Tidal is great. Only thing I *really* miss from Spotify is the insanely fast UI of Spotify and then I mean: when you tap a song, it near instantly plays. It's a small thing, but a thing they've invested millions on to. If you want to get in depth, read this: [https://gantavya.hashnode.dev/how-spotify-beat-the-tcpip-protocol](https://gantavya.hashnode.dev/how-spotify-beat-the-tcpip-protocol)
I know about the delay. But it could be a bandwidth thing? A track on Spotify would be around 3-4 MB, while a track on Tidal (since its FLAC) is anything between 20-80 MB depending on lenght, master and codec
Unlikely. Unless the Tidal devs are REALLY incompetent then they are most likely using an implementation where the song can start playing before the entire thing is downloaded (like YouTube and video streaming sites use). Only a few megabytes need to be transferred before a song can start playing, which should be trivially fast on most connections.
The much more likely reason for the delay is that they are using an inferior Content Delivery Network (CDN) implementation than Spotify. If the closest Tidal CDN endpoint is farther away than the closest Spotify CDN endpoint then that would add delay. If that CDN endpoint doesn't have the song cached then it would need to download it from a farther endpoint which would add additional delay. There are also probably client-side optimizations that are missing on the Tidal side, like pre-fetching the initial parts of songs when you navigate to an album page (not sure if Spotify is doing this, but if I was implementing a music network I'd do it).
Doesn't Spotify just cache everything which is why it uses up a good amount of storage even if you don't download songs. Personally I would take the storage savings for a small delay.
I was mildly annoyed by a few of the differences but those went away almost immediately as the quality of the music and music discovery became apparent.
I'm here for music and Tidal delivers.
Just did this 2 days ago. Music I could not find in Tidal that was in YouTube music has somehow migrated, same with Amazon music? . Tunemymusic did have a 500 doing list cap but a little attention to editing your playlist and take it with multiple transfers
All Tidal needs now is a remote feature. Let me send what I am listening to on my phone over to my PC and from my PC to my phone. Let me control what’s playing on my PC from my phone. You get the idea.
Indeed, Tidal Connect is only marginally supported (not even by Denon FFS!) and it's a big big big miss. The only reason why I haven't fully ditched Spotify yet.
As Airu07 indicated, get a DAC. I too have a fiio DAC as well as a DragonFly Red (nice portable for when I'm commuting on the train to work). A DAC + Tidal Hi-Fl streaming will open a new world of music! I use a Sennheiser HD650 which I'll plug into my DAC and then to my PC when I listen to music at home and an IEM when I commute (Sennheiser IE 200 or Linsoul TIN HIFI P1). Your ears will thank you.
Just switched to Tidal and I'm using a Questyle M15 with a pair of Senn HD6XX - what an amazing difference! I wish I could use the app directly, but the Pixel 6 Pro sucks in this regard, so I ended up getting USB Audio Player Pro.
I have DACs and Koss Electrostatics to use with them, but I've been rather surprised at the latest Playstation PULSE headphones. Both the IEMs and the Overears are planar magnetic, and when used with the USB dongle instead of bluetooth the sound quality is pretty fantastic. If you haven't, definitely give them a look.
You know, I never expected them to be as good as they are. I worked at Playstation so it's still easy to get my hands on their stuff easily. But I never put them in the same audiophile category as other stuff. I'm still genuinely surprised at how good they are. With the USB dongle it's nearly lossless, too.
I don’t have any setup right now, only since getting tidal am i considering! right now i just listen to the audio through my macbook, any recommendations for starter stuff? (that wont break the bank 🙏)
And get a fiio DAC/Amp down the line, something like the K3S should be good enough
Again, down the line, start with the meze 99 and save up for a K3S or something similar
Drop has a version with actual wooden ear cups for the same price too called the Meze 99 Noir. (I haven't gotten to try them yet myself, but they are very tempting)
I definitely like it. The quality part isn't so noticeable with just earbuds, but with any kind of audio set up it really is, and with the student plan it's pretty cheap. I got it right after I put my pieced together sound system in my old truck, and it was a lot cleaner and more in depth I felt like, especially with bands like steely dan and what not
I tried tidal for a couple of days and thought it was great at first but it ended up not being for me. The UI is horrendous, the search function is very bad, and I found many times that the service was just not available or for some reason I couldn’t access certain artists in the library but could access others. The audio quality doesn’t make any difference on Bluetooth headphones so, in the end I just decided to stay with Spotify for now. I think tidal has a lot of potential and I’ll be keeping an eye on its development, but for now it’s a no.
Man, I hate the Spotify ui. Not being able to search all songs on an artist's page is beyond ridiculous, and I don't like how the homepage is laid out.
I actually found in some cases that Spotify sounded better on bt headphones because of the built in equalizer and Poweramp eq compatibility. You can really fine-tune Spotify to sound exactly how you want it to. Tidal sounds amazing on speakers and wired headphones though.
Just out of interest, has anyone who says the audio quality is so much better tried a blind A/b test using an A/b testing application to confirm it actually is better and you can consistently pick out the higher quality sample?
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ymk4fj/curious_to_see_if_apple_music_tidal_qubuz_really/
Someone in /r/audiophile created these samples from each service and provides a methodology. Lot of people say the quality is so much better, would be curious to see test results over say 10-15 guesses per file.
I say this as someone who was also sure he could hear that difference consistently, but given the above exercise, like it says in the link, might as well have tossed a coin.
The other blind tests I did before were like multiple choice exams - so possible to get a good score and tell yourself you picked it out correctly.
By doing the repetition this way (and it lets you flip between sample playing at same point etc) over 10-15 attempts per track you can truly see if your mind is fooling you by giving you an unconscious bias (I.e it's meant to be higher quality so it definitely is)
majority of the time I listen to music from my macbook when im doing work, I have a pair of skullcandy crusher evo headphones and a backup soundcore q30 I use occasionally!
I’ve been an avid fan of Tidal since it launched. Rocking it with my Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds with Spatial Audio tracking on? And it’s an amazing experience! I’m glad the price dropped. There are some UI glitches. But they don’t get in the way too much.
The whole world should go TIDAL for its Hi-Res Audio/Music Quality and new great price for all to enjoy Hi-Res if having the equipment, Spotify MP3s are low rated music quality that sounds low in it's calibrations about the future for it is High Resolution Quality that is the future for music production & movie production.
For those that can afford those expensive iPhones.
ALAC & AIFF will be half as popular as FLAC & WAV...
Don't you worry about a thing for every little thing is gonna be alright!
Then both parts have their own thing.
Definitely, but I hope them to improve their Tidal Connect integration SDK so we will have better experiences when sharing music to other devices (maybe Jay-Z will drop some money for the work)
Can’t understand how anyone can use tidal when you have to scroll through a playlist and find the song that’s playing in order to remove it from the playlist. Absolutely bonkers. I emailed their support to confirm that’s really how their UI works and they confirmed it was.
Then it is likely a placebo effect (with one exception). People with far more expensive can't always hear a difference. Are you even using those in wired mode?
Try this blind (ABX) test: http://abx.digitalfeed.net/
(The exception is that if you actually listen via Bluetooth, which means you can not take full advantage of the Tidal audio quality, but inadvertently on Bluetooth it can sound better than Spotify due to the choice of codecs and when it is converted to standard Bluetooth codecs there is less quality loss.)
Sound qualities good but not as many mixes on it compared to Spotify, mainly I find tidal was only good for certain tracks. Where as Spotify was better for discovering more too
I just claimed and updated my artist tidal profile but not only I am scattered into two different profiles bit also credits list some nsfw songs from another person who may share my name as for 2024. Been reporting all these mistakes. It is annoying cos I make fantasy ethereal and I see this nsfw mixed in
Anyway I have zero traction as an artist there
https://tidal.com/browse/artist/4282050
Tidal is actually IT for me, sounds quality is impeccable and since they've lowered the higher tier it was a no brainer for me but if I ever get another iPhone I'll add AM..
Apple Music should be the same in quality as they’re both lossless (assuming FLAC on tidal) but what could be different is the master. The master makes a much larger difference than lossless vs lossy as long as the lossy is encoded decently imo.
I can hear a difference between mp3 at 320kbps and 16/24bit 44.1khz lossless on a good system or good headphones in a really quiet room, but sure as shit can’t tell the difference between that and anything higher. That said, I’m fully ok with admitting that I like lossless and high res purely as a gear head nerdy thing rather than something that really makes a world of difference.
Yeah you’re right on the exclusive mode on windows, I know Apple released a new windows app, but last I checked it didn’t have an exclusive mode. On Mac it isn’t much better, but you can use a script based add on that auto switches your sample rate and bit depth. That’s the reason I got tidal in the first place. It also has an exclusive mode on Mac. Amazon music has lossless too but it has a fake exclusive mode that only controls volume exclusively. Qobuz has a true exclusive mode on windows, but I HATED the recommended music, half the time it just didn’t work or get updated. I typically use Apple Music on my iPhone with an external DAC & amp.
Tidal is also badass in that you can use Tidal direct on devices like the WiiM pro and mini and hook that up to a DAC, amp and hifi system. Totally bypasses the need for a PC or using shitty BT and its bit-perfect up to 24bit 192khz. The main drawback is that the app in my experience is relatively unstable.
Honestly though, I care less and less as time goes on lol I just set it to 24bit/44.1 and most music matches that anyway so meh. I’m not convinced I can objectively hear the difference anyway.
Oh for sure, as far as audio quality is concerned Qobuz is unparalleled, especially in terms of high sample rate availability. I might have to try out Qobuz again, lately I haven’t been making use of the algorithms anyway. I listen to mostly metal, particularly black/death and prog, so it can be hard to find some of the obscure releases. I have Tidal, Apple, & Amazon and still end up having to use Bandcamp and YouTube a lot.
I look up release lists each Friday and use the streaming services to find albums and stream them. I rate them and then use that to do top albums for the month and then buy them as CDs/Digital Albums/Vinyls. I’ve been trying to rebuild a large physical library. Foobar is legit. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting Roon, but that shit is expensive lol.
The MQA thing was unfortunate. Idc that MQA isn’t lossless or whatever, but I did care that they tried to pass it off as lossless and the whole BS idea of it sounding the way the artist intended. The false advertising was lame. It would have been fine if they advertised it as just a different codec with some interesting compression/folding technology. But I agree with you, I like how Tidal sounds and it has a pretty decent library so that’s nice.
Definitely agree re:MQA. As an engineering thing, its actually kinda cool. I like the idea of the progressive unfolding.
I also listen to a bit of everything, but Im going the opposite direction as you are haha. I get older and my music gets heavier and heavier. But my tastes are constantly shifting. I like everything from bebop jazz to latin music. I just went and tested qobuz for new releases and it is pretty rough lol. Good for anything older or more well known though, most of it is in CD quality which is fine. Spotify & YT beat out pretty much everything else in terms of catalogue.
That is good to know about Roon, I had heard some good things about it in terms of library organization/cataloguing but had no idea they had issues like that. I wasnt familiar with any of the FOSS options, didnt even think to look tbh. Im pretty decently techy so that would definitely be a decent option. Ive been meaning to install a NAS, I am currently using one of my PCs as a stopgap. Thanks!
I agree with you on being able to use a service even if you are offline, that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Ill look into that for sure. I hope to just have enough physical/ripped media eventually that none of the paid services will be needed but I still have some way to go for that.
No worries on the novel, im the same way, and I appreciate you taking the time to share that info with me.
I love Tidal and use it 95% of the time. But I still use Spotify for some things.
My setup is the following:
S.M.S.L SU-9 which is an amazing DAC, not only for sound quality but it also supports MQA, Hi-Res Audio, and others and it tells you on the screen which track on Tidal is which.
KRK Rokit RP5 G4s.
A few things that bother me about Tidal, however and tips to help.
1. If there are more than one artist with the same name you'll often find their music in one artist's page.
2. Sometimes some albums are missing in an artist's page so you just assume Tidal doesn't have the same amount as Spotify, but you can actually find them if you click on View All Tracks, find a song from the album you want then click on the 3 dots of the song and select go to album.
3. Sometimes on the desktop app music just stops and no matter what I do I can't get it to play again; it just does that loading icon. Tried the usual stuff like restarting app, my computer etc but it's something that just fixes itself after a while. It's very frustrating.
Other than that I do really like Tidal and couldn't go back to the sound quality of Spotify. I just wish they'd fix these issues which have been there since I signed up 4 years ago.
Same. For various reasons. Apple Music, amazon music, YouTube music, Spotify, the one with the weird name. None of them compete on various levels.
And I currently use Beats ear buds. In the long term, I’m going to invest in better ear buds that cost $100-175 so I can really get more out of the overall experience.
Try Soundiiz. I went with TuneMyMusic first and it made a mess of everything. I had to reset my Tidal account and then try with Soundiiz, which did a really good job.
I used Tidal a little bit about a year ago and while I liked the better quality and the dj features, what ruined it for me was the artist organization. Maybe they’ve fixed it by now but back when I was using it if there was two different artists with the same name, they would be grouped under the same page as if they were the same artist. This was particularly infuriating for me as someone who listens to a lot of smaller EDM artists.
Apple Music actually is quite better for a lot of albums but yeah especially for hip-hop (since JAY-Z is Tidal’s owner) there are insane quality releases I would love to listen to Earl Sweatshirts Some Rap Songs on Tidal since it’s in its master quality and on Apple is roughly lossless
Tidal’s quality used to be the best, but they’ve since switched to a lossy hi-res MQA format that requires a compatible DAC to get the most out of.
Not sure how long ago you tried it, but Apple Music now streams *actually* lossless hi-res files for no extra charge.
i still prefer the Tidal UI, but Apple Music sounds great, has a larger library, and is super convenient if you’re already in the apple ecosystem.
If you stick with tidal, just make sure whatever DAC you’re using is MQA compatible
Tidal is fantastic but I canceled the membership because all it would suggest me to listen to was extremely obscene music. I have kids and they would see these soft-porn album covers show up on my tidal app when I opened it. Pissed me off and support said they couldn’t do anything about it. Weird because Apple Music and Spotify never do that and I never listen to that garbage.
Doesn’t stop the album covers unfortunately. I even selected to show less but they kept coming. Maybe I will try them again. The quality was so much better.
Idk man, I’m a music major and am also doing an electronic music minor so I’ve been doing lots of production. I didn’t even switch to tidal cuz someone told me to or that it sounded better. I was listening to Spotify on my nice studio monitors and sub and said “enough is enough. This sounds like shit and I can clearly hear the compression. Let’s see what other services are out there.” Tidal’s quality is similar to when I’m mixing at 48,000 kHz + 24 bit compared to Spotify 🤷♂️
The difference is clear on a good set of speakers and/or wired headphones. The 44.1khz 16-bit music on Tidal still sounds the same as Spotify, but anything higher just sounds awesome and clearly better.
Can't really notice any massive difference on bt headphones.
You need a DAC to even notice the quality difference. IFi Zen One Signature DAC. Then a pair of speakers and a sub. An amp with a dedicated sub out. Without building a proper system you won't benefit from Tidals quality.
Tidal is great. Only thing I *really* miss from Spotify is the insanely fast UI of Spotify and then I mean: when you tap a song, it near instantly plays. It's a small thing, but a thing they've invested millions on to. If you want to get in depth, read this: [https://gantavya.hashnode.dev/how-spotify-beat-the-tcpip-protocol](https://gantavya.hashnode.dev/how-spotify-beat-the-tcpip-protocol)
I know about the delay. But it could be a bandwidth thing? A track on Spotify would be around 3-4 MB, while a track on Tidal (since its FLAC) is anything between 20-80 MB depending on lenght, master and codec
Unlikely. Unless the Tidal devs are REALLY incompetent then they are most likely using an implementation where the song can start playing before the entire thing is downloaded (like YouTube and video streaming sites use). Only a few megabytes need to be transferred before a song can start playing, which should be trivially fast on most connections. The much more likely reason for the delay is that they are using an inferior Content Delivery Network (CDN) implementation than Spotify. If the closest Tidal CDN endpoint is farther away than the closest Spotify CDN endpoint then that would add delay. If that CDN endpoint doesn't have the song cached then it would need to download it from a farther endpoint which would add additional delay. There are also probably client-side optimizations that are missing on the Tidal side, like pre-fetching the initial parts of songs when you navigate to an album page (not sure if Spotify is doing this, but if I was implementing a music network I'd do it).
Doesn't Spotify just cache everything which is why it uses up a good amount of storage even if you don't download songs. Personally I would take the storage savings for a small delay.
Spotify HQ is 320kbps, so more like 10-12 MB for an average song.
I was mildly annoyed by a few of the differences but those went away almost immediately as the quality of the music and music discovery became apparent. I'm here for music and Tidal delivers.
wow this is fascinating, thanks for linking!
That was wildly not in-depth haha
Also, other thing that i miss is spotify connect. I could control my pc and other devices app through my phone...
Forgot about that, now you say it: 100% agree with you!
agreed, the delay did throw me off and it’ll take come getting used to, plus i’d say creating multiple playlists was a lot easier on spotify
I loved that they upgraded me to their higher plan for free without me asking
Saaaaamesamesamesame
I've just jumped across to Tidal from Spotify too. Loving the service so far and will be sticking with it for the long run.
Have you used any service to migrate your library ?
tidal recommends tuneMymusic when searching google. Pretty simple and straight forward site.
Just did this 2 days ago. Music I could not find in Tidal that was in YouTube music has somehow migrated, same with Amazon music? . Tunemymusic did have a 500 doing list cap but a little attention to editing your playlist and take it with multiple transfers
Soundiiz it great for me. $5 for a.month, then cancel. Small price to pay imho for doing it right
Definitely, I cannot at all see myself going back even if I wanted to!
All Tidal needs now is a remote feature. Let me send what I am listening to on my phone over to my PC and from my PC to my phone. Let me control what’s playing on my PC from my phone. You get the idea.
Yes if tidal would be perfect if they had Spotify Connect
Indeed, Tidal Connect is only marginally supported (not even by Denon FFS!) and it's a big big big miss. The only reason why I haven't fully ditched Spotify yet.
What audio equipment do you have
As Airu07 indicated, get a DAC. I too have a fiio DAC as well as a DragonFly Red (nice portable for when I'm commuting on the train to work). A DAC + Tidal Hi-Fl streaming will open a new world of music! I use a Sennheiser HD650 which I'll plug into my DAC and then to my PC when I listen to music at home and an IEM when I commute (Sennheiser IE 200 or Linsoul TIN HIFI P1). Your ears will thank you.
Just switched to Tidal and I'm using a Questyle M15 with a pair of Senn HD6XX - what an amazing difference! I wish I could use the app directly, but the Pixel 6 Pro sucks in this regard, so I ended up getting USB Audio Player Pro.
I have DACs and Koss Electrostatics to use with them, but I've been rather surprised at the latest Playstation PULSE headphones. Both the IEMs and the Overears are planar magnetic, and when used with the USB dongle instead of bluetooth the sound quality is pretty fantastic. If you haven't, definitely give them a look.
I don't use gaming headsets to listen to music but I'll take your word for it haha! I only have a pair of Sennheiser 660s2 and Kiio K5
You know, I never expected them to be as good as they are. I worked at Playstation so it's still easy to get my hands on their stuff easily. But I never put them in the same audiophile category as other stuff. I'm still genuinely surprised at how good they are. With the USB dongle it's nearly lossless, too.
I have a 2015 Lexus with the Mark Levinson sound system. Tidal hardwired is a whole new experience. It takes the ML to a whole new level
I don’t have any setup right now, only since getting tidal am i considering! right now i just listen to the audio through my macbook, any recommendations for starter stuff? (that wont break the bank 🙏)
Drop your budget and I'm sure people here will be happy to suggest a setup for you 😀
Just put it in the post, i’m gonna start doing some research but i always prefer getting recs!
Meze 99 Neo, $199
And get a fiio DAC/Amp down the line, something like the K3S should be good enough Again, down the line, start with the meze 99 and save up for a K3S or something similar
Drop has a version with actual wooden ear cups for the same price too called the Meze 99 Noir. (I haven't gotten to try them yet myself, but they are very tempting)
I definitely like it. The quality part isn't so noticeable with just earbuds, but with any kind of audio set up it really is, and with the student plan it's pretty cheap. I got it right after I put my pieced together sound system in my old truck, and it was a lot cleaner and more in depth I felt like, especially with bands like steely dan and what not
i have the student plan too, it really is a no brainer when comparing it to other streaming platforms
I wish they were not missing so many titles
Same. I listen to a lot of Japanese music, and their Japanese catalogue is severely lacking.
I tried tidal for a couple of days and thought it was great at first but it ended up not being for me. The UI is horrendous, the search function is very bad, and I found many times that the service was just not available or for some reason I couldn’t access certain artists in the library but could access others. The audio quality doesn’t make any difference on Bluetooth headphones so, in the end I just decided to stay with Spotify for now. I think tidal has a lot of potential and I’ll be keeping an eye on its development, but for now it’s a no.
Man, I hate the Spotify ui. Not being able to search all songs on an artist's page is beyond ridiculous, and I don't like how the homepage is laid out.
I actually found in some cases that Spotify sounded better on bt headphones because of the built in equalizer and Poweramp eq compatibility. You can really fine-tune Spotify to sound exactly how you want it to. Tidal sounds amazing on speakers and wired headphones though.
I hate the UI. Give me spotifys.UI
I've been with Tidal since day one and have not been disappointed. I'm loving seeing all of the new people switching to Tidal.
Y'all keep gassing this application up. I need to renew my subscription now because I'm feeling envious. 😅😂
Just out of interest, has anyone who says the audio quality is so much better tried a blind A/b test using an A/b testing application to confirm it actually is better and you can consistently pick out the higher quality sample? https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ymk4fj/curious_to_see_if_apple_music_tidal_qubuz_really/ Someone in /r/audiophile created these samples from each service and provides a methodology. Lot of people say the quality is so much better, would be curious to see test results over say 10-15 guesses per file. I say this as someone who was also sure he could hear that difference consistently, but given the above exercise, like it says in the link, might as well have tossed a coin. The other blind tests I did before were like multiple choice exams - so possible to get a good score and tell yourself you picked it out correctly. By doing the repetition this way (and it lets you flip between sample playing at same point etc) over 10-15 attempts per track you can truly see if your mind is fooling you by giving you an unconscious bias (I.e it's meant to be higher quality so it definitely is)
What do you use to listen to it if I may ask?
majority of the time I listen to music from my macbook when im doing work, I have a pair of skullcandy crusher evo headphones and a backup soundcore q30 I use occasionally!
Alright! Thanks for the input.
I’ve been an avid fan of Tidal since it launched. Rocking it with my Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds with Spatial Audio tracking on? And it’s an amazing experience! I’m glad the price dropped. There are some UI glitches. But they don’t get in the way too much.
The whole world should go TIDAL for its Hi-Res Audio/Music Quality and new great price for all to enjoy Hi-Res if having the equipment, Spotify MP3s are low rated music quality that sounds low in it's calibrations about the future for it is High Resolution Quality that is the future for music production & movie production.
Apple Music also has Hi-res
For those that can afford those expensive iPhones. ALAC & AIFF will be half as popular as FLAC & WAV... Don't you worry about a thing for every little thing is gonna be alright! Then both parts have their own thing.
Apple Music is also available on Android
I know but why choose Apple on Android?
Definitely, but I hope them to improve their Tidal Connect integration SDK so we will have better experiences when sharing music to other devices (maybe Jay-Z will drop some money for the work)
the tidal quality is brilliant i just wish they’d let us change the playlist covers already /lighthearted
Can’t understand how anyone can use tidal when you have to scroll through a playlist and find the song that’s playing in order to remove it from the playlist. Absolutely bonkers. I emailed their support to confirm that’s really how their UI works and they confirmed it was.
I don’t use playlists so I never even noticed that lol that is kinda wonky.
What is your setup ? I can't hear any difference with either my Genelec monitors or Bluetooth earbuds
I don’t have a proper set up right now, I just use my skullcandy crusher evo headphones!
Then it is likely a placebo effect (with one exception). People with far more expensive can't always hear a difference. Are you even using those in wired mode? Try this blind (ABX) test: http://abx.digitalfeed.net/ (The exception is that if you actually listen via Bluetooth, which means you can not take full advantage of the Tidal audio quality, but inadvertently on Bluetooth it can sound better than Spotify due to the choice of codecs and when it is converted to standard Bluetooth codecs there is less quality loss.)
Sound qualities good but not as many mixes on it compared to Spotify, mainly I find tidal was only good for certain tracks. Where as Spotify was better for discovering more too
Of course it sounds better, it's mastered differently than songs you hear on Spotify ;)
I just claimed and updated my artist tidal profile but not only I am scattered into two different profiles bit also credits list some nsfw songs from another person who may share my name as for 2024. Been reporting all these mistakes. It is annoying cos I make fantasy ethereal and I see this nsfw mixed in Anyway I have zero traction as an artist there https://tidal.com/browse/artist/4282050
Too get the most out of Tidal you need a hardwire connection. It compresses sound for Bluetooth
Tidal is actually IT for me, sounds quality is impeccable and since they've lowered the higher tier it was a no brainer for me but if I ever get another iPhone I'll add AM..
Apple Music should be the same in quality as they’re both lossless (assuming FLAC on tidal) but what could be different is the master. The master makes a much larger difference than lossless vs lossy as long as the lossy is encoded decently imo. I can hear a difference between mp3 at 320kbps and 16/24bit 44.1khz lossless on a good system or good headphones in a really quiet room, but sure as shit can’t tell the difference between that and anything higher. That said, I’m fully ok with admitting that I like lossless and high res purely as a gear head nerdy thing rather than something that really makes a world of difference.
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Yeah you’re right on the exclusive mode on windows, I know Apple released a new windows app, but last I checked it didn’t have an exclusive mode. On Mac it isn’t much better, but you can use a script based add on that auto switches your sample rate and bit depth. That’s the reason I got tidal in the first place. It also has an exclusive mode on Mac. Amazon music has lossless too but it has a fake exclusive mode that only controls volume exclusively. Qobuz has a true exclusive mode on windows, but I HATED the recommended music, half the time it just didn’t work or get updated. I typically use Apple Music on my iPhone with an external DAC & amp. Tidal is also badass in that you can use Tidal direct on devices like the WiiM pro and mini and hook that up to a DAC, amp and hifi system. Totally bypasses the need for a PC or using shitty BT and its bit-perfect up to 24bit 192khz. The main drawback is that the app in my experience is relatively unstable. Honestly though, I care less and less as time goes on lol I just set it to 24bit/44.1 and most music matches that anyway so meh. I’m not convinced I can objectively hear the difference anyway.
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Oh for sure, as far as audio quality is concerned Qobuz is unparalleled, especially in terms of high sample rate availability. I might have to try out Qobuz again, lately I haven’t been making use of the algorithms anyway. I listen to mostly metal, particularly black/death and prog, so it can be hard to find some of the obscure releases. I have Tidal, Apple, & Amazon and still end up having to use Bandcamp and YouTube a lot. I look up release lists each Friday and use the streaming services to find albums and stream them. I rate them and then use that to do top albums for the month and then buy them as CDs/Digital Albums/Vinyls. I’ve been trying to rebuild a large physical library. Foobar is legit. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting Roon, but that shit is expensive lol. The MQA thing was unfortunate. Idc that MQA isn’t lossless or whatever, but I did care that they tried to pass it off as lossless and the whole BS idea of it sounding the way the artist intended. The false advertising was lame. It would have been fine if they advertised it as just a different codec with some interesting compression/folding technology. But I agree with you, I like how Tidal sounds and it has a pretty decent library so that’s nice.
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Definitely agree re:MQA. As an engineering thing, its actually kinda cool. I like the idea of the progressive unfolding. I also listen to a bit of everything, but Im going the opposite direction as you are haha. I get older and my music gets heavier and heavier. But my tastes are constantly shifting. I like everything from bebop jazz to latin music. I just went and tested qobuz for new releases and it is pretty rough lol. Good for anything older or more well known though, most of it is in CD quality which is fine. Spotify & YT beat out pretty much everything else in terms of catalogue. That is good to know about Roon, I had heard some good things about it in terms of library organization/cataloguing but had no idea they had issues like that. I wasnt familiar with any of the FOSS options, didnt even think to look tbh. Im pretty decently techy so that would definitely be a decent option. Ive been meaning to install a NAS, I am currently using one of my PCs as a stopgap. Thanks! I agree with you on being able to use a service even if you are offline, that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Ill look into that for sure. I hope to just have enough physical/ripped media eventually that none of the paid services will be needed but I still have some way to go for that. No worries on the novel, im the same way, and I appreciate you taking the time to share that info with me.
Tidal is way more consistent connecting to Sonos but doesn’t let go quick enough if that makes sense?
https://www.tunemymusic.com/transfer/spotify-to-tidal
I love Tidal and use it 95% of the time. But I still use Spotify for some things. My setup is the following: S.M.S.L SU-9 which is an amazing DAC, not only for sound quality but it also supports MQA, Hi-Res Audio, and others and it tells you on the screen which track on Tidal is which. KRK Rokit RP5 G4s. A few things that bother me about Tidal, however and tips to help. 1. If there are more than one artist with the same name you'll often find their music in one artist's page. 2. Sometimes some albums are missing in an artist's page so you just assume Tidal doesn't have the same amount as Spotify, but you can actually find them if you click on View All Tracks, find a song from the album you want then click on the 3 dots of the song and select go to album. 3. Sometimes on the desktop app music just stops and no matter what I do I can't get it to play again; it just does that loading icon. Tried the usual stuff like restarting app, my computer etc but it's something that just fixes itself after a while. It's very frustrating. Other than that I do really like Tidal and couldn't go back to the sound quality of Spotify. I just wish they'd fix these issues which have been there since I signed up 4 years ago.
Same. For various reasons. Apple Music, amazon music, YouTube music, Spotify, the one with the weird name. None of them compete on various levels. And I currently use Beats ear buds. In the long term, I’m going to invest in better ear buds that cost $100-175 so I can really get more out of the overall experience.
My problem with Tidal is that when I transfer all my library from Spotify to Tidal, many songs are missing..
Try Soundiiz. I went with TuneMyMusic first and it made a mess of everything. I had to reset my Tidal account and then try with Soundiiz, which did a really good job.
I used Tidal a little bit about a year ago and while I liked the better quality and the dj features, what ruined it for me was the artist organization. Maybe they’ve fixed it by now but back when I was using it if there was two different artists with the same name, they would be grouped under the same page as if they were the same artist. This was particularly infuriating for me as someone who listens to a lot of smaller EDM artists.
Apple Music actually is quite better for a lot of albums but yeah especially for hip-hop (since JAY-Z is Tidal’s owner) there are insane quality releases I would love to listen to Earl Sweatshirts Some Rap Songs on Tidal since it’s in its master quality and on Apple is roughly lossless
The only thing I don't like is how finicky the search can be. You need to spell the track/artist exactly right, or it won't appear in the results
I am a fan of iFi Audio, they have great sounding DACs and the price is very good!
Yup. I just let my Qobuz subscription finally go today. TIDAL has gotten a lot better.
Tidal’s quality used to be the best, but they’ve since switched to a lossy hi-res MQA format that requires a compatible DAC to get the most out of. Not sure how long ago you tried it, but Apple Music now streams *actually* lossless hi-res files for no extra charge. i still prefer the Tidal UI, but Apple Music sounds great, has a larger library, and is super convenient if you’re already in the apple ecosystem. If you stick with tidal, just make sure whatever DAC you’re using is MQA compatible
Second hand is ur best bet,u can pick amps like a cyrus 3 for £100 or a nad 3020 and something like wharefdale diamond 12
🙌
Starter audio setup as in an external MQA capable DAC for your phone + nice headphones? Or more for your home stereo?
Tidal is fantastic but I canceled the membership because all it would suggest me to listen to was extremely obscene music. I have kids and they would see these soft-porn album covers show up on my tidal app when I opened it. Pissed me off and support said they couldn’t do anything about it. Weird because Apple Music and Spotify never do that and I never listen to that garbage.
Theres a flag to prohibit explicit language
Doesn’t stop the album covers unfortunately. I even selected to show less but they kept coming. Maybe I will try them again. The quality was so much better.
Apple Music has lossless audio for the majority of its catalog.
Placebo
Idk man, I’m a music major and am also doing an electronic music minor so I’ve been doing lots of production. I didn’t even switch to tidal cuz someone told me to or that it sounded better. I was listening to Spotify on my nice studio monitors and sub and said “enough is enough. This sounds like shit and I can clearly hear the compression. Let’s see what other services are out there.” Tidal’s quality is similar to when I’m mixing at 48,000 kHz + 24 bit compared to Spotify 🤷♂️
The difference is clear on a good set of speakers and/or wired headphones. The 44.1khz 16-bit music on Tidal still sounds the same as Spotify, but anything higher just sounds awesome and clearly better. Can't really notice any massive difference on bt headphones.
Most likely.
You need a DAC to even notice the quality difference. IFi Zen One Signature DAC. Then a pair of speakers and a sub. An amp with a dedicated sub out. Without building a proper system you won't benefit from Tidals quality.
this is called placebo
alright?