really don't like Spotify's interface, never have done.

I've been using Napster for about 7/8 years now. I listen to some 'non standard' radio stations, and sometimes hear a track in a film, and if I like the track, I'll go and find the artist/album on Napster, which nine times out of ten I can - Spotify maybe five times out of ten. Napster's lower quality doesn't bother me, as all I want to hear is the content, and if I like it, I'll buy the CD or vinyl (depending on whether I'm buying it for personal use or want to use it for demo purposes as well), or download from Bandcamp or direct from the artist's website. Napster is fine for background listening too. But as I mentioned before, I use Napster, TIDAL, and Spotify now as I have them for demonstrating numerous products.

 

[knaithrover]

Tidal is miles better sound-wise than Spotty imo, night vs day. I haven't noticed there being less content really either. £20 a month is cheap as chips for the amount of time I spend listening to it