Tidal

[What Hi-Fi?]

Tidal's facing new competition in the hi-res music streaming arena, so is it still the best service for demanding listeners?

Tidal : Read more

 

[Ramborme]

I left Tidal, now I use Spotify and Qobuz,Tidal doesn't give me suggestions near as good as Spotify does,Tidal try's to force too much rap and hip hop, I'm older, Spotify adapted to my choices, and Qobuz sounds better on my system don't need MQA Dac for hi res,Qobus does need some work, I'm in the US, sometimes it's slow to load and it's missing a lot of songs I have on my Spotify playlists.

 

[abacus]

Way overpriced for what's on offer.

 

[Rockerrollin65]

Way overpriced for what's on offer.

Couldn't agree more! Brings up the question whether Spotify has some sort of interest in Tidal and they're splitting up the market......(Spotify stays out of Hi-Res, Tidal skimming it), Interesting to know what US, EU and (future) British competition authorities' opinions are with regard to this matter!

 

[smbmetal]

I’ve never tried Tidal so can’t really comment on how good or not it is.

I’m currently almost one month in to Amazon Music and have to say I’m really impressed with it. The HD and Ultra HD catalogue is excellent. This is one subscription I will keep I think and at £12.99 a month (I’m already a Prime member) I think it’s good value.

 

[Mad Bob]

I'm gobsmacked people are complaining at £20 a month for unlimited lossless streaming and download. I'm pushing 50 now and remember paying 11.99 for one CD whilst at university in the early 90s. I would have killed for this then, and utterly love it now.
This + my own rips + Roon is pretty much perfect to feed my Sonos / Uniti Nova / chrome sticks.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I think sound wise the best I have heard is Apple Music at £10 a month.

 

[Blackstarr52]

I'm gobsmacked people are complaining at £20 a month for unlimited lossless streaming and download. I'm pushing 50 now and remember paying 11.99 for one CD whilst at university in the early 90s. I would have killed for this then, and utterly love it now.
This + my own rips + Roon is pretty much perfect to feed my Sonos / Uniti Nova / chrome sticks.

I am right there with you! I have had the service for a few years and would never settle for less. I even have the Family Plan and top-tier streaming. I am quite pleased.

 

[EricLeRouge]

Tidal is great, but I would like to remind a few facts:

- No one is checking the actual "high resolution" of the files that Tidal is making available to its subscribers. Interestingly, some music is available in bitrates that are highly unlikely (e.g. some music was remastered @176.4 kHz by publishers on DVD-Audio, and is now re-sampled at 192kHz — a change that is not trivial by any means, since 192 is not a multiple of 176.4, 88.2, 44.1, etc).

In my view an analysis of the actual quality of the files (e.g brickwall filters, etc) should be seriously considered when discussing Tidal, Qobuz, Hi-Res Audio. I am not suggesting that Tidal has worse files than Qobuz (I have no reason to think so), but having checked the quality of many so-called MQA master titles, I feel that the quality of the so-called masters varies significantly, with a lot of music which clearly doesn't sound right for the nominal bitrates advertised (this is particularly obvious for a lot of old RnB, jazz stuff from before 1980)

A note on Tidal's pricing - Tidal charges €19.99 for 30 days, which in practice represents €0.6663 a day or €20.28 per month (if you subscribe on the 1st of January of any given year, your 13th payment to Tidal that year will be on the 360th day of the year — people with fixed pension dates beware). If you factor the €0.28 per month per subscriber for 1 million subscribers, this represents a cool €280.000 per month, and €3.36 million per year...

 

[Big Bob]

I have been using Tidal for quite a while now and love it. I do most of my listening in the evening using headphones. The masters stream I find very open and revealing. Talking to my friend, he asked “what’s the difference” to which I said listen to the bits between the notes. The ambience is much clearer and as such adds depth to the recording.
I have made a number of playlists for various situations. The main one contains about 3000 tracks (not all masters). I have also downloaded this playlist to my phone for listening whilst walking or in the car. For what I get from it Tidal is good value for money and it takes up less shelve space and weight than all those CDs, albums and singles.

 

[Minkey1]

Just to clarify, Tidal now supports Android Auto.

 

[DREADZONE]

I’ve never tried Tidal so can’t really comment on how good or not it is.

I’m currently almost one month in to Amazon Music and have to say I’m really impressed with it. The HD and Ultra HD catalogue is excellent. This is one subscription I will keep I think and at £12.99 a month (I’m already a Prime member) I think it’s good value.

At the moment I have 3 music streaming subs: (1) googleplay @£7.99 (reduced price because I was an original subscriber) is good for vast catalogue - would discontinue because it is only Standard def, but has quite a few tracks not available from other two; (2) Tidal HiFi @£19.99 - unsure about the assumed improvement in listening experience with Masters: my system unfolds MQA up to 96kHz, and I do notice a nice difference with tracks that were originally mastered well . . . however, Amazon has given me a re-think!; (3) Amazon Music Unlimited HD £14.99 (but currently one month in to enjoying a 3 month free trial) - their HD tracks [CD quality of all material available in CD format] sounds very good, and HD Ultra [= anything above 16bit/44.1kHz, eg 24bit/44.1kHz, 16bit/48kHz up to 24bit/192kHz] sounds brilliant - certainly matching anything I've heard from Tidal Masters. I did a simple listening test with Fleetwood Mac The Chain (2001 Remaster) across both providers and both sounded excellent [the last 90 seconds of this track is a really good test in this genre].

So, jury is out on which to stick with long term; over the coming months I will weigh-up the catalogue merits of each provider. Also, I will examine Tidal's "transparency" with their MQA encoding for Master recordings vs Amazon HD's Ultra offering, but the actual recording of the artist is much more important than the playback quality, and it would be useful to know the source.

I'm part of the group that thinks, whilst 192kHz may benefit some recordings, the listener is unlikely to hear the difference in audio playback terms between 24/96 and 24/192 masters. I have done a few A/B tests with Tidal vs Amazon and both sound really good in 24bit Master/Ultra quality - noticeably greater clarity than HiFi/HD.

Anyone else compared Tidal HiFi with Amazon Unlimited HD?

 

[RazA]

I have a dream... that one day I will read a review where the reviewer actually looks at the after sales support of a product or service.
I used to think Tidal the best thing in music since the CD until I needed some customer service. I was quickly shown the error of my ways. I basically cannot use the service on my Win 10 PCs, only on my mobile devices and it's been 2 months + since this has happened and the issue is not resolved yet I was told that my support ticket will be closed but that "they will continue to work on it". My main PC is the one that has the discrete audio card and is attached to my HiFi system and this fault makes their service useless. If I wanted something to listen to on the bus another service at a fraction of the cost would have been fine.

 

[jules153]

I have Tidal Hi-Fi on the 5 months for £5 offer at present and it is very good indeed. There's something almost unreal that you can play any track in CD quality at the touch of a button, something that couldn't even be imagined some years ago... Great interface too.

Unfortunately the masters only stream in 16bit/44k to my chromecast audio so I have to use an external app (mConnect lite) to get 24bit streaming - this is a great app and lets you log into Tidal and also will play tracks from a OneDrive or Dropbox account so no need for a NAS

mconnect Player Lite – Cast AV - Apps on Google Play

mconnect Player is a Media Player for Google Cast(Chromecast) & DLNA/UPnP.

play.google.com

I did try AmazonHD music and to be honest I think this has even more albums that I wanted and also seemed to have more in hires, and is cheaper. However it can't stream to the chromecast in CD quality from what I understand, so it's Tidal for me at the moment.

(I use an external DAC with the CCA)

 

[Winter]

Hi. Still trying tidals 99p 4 month trial. I have the audiolab 6000 play streamer. Tidal sounds superb . ! But spotify free in hi res mode aint far off !!! No brainer !!

 

[NickF72]

What the review doesn’t say is that Tidal imposes a 10,000-track limit on your collection. This sounds like a lot, but try keeping up to date with classical music in particular and you’ll hit it. And thereafter, you can still listen, but you can’t bookmark tracks or albums to come back to. Very frustrating. I’ve switched to a mix of Qobuz and Apple Music, neither of which has any such arbitrary limit.

 

[Edgarcito]

The truth was that I lost a little confidence in this site. Qobuz has HIFI files without compression. No extra processing. How does tidal sound better after processing those original files? Does the original improve?

 

[EricLeRouge]

The truth was that I lost a little confidence in this site. Qobuz has HIFI files without compression. No extra processing. How does tidal sound better after processing those original files? Does the original improve?

Having subscribed to both Tidal Hifi and Qobuz (Hifi, and now Studio) for several years in parallel or in turns, I agree with your comment. I have many records in my favorites on both platforms, and I can switch from one to the other through Audirvana.

I am feeding my Kef LS50W either wirelessly through a Cambridge CXU using DLNA (very useful, as you can play a record and switch to streaming at any time), or directly from my laptop using USB (best sound this wayIMO).

When it comes to audio resolution, Qobuz lets you choose from different masters, with the original file resolution (from 24/44.1 to 24/192 and all the variations in-betwwen, including many titles at 24/88.2. Tidal, on the other hand, offers MQA and it serves as a black box so you don't know what the original resolution was/is. I don't think MQA adds or subtracts anything to the signal, but you simply have no way to assess the original resolution.

Anyway, in my experience in a few cases Tidal has a better sounding file for a record, but most of the time there is at least one better sounding file on Qobuz, and when it comes to Classical, Opera, World Music or even Jazz, there is simply no comparison, Qobuz is the only game.

Tidal is very much a US-centric and mass market channel for the majors, the 21st century equivalent of MTV for audio enthusiasts and geeks. If you take a music magazine classical recommendations (e.g. Grammophone in the UK or Diapason in France), you will not find most of the titles in Tidal, but you will find them in Qobuz. I have made up my mind and given up on Tidal so I turn to Qobuz when it comes to classical and opera, and 90% of the time when it comes to jazz.

Tidal, in my mind, really shines in popular music, with very good playlists and recommendations in pop-rock (mainstream), RnB, rap, and the like. It is a more engaging service, almost like a good radio station with an added on-demand option.

If you like ECM Records, Qobuz has most of the catalog, Tidal has only a selection. Same for Naim Records, and many small audiophile labels. If you like complete box sets, Qpbuz has most of the main classical and opera references... but sometimes they disappear after some time, which is frustrating.

Having said this, Qobuz is very much a mixed bag when it comes to audio quality, and the biggest challenge is to identify the best version from multiple choices : for example, today I wanted to listen to Miles Davis's Porgy and Bess LP, and there are 27 versions to choose from, including CD, HD, mono (high-res or CD), 2010 remastered, etc. For someone exploring the different versions and prepared to research the different editions, remasters, publishers, it can be a great problem to have. For someone who just wants to enjoy music and forget about the kitchen side of things, it's a bit of a hit and miss experience. Unfortunately it is impossible to tell one version from the other in some cases, and you really have to bookmark it in your Playlists and favorites.

I maintain both subscriptions in parallel as I am now near-retired and I work from home so music is my main budget. If funds allow, I would recommend keeping both, at least for the 3 months trial period for comparison. — I hope this helps someone. Cheers

 

[Quadraphonic]

Tidal Master is worth listening to if you have an iphone and a Dragonfly Dac to do the final code unpacking which ios cannot . The result is worth the cost in fidelity improvement and sonority .
There is no other streaming service pushing quality like Tidal with its cooperation with MQA .

 

[Just_Me]

I'm just looking into streaming audio services. I read that with Tidal you can download for offline listening, but what format is the file being saved in? Is playback only possible through their application? If your subscription goes away (say, they go out of business, WW3 starts, the internet as we know it gets completely destroyed by rogue governments or rabid gophers chew up all of the fiber optic cables world wide, etc ), do you lose access to the tracks you've downloaded?

 

[KXLND]

"try's to force too much rap and hip hop, I'm older," I am so glad you said that, I have no issue with Hip hop and rap but I am also big on other music and I felt that Tidal let me down, including some niche music of a particular country in a particular language. they had second to nothing. I absolutely adored teh quality of teh sound though it is better than others, but I settled with Deezer for the time being, though not completely happy, as we need family service, and deezer only allows family listening on lower quality. Haven't tied Amazon yet

 

[KXLND]

I'm gobsmacked people are complaining at £20 a month for unlimited lossless streaming and download. I'm pushing 50 now and remember paying 11.99 for one CD whilst at university in the early 90s. I would have killed for this then, and utterly love it now.
This + my own rips + Roon is pretty much perfect to feed my Sonos / Uniti Nova / chrome sticks.

Yozu got a point, though we took ownership of our albums then, and for example read the cover in inlays back to front, Whit streaing I never feel I own. I just listen

 

[DBB]

I left Tidal, now I use Spotify and Qobuz,Tidal doesn't give me suggestions near as good as Spotify does,Tidal try's to force too much rap and hip hop, I'm older, Spotify adapted to my choices, and Qobuz sounds better on my system don't need MQA Dac for hi res,Qobus does need some work, I'm in the US, sometimes it's slow to load and it's missing a lot of songs I have on my Spotify playlists.

Almost exactly this for me. My "Recommended new tracks" section had some rap/hip hop/pop songs creeping in, when I listen to nothing of the sort.

Qobuz has its faults ie some albums missing and no recommendations based on my listening habits, but I much prefer using it to Tidal. So I'll be using Qobuz going forward and using either Spotify or YT Music to plug the gaps. Also transferring my recommendations from Spotify/YTM to Qobuz.

Qobuz has considerably more hi res albums than Tidal, and I prefer the sound of them.

 

[jules153]

Interesting reading. As a Tidal user I'm keen to try Qobuz. However how easy is it move over my favourites and playlists over? cheers

 

[DBB]

Interesting reading. As a Tidal user I'm keen to try Qobuz. However how easy is it move over my favourites and playlists over? cheers

I use Freeyourmusic (formerly Stamp) it works fairly OK, although it can't find a match it sometimes adds the next closest thing for me which is a slight pain. It's quite slow if you have a lot of playlists synchronised.

Soundiiz is meant to be very good. Qobuz recommend it, in fact.

There's also Tune My Music, which is free if you're transferring 200 songs at a time. Almost instant, too.

I've paid for FYM premium but I might jump ship to Soundiiz. Heard nothing but good reviews.