Tidal

[Mike123]

I’m actually trialling Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music and Amazon Music right now. I also sub to Spotify.
All trials are free, search around if you fancy a trial right now.

Previously I commented that there wasn’t much difference between Spotify and Tidal, and for the price difference, I still don’t think it’s worth it. In brief summary, there is a noticeable improvement with all in terms of sound quality over Spotify. I prefer Apple Music and Amazon over the rest, the sound quality seem significantly more airy, textured, like less squashed and instruments sound more placed and interesting.
Like eating a cake that’s a little flat from a supermarket but still good, vs eating a cake from a restaurant that’s layered and has dimension and experience to the tasting process - it makes you say wow.
The details in Spotify are there, both as they’re squashed, they don’t stand out and breathe so much. The music is more flat. This was tested using a pair of Sony BT WX1000 mk2 headphones with lossless audio turned on in iPhone settings. Strangely Android sounded worse than apple with my 2 year old premium Samsung tablet vS my 3 year old iPhone.
When played through HiFi, the differences are apparent and more enjoyable. The speakers tend to vanish and those subtitle nuances come through, not as apparently as with headphones of course but are still noticeable.
I personally have my eye on Apple Music and Amazon Music, but the deciding factor it seems as for most is discoverability and UI interface which Spotify is leading on.

The more I trial the hi-def platforms, the more I realise Spotify is making me miss out on experience. Which is a shame for music and not what I want.
Get on a trial, they range from 1-3 months right now and will let you tell if your hardware set up makes a difference.

 

[Rezonater]

Leave Tidal running long enough and you will have to decide if you are a Crip or a Blood.
Literally every music genre degrades into gangster rap.

 

[bocrux]

MQA is lossy format. There's no need to settle for MQA in this day and age when you can stream lossless hidef audio like Qobuz and other competitors. And there's no way I'm paying a such a high premium for that. The fact that they play fast and loose with what is considered Master quality and are not transparent about audio specs is big reason to avoid.

 

[peruh]

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

In my mind Tidal Master sounds great, but Qobuz sound much better on high quality devices. Tidal Master is somewhere in the middle between CD-quality and true Hi-Res as Qobuz

 

[mdcraig]

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.

Totally agree that Qobuz sounds better. I wanted so much to believe the hype over MQA but in the end it just did not deliver. I own multiple devices that can do the full decoding in hardware and in every case Qobuz gave the more enjoyable listen.

 

[djh1697]

"Totally agree that Qobuz sounds better. I wanted so much to believe the hype over MQA but in the end it just did not deliver. I own multiple devices that can do the full decoding in hardware and in every case Qobuz gave the more enjoyable listen. "

I agree, MQA belongs in the last century when disk space, fast broadband, processing power, and memory were at a premium, it is not needed today. I can stream a 192/24 music stream without issue. Why does WHF continue ranting about MQA? It is not Master quality, far from it! How about a blind listening test comparing a genuine hires stream to MQA?

 

[Natan90NL]

I’m so confused. I always agree and love the what hifi reviews. Many years ago (for me) AKG headphones, Apple products, KEFls50w2 etc etc.

But Tidal? MQA compared to Flac from Qobuz or Apple Music lossless? Don’t we all think Qobuz and Apple Music sounds better? What makes theTidal sound quality so good then? I’m honestly interested.

Despite my confusion, many thanks for all the awesome reviews.

 

[djh1697]

But Tidal? MQA compared to Flac from Qobuz or Apple Music lossless? Don’t we all think Qobuz and Apple Music sounds better? What makes theTidal sound quality so good then? I’m honestly interested.

Perhaps the companies that promote MQA have a higher advertising budget, Tidal NQA is not audio HiFi.

Personally, since my last my last post my Naim 200 has been upgraded to a 250.2, but what a difference! I have to say there is virtually no difference between my 35 year old record deck, suitably upgraded by Peter Swain of #Cymbiosis, and no it is not a Linn LP12 but a Pink Triangle, and my digital Roon based endpoint. Why do I need an amplifier with so many inputs?

MQA ruins music, plain and simple! With Roon I convert anything less than 96/16 resolution to DSD256, the change of format blows me away. I am listening to music, not sounds. I can sit here and place the musicians exactly on the sound stage, the vocals the same, they are so much clearer.

I have both Tidal and Qubuz subscriptions, this integrates well with Roon, sadly I was an early adopter, and get a lifetime membership for a good price. It was a gamble that paid off. Interesting how Linn & Naim now allow their devices to be Roon endpoints, but have omitted any facility to playback MQA encoded music?

I will end my monologue, the CD's that I ripped using dBpoweramp into DSD 256 sounds far better than any other ripped format, probably because my PC has to do less processing power. It takes longer to do the ripping process, up to 3Gb per CD, but it is time well spent IMHO.

The most important thing is to enjoy the music and not the sound, Linn trains their store staff to toe tap when listening to Linn gear, and not to toe tap when it is someone else's gear, to show the music is more enjoyable. my rule is if your body is making natural taps to music, then YOU are enjoying it.

 

[nopiano]

With the announcement that MQA are under administration, I wonder which service WHF believe in. A rhetorical question, as no editorial staff ever read these posts.

 

[pef1960]

I never understand why you're so down on Qobuz. I've used it for years quite happily. I stream it through a CXN V2 and a Wiim Pro, as well as from PC and Mac via Audirvana (which you should review). I've always been happy with the hi-res sound quality listening to mainly Classical, Jazz, Ambient and world music. Tidal is far too expensive.

 

[djh1697]

Why does this comic keep going on about MQA? The company has gone bust, there will be no new products, no new "masters", no more improvements. Why did MQA go bust? It wasn't a product for this time, perhaps it would be ok 35 years ago when memory and storage were expensive, but today with falling prices, there is no need.

I have Qobuz, Tidal, and Roon subscriptions. Convert everything to DSD512, for stunning playback of digital music.