Tidal HiFi launched today! CD quality streaming

tonyb

Why couldn't you rip them yourself ?

Mikey081057

I config'd Ickster and Tidal for my Squeezebox touch today. Still jaggin with all the ways to use it, but it sounds incredible. I guess the SB community is strong and will find a way to get it done.

RamZet

tonyb wrote: »

Why couldn't you rip them yourself ?

Ripping 100 , 200, 300+ CDs is very timely.
You also get access to your CD collection from anywhere in the world without having to run your own drive.
The Sonos app is very nice too.

tonyb

RamZet wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Why couldn't you rip them yourself ?

Ripping 100 , 200, 300+ CDs is very timely.
You also get access to your CD collection from anywhere in the world without having to run your own drive.
The Sonos app is very nice too.

Not really, I ripped about 300 cd's in 2 days, once done....your done. Why would I want to listen to my cd's "anywhere in the world" ? Whatever I have on cd's is available on any music service too, which can play anywhere in the world also for 10 bucks a month.

Don't know about anyone else, but when I travel I don't listen to music, my music anyway. I want to be immersed in the culture I'm visiting.... and their music.

EndersShadow

RamZet wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Why couldn't you rip them yourself ?

Ripping 100 , 200, 300+ CDs is very timely.
You also get access to your CD collection from anywhere in the world without having to run your own drive.
The Sonos app is very nice too.

Somebody (forget who) found a USB cd ripping device that let you put 50 cd's in a stack and it would go through and rip them one by one and then spit them into a tray when completed... Forget what the device was called, but man that woulda been a life saver.

IIRC it worked with dbpoweramp too so it was even better lol....

audiocr381ve

Mikey081057 wrote: »

I config'd Ickster and Tidal for my Squeezebox touch today. Still jaggin with all the ways to use it, but it sounds incredible. I guess the SB community is strong and will find a way to get it done.

Mikey, have you made any improvements to your SBT? Thinking about the power supply upgrade for mine but am wondering if it's worth it since I'm only use the digital outs.

Mikey081057

audiocr381ve wrote: »

Mikey081057 wrote: »

I config'd Ickster and Tidal for my Squeezebox touch today. Still jaggin with all the ways to use it, but it sounds incredible. I guess the SB community is strong and will find a way to get it done.

Mikey, have you made any improvements to your SBT? Thinking about the power supply upgrade for mine but am wondering if it's worth it since I'm only use the digital outs.

I did a TeraDac psup upgrade and there is a patch available that I will do when I have enough time to pay attention. The SBT is a great device... Can't find anything that beats it in my application.

ambiophonics

Well, today I cancelled my tidal subscription. The sound quality was great but the interface was sluggish, no gapless playback, and some content was missing from the library. This was most annoying when they showed the artist and album but then grey out the tracks saying "not available for streaming/download". I had a few other minor gripes but overall it seems to need a bit of work before I revisit the option. Back to spotify for now.

tonyb

ambiophonics wrote: »

Well, today I cancelled my tidal subscription. The sound quality was great but the interface was sluggish, no gapless playback, and some content was missing from the library. This was most annoying when they showed the artist and album but then grey out the tracks saying "not available for streaming/download". I had a few other minor gripes but overall it seems to need a bit of work before I revisit the option. Back to spotify for now.

Your observations mirror many others, which is why I haven't switched. Funny though, I've had the same experience with Spotify, though that was years ago so maybe they've been better.

BTW....Rhapsody is claiming 320 now in their upgraded version 6 software....and still 10 bucks a month.

rooftop59

I REALLY like the sound quality, and didn't have too many problems with the library. My main reasons for canceling were 1. it takes a LOT of bandwidth to stream, and my work throttles any streaming, and that is the main place I would use it, and 2. I really don't get to engage in very much critical listening, so I don't really get to take advantage of the difference in SQ. If I spend hours each week just listening to music at home, it would definitely be worth it to me.

AsSiMiLaTeD

If everyone bails on Tidal before the issues get fixed they won't be around long enough to get them fixed. OTOH, maybe if they hadn't half assed the implementation in the first place they wouldn't be in this position. I'm always conflicted in scenarios like this, do I stick with a company while they try to work through the issues or do I bail and refuse to support mediocrity!

Ultimately I'm still not sold on streaming services, still like to own my music and so far nobody is doing anything to change that. If Apple can get their **** together and remove the silly 25,000 song limit for iTunes Match and then integrate that in with Beats Music and convert it all to lossless then maybe I'd be on board...

ambiophonics

My decision was easier as I still get spotify at the student price - $5 instead of tidal's $20 price tag.

tonyb

Bandwidth is certainly going to be an issue which is probably why many streaming services won't go higher rez. I'd be happy with simple cd quality, if it was dependable and had a massive library. Getting all 3 in one service seems to be harder than it would need to be. Nothing more aggravating than having songs drop out.

Rhapsody has been rock solid in that regard over the years which is why I stay with them.

BlueFox

Does streaming high-res music use more bandwidth than, for example, streaming Netfilx? I suspect the video services are the real bandwidth hogs.

tonyb

Yeah, video really sucks it up. You need a good internet service to do movies and music and that costs more bucks too.

audiocr381ve

I have blazing fast internet here at home but have been getting drop outs almost every song recently. Was running like a champ for a couple of months too. If this keeps up, it's gone.

ambiophonics

I had tidal go down a few nights, even when Internet (40mb) was working fine. At work it's annoying as our network is slow and the iPad app pops up a message recomending I enter "offline" mode but endlessly makes that message appear making it very difficult to enter offline mode.

Simplyrandom

I too cancelled my Tidal subscription as I just could not tolerate the hiccups. The lag between songs and it seemed every other song that played would have loading issues mid track. I maintain a 45/45 connection with Fios and Netflix plays with no issues. When it worked I loved it but it had too many issues to justify the cost. Sort of like my ex wife. I also wrote them explaining why I dropped the service and this was their response.

TIDAL Support [CH] (TIDAL)
Feb 4, 09:58
Hello Glenn,
Thank you for contacting TIDAL customer support.
We are sorry for this inconvenience. Our backend operations team is constantly working on improving the quality of the delivery of our content to the users to reduce playback issues. We are expecting this issue to be resolved soon, after we obtain a new delivery provider in the US.
Best Regards,
Colin
TIDAL Support

rooftop59

tonyb wrote: »

Bandwidth is certainly going to be an issue which is probably why many streaming services won't go higher rez. I'd be happy with simple cd quality, if it was dependable and had a massive library.

That's what tidal is, CD quality. They call it hi-rez because, well it is compared to ANY other streaming service, which stream at 320 mbps max. But yes, expanding the library and fixing the hiccups is absolutely necessary.

And I can't stream netflix well at work either, as I said they throttle any form of streaming. I just tested 750 mbps, but I can't stream a flac file because they throttle it. Bastardos!

tonyb

Bandwidth isn't an endless commodity. The more people streaming, the more all the providers will throttle down during heavy usages.

.....and when do you think those heavy usages will be ? Superbowl ? Prize fights ? Any sports games with merit ? News of the disaster type ? Just when you want it the most is when it will get throttled down. That's why I'll never go completely wireless, like putting all your eggs in one basket. Not my generations forte.

RamZet

EndersShadow wrote: »

RamZet wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Why couldn't you rip them yourself ?

Ripping 100 , 200, 300+ CDs is very timely.
You also get access to your CD collection from anywhere in the world without having to run your own drive.
The Sonos app is very nice too.

Somebody (forget who) found a USB cd ripping device that let you put 50 cd's in a stack and it would go through and rip them one by one and then spit them into a tray when completed... Forget what the device was called, but man that woulda been a life saver.

IIRC it worked with dbpoweramp too so it was even better lol....

2 days is a long time for most people with busy jobs, kids, or anything else better to do than rip CDs.
Most people cant setup a NAS drive, open ports, and get an app that lets them access their collection from their phones or tablets.
Ripping Stations start at 700 bucks ( I have one) and you run into the same mess of not having time or anything else better to do than rip CDs.
Travel isnt just going to a different country and meeting new people... Travel is sitting on a train or driving in a car.

Im not 100% on board with streaming music anymore, you don't get to own it.
With a service like Murfie you take all your CDs and mail them away and "your done".
They become somebody else's problem and it just works. If you want something new you just buy the CD (used or new) from Murfie or another user and it becomes available to you.
Want your music on a HDD? You just buy the HDD and pay small fee from Murfie and it shows up at your house.
OR you can download your CD from Murfie in MP3, AAc, Apple Lossless or FLAC.

See Murfie is all about owning your own music and having it available anywhere without doing any work.
They even manage album art and meta data. Ever rip and CD and get that annoying black cover art or "track01, track02, or untitled". How about you rip a CD and it comes back as several artist b/c each track was a different artist. Forget that noise, life is to short to be ripping CDs, managing data, or setting up home servers.

I really enjoyed it b/c I was able to purchase all the music from my iTunes on CD at a good price. A lot of my music was found for 1-3 bucks a CD on the Murfie store. I also liked not having to getup and dig through my CDs to locate an album I wanted to hear right away.

RamZet

Simplyrandom wrote: »

I too cancelled my Tidal subscription as I just could not tolerate the hiccups. The lag between songs and it seemed every other song that played would have loading issues mid track. I maintain a 45/45 connection with Fios and Netflix plays with no issues. When it worked I loved it but it had too many issues to justify the cost. Sort of like my ex wife. I also wrote them explaining why I dropped the service and this was their response.

TIDAL Support [CH] (TIDAL)
Feb 4, 09:58
Hello Glenn,
Thank you for contacting TIDAL customer support.
We are sorry for this inconvenience. Our backend operations team is constantly working on improving the quality of the delivery of our content to the users to reduce playback issues. We are expecting this issue to be resolved soon, after we obtain a new delivery provider in the US.
Best Regards,
Colin
TIDAL Support

My buddy uses Deezer with no issues, they offer a free trial. Might be worth a try.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I don't fully trust Murfie or any service like that. What happens when they go out of business all the sudden and don't get your CDs shipped back out to you? You may say it'll never happen and I hope you're right, but what happens if you're wrong?

I get the appeal of paying someone else to do it for you and if they have a service where I can send them my CDs, they rip to a hard drive and then send the CDs and the hard drive back to me I could totally get on board with that. At that point you're paying for a service the same way some people pay to have their hair cut.

What I'm not a fan of is sending them my CDs and it stays with them, because (and I don't care what assurances they give me otherwise) ultimately I don't have full control over my content and have no recourse if they disappear.

rooftop59

U can pay to have them send u both a hard drive and the discs back, but it gets way too pricey for me. I agree that ripping 100s of discs is a pain when u have a full time job, kids, house, etc to tend to, but ripping 5-10 at a time will get it done eventually. Or you rip while u do other things over a long weekend. I did some of both...

RamZet

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I don't fully trust Murfie or any service like that. What happens when they go out of business all the sudden and don't get your CDs shipped back out to you? You may say it'll never happen and I hope you're right, but what happens if you're wrong?

I get the appeal of paying someone else to do it for you and if they have a service where I can send them my CDs, they rip to a hard drive and then send the CDs and the hard drive back to me I could totally get on board with that. At that point you're paying for a service the same way some people pay to have their hair cut.

What I'm not a fan of is sending them my CDs and it stays with them, because (and I don't care what assurances they give me otherwise) ultimately I don't have full control over my content and have no recourse if they disappear.

they can ship your CDs back to you, they dont need to be stored there.
I had all my CDs sent back to me.
Also they have insurance so your CDs get shipped back to you if they go under, they mention that on their site.
You should see the security they hired to protect the CDs during transit when they moved to a larger building last year

Mikey081057

FYI i've been using Tidal on the Bluesound Node for about a month now with zero hiccups. Works and sounds better than anything I've tried.

RamZet

Mikey081057 wrote: »

FYI i've been using Tidal on the Bluesound Node for about a month now with zero hiccups. Works and sounds better than anything I've tried.

How do you like the BlueSound stuff?
I feel like its a more grown up Sonos.

Mikey081057

The Bluesound Node is the device for me. Quality build, great sonics and connects to Tidal which is the best audio quality streaming available.

markmarc

I've been using Tidal since the beginning, and though I rarely had problems I've noticed step by step improvement in the catalog and interface speed. Since I've added Roon Software to the mix I'm in heaven as with just one interface I have access to my personal collection as well as Tidal's.

Mikey081057

This article came out before the release of Apple Music but is not going to compete on SQ.

http://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/best-music-streaming-services-2015