TIDAL Lossless Music streaming

Forums › Online streaming services › TIDAL Lossless Music streaming

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Networkn
32359 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1224002 28-Jan-2015 12:42

kiwitrc:
networkn:
kiwitrc: Apart from the $20 per month ongoing :)

and the fact he already owns the music

He possibly doesn't own all the music ever made, so may want to listen to be stuff in future.

Valid point. If this becomes sucessful I expect spotify to upgrade their music to lossless as well so hopefully that will force price competition.

Personally I have been pretty happy with Spotify free. I cna't see any reason to upgrade.

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#1224004 28-Jan-2015 12:43

and the fact he already owns the music

By way of explanation:

1. It's easier to just trigger track on my Mac than dig out one of my many hundreds of CDs.
2. I have not burned all of my CDs.

:)

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#1224006 28-Jan-2015 12:45

Personally I have been pretty happy with Spotify free. I cna't see any reason to upgrade.

I am one of those music geeks who highly values sound quality, and I have a good stereo, so the $20 month is easily worth it to me (depending on the delivery of the service). I am currently a premium Spotify subscriber (about $10/month), and the CD quality would be well worth an extra $10/month for me.

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#1224012 28-Jan-2015 12:50

Valid point. If this becomes sucessful I expect spotify to upgrade their music to lossless as well so hopefully that will force price competition.

Yes. I have read that Spotify has been developing lossless delivery but feels it is not yet able to provide a stable and lag free service. Surely only a matter of time with the added pressure of this and other lossless services.

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#1224526 29-Jan-2015 08:09

I trialed this service last night. I set up via VPN, and after that was able to use the Mac and Android Apps at "HIFI" quality (what Tidal refers to as CD quality) without VPN. I am running a 5 day trial. I have a good quality receiver and Mission speakers, and ran the Tidal signal like this: Mac (by Airfoil) --> Apple TV --> optical out --> AD converter (Fiio) --> receiver. I have a reasonably stable VF connection - 25mbps download. Here are some comments:

1. The sound quality in "HIFI" is truly excellent. It far surpasses any streaming service I have come across. I was able to compare the streamed signal with a CD I had of the same recording, and the results were indistinguishable. It is a pleasure to listen to, with no compromise. I could happily listen all day. I would never bother retrieving a CD from my collection if I could stream the same album - there is no point.
2. When using the Mac app there was a lag before playback of an individual track (up to 5 seconds), but no lag between album tracks (I suppose because of buffering). Searching and browsing is sluggish, not fast and responsive like Spotify. The app is ugly, and needs work. Not especially enjoyable experience (apart fromt he sound quality)
3. The web app looks and feels far better. I would say on a par with Spotify. However while I was able to get the web app streaming in "standard" and "high" (320 kbit/s) quality, but NOT "HiFI" quality, in Safari and Chrome. Apparently HIFI is only compatible with Chrome, but I was not able to get it to work (with or without VPN).
4. The Android app looks usable but not up to the level of Spotify. Download for offline play is available, but dl is very slow even at 320 kbit/s. I wasn't able to just quickly load up a few albums for the bus like I do on Spotify.
5. Song and album selection looks good, from my quick review most of what I have saved as "my music" on Spotify was available.
6. I ran across one instance of an album that was available at 320 kbit/s but NOT HIFI. Not sure how prevalent this is.

First impressions, in summary:

The sound quality blew me away. It is annoying I couldn't use the web app for HIFI. The service is overall more sluggish and less responsive than Spotify. I assume the problems I experienced will be tidied up over time (Spotify was full of glitches at first), and streaming will improve upon NZ launch.

This looks very promising.

EDIT: the Chrome problems might be more the fault of Yosemite than Tidal. Am going to try plugged straight into the router, as well as the latest Yosemite update, tonight.

NZtechfreak

4649 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1224540 29-Jan-2015 09:20

Curious as to why you wouldn't rip your CDs and use a streaming device for playback of those?

My entire collection is ripped to FLAC from CDs and on my NAS, I can stream my stuff anywhere in lossless quality.

That isn't to say you mightn't also subscribe to Tidal, but even without Tidal I'm wondering why you'd be "reaching for your CDs".

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

Glassboy

850 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1224541 29-Jan-2015 09:26

NZtechfreak: Curious as to why you wouldn't rip your CDs and use a streaming device for playback of those?

My entire collection is ripped to FLAC from CDs and on my NAS, I can stream my stuff anywhere in lossless quality.

That isn't to say you mightn't also subscribe to Tidal, but even without Tidal I'm wondering why you'd be "reaching for your CDs".

My CDs are ripped to ALAC. Oddly (proprietary format and all) more of my devices play it.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#1224549 29-Jan-2015 09:31

NZtechfreak: Curious as to why you wouldn't rip your CDs and use a streaming device for playback of those?

My entire collection is ripped to FLAC from CDs and on my NAS, I can stream my stuff anywhere in lossless quality.

That isn't to say you mightn't also subscribe to Tidal, but even without Tidal I'm wondering why you'd be "reaching for your CDs".

I have more than 500 CDs. The ripping process would be long and painful. Streaming the same file, as well as access to most other music at CD quality, for $20/month, makes sense to me :)

mailmarshall

349 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1224572 29-Jan-2015 10:00

I understand that if you have a Sonos system setup with a US address and the beta Sonos app you can use that as the controller for Tidal.

caveat - haven't done this myself and offcourse you need a Sonos system :).

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1224616 29-Jan-2015 11:22

This looks promising, Tidel via a Logitech Squeezebox. https://tidalhifi.com/nz/about/squeezebox

Better then a Sonos IMO and can handle hi-res files if these are added to the service later.

mailmarshall

349 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1224619 29-Jan-2015 11:33

Wow awesome news re Sqbox Touch!! thanks

NZtechfreak

4649 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1224935 29-Jan-2015 20:14

automaton:
NZtechfreak: Curious as to why you wouldn't rip your CDs and use a streaming device for playback of those?

My entire collection is ripped to FLAC from CDs and on my NAS, I can stream my stuff anywhere in lossless quality.

That isn't to say you mightn't also subscribe to Tidal, but even without Tidal I'm wondering why you'd be "reaching for your CDs".

I have more than 500 CDs. The ripping process would be long and painful. Streaming the same file, as well as access to most other music at CD quality, for $20/month, makes sense to me :)

I have 400+ CDs and re-ripped them all a while back. Wasn't that bad :)

I use free streaming services to hear new stuff and buy it on CD if I like it enough, once the collection is knocked into shape it's easy to keep on top of it as new albums trickle in.

I'd rather spend the $240 a year on buying CDs and other music related things, but that's just me - obviously this all boils down to personal preference and subjective valuations of time/money/convenience etc (in other words I don't intend a statement of my position on the spectrum to denigrate yours at all).

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

kiwitrc

4123 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1224936 29-Jan-2015 20:36

How much are CDs these days? Say for a new release.

NZtechfreak

4649 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1224954 29-Jan-2015 20:48

kiwitrc: How much are CDs these days? Say for a new release.

Don't know about new release prices, I rarely buy new releases! I think generally they're in the order of $20, from what I recall seeing at the likes of JB Hifi.

Most of the stuff I buy tends to be pretty cheap on CD, but that isn't too surprising since they're older albums I suppose.

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

kiwitrc

4123 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1224957 29-Jan-2015 20:59

Cheers, been a while since I bought one.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4