Impressions of Tidal

steveinaz

Back in the 60's and 70's, most everyone used their AM/FM tuner as their main source. Stations were plentiful, especially for me being a St. Louis native, and the music was good. Fast forward to satellite radio, which I had hoped would finally bring CD quality music to the airwaves. I was a VERY early adopter of XM, as my location now in a small town was seriously limited on FM stations. I haven't owned a tuner in over 20yrs. Well, BIG disappointment on the XM front....

Enter streamed (16/44) music, ala the internet. I recently signed up for a trial of Tidal Hi-fi service, just to check it out and see if it's something I might want to keep. Here's some quick observations:

1. The interface is very user friendly, and is learned quickly
2. You can search, pick suggested music, view by genre, or pick a pre-built playlist
3. Create your own playlists

Now the sound:

When compared to my flac rips from CD's, Tidals music seems a little softer around the edges. This was particularly evident on Sugarland "Stuck like glue" but other music also has this slight softening to it as well. On "stuck like glue" my flac rip has the lead vocal more upfront and real sounding, with crisp transients and possibly a little deeper soundstage. This was pretty much the rule across the board, though in varying degrees depending on the track.

Generally, it sounds really good. It's the closest thing to CD quality I've heard as far as streaming services, and/or satellite radio. Sans the slight "softening" I really enjoyed playing with it last night, and I think it's likely a keeper.

For reference, I was streaming via my Oppo BDP-103 Tidal app/Media Control app on my Ipad mini 4. My Oppo is connected via digital coaxial output to my PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell dac. The Ipad mini 4 simply acts as a host/remote for the Tidal program, nothing passes through it, sound wise.

VR3

Never say never, but I'll never own another physical media player, I'm all tidal and it's good enough.

I find I throw on tidal rising or general Playlist and let it rip... Sit for hours listening to music.

With cds, I found myself analyzing tracks over. And over and honestly spent little time with my rig.

I spent hours jamming to rage against the machines discography, which Imo, is recorded very well for the genre... All I'm getting at it, the small sacrifice in sound quality is worth the variety.

steveinaz

Exactly---I prefer more of a radio experience, rather than hunting down individual songs or albums. Pick a playlist, and let her rip.

displayname

I haven't really tested the digital radio much, but once I saw how easy it was to add streaming internet radio to my CXN I packed up my FM antenna, which I never used anyway because it sounded like garbage. Actual radio probably still won't get too much use in my house, but it's cool to have that option.

WagnerRC

Tidal is my option too. Very satisfied with the service.

Joey_V

Love tidal

ZLTFUL

Tidal coupled with my own library via Roon has been a God-send.

rooftop59

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Tidal coupled with my own library via Roon has been a God-send.

While I wouldn’t call it a godsend, I do love the combo of tidal and roon. While it may be true that if you are trying to squeeze the last ounce of sq out of your system tidal probably shouldn’t be your primary source of music, it’s perfect for me...

ZLTFUL

Trust me...trying to manage 233,000+ tracks in my personal library without Roon was a pain in the a$$. Roon is indeed a godsend for that.

mark090852

I have used TIDAL exclusively for the the last few months for hi-res streaming through my Lumin D2. Love it. But right this minute I am trying out Qobuz. It finally went live in the US today. So far it's pretty damn nice! 30 day free trial just like TIDAL. I'll stick with just one after the 30 day trial.

Mikey081057

I love Tidal and ROON...ROON brings it all together and allows you to experience whole house audio for when you are doing stuff and also pulls services together under 1 nice UI.

ROON Radio works great.

A nice DAC helps too... My Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ is the shizzle.

jdjohn

I've been using Spotify Premium Family with very satisfactory results. Is there a good reason to switch to Tidal?

Logitech SBT is my streamer (and Tidal is an app option), 'enhanced' digital coax-out into PSA Stellar Gain Pre/DAC.

Clipdat

jdjohn wrote: »

I've been using Spotify Premium Family with very satisfactory results. Is there a good reason to switch to Tidal?

Tidal offers CD quality and hi res. Spotify maxes out at 320kbps mp3.

rooftop59

jdjohn wrote: »

I've been using Spotify Premium Family with very satisfactory results. Is there a good reason to switch to Tidal?

Logitech SBT is my streamer (and Tidal is an app option), 'enhanced' digital coax-out into PSA Stellar Gain Pre/DAC.

Spotify is fine for most of my listening honestly: because I’m usually working, driving, cooking, cleaning, etc. but yes, tidal is cd quality, and that makes a difference for when you want to critically listen...

displayname

rooftop59 wrote: »

jdjohn wrote: »

I've been using Spotify Premium Family with very satisfactory results. Is there a good reason to switch to Tidal?

Logitech SBT is my streamer (and Tidal is an app option), 'enhanced' digital coax-out into PSA Stellar Gain Pre/DAC.

Spotify is fine for most of my listening honestly: because I’m usually working, driving, cooking, cleaning, etc. but yes, tidal is cd quality, and that makes a difference for when you want to critically listen...

Even if I decide to add Tidal I'll be keeping Spotify. My friends and I actually use the social features. Half my playlists are ones compiled by friends for events that we still build on. I'm not ready to give that up.
On the same note I can't count Netflix as saving on dropping cable. Even if I got cable again, I'm keeping netflix.

rburgess714

I have had Tidal for over a year now. Like the App and it sounds good to me. I rarely spin a disc.

joecoulson

Jody, when you come out in March, you’ll be able to poke around with Tidal and see what it has to offer. It’s a great streaming service and combined with the CXN makes for a very fun 2ch experience. The imaging and range has nothing on vinyl, but compared to CD’s it’s pretty darn good. Good enough to sit back and enjoy pretty much anything your in the mood for.

We can do A/B/C testing with Tidal/CD/Vinyl for quite a few albums when you come out.

jdjohn

Thanks for all the informative feedback. I will admit/confess right now that (to my ears on my system) lossless digital will almost always win-out over vinyl. But, I love the organic feel and sound of vinyl when done well, so please leave me alone

How do the libraries compare between Spotify and Tidal?

BC6

I love how easy Tidal and Roon are to use and how great it sounds. I’ve just added Qobuz and really like it too. I think Qobuz sounds a bit better but I’ll give it some more time before I pick between the two. I’ll probably keep both.

Joey_V

I honestly did not think I was going to find Tidal useful because I figured it would not be up to par with spinning CDs on my transport into my DAC.... but surprisingly, while not as good as my CDs, Tidal's ease of use and relatively decent sound has been a game changer for me. But no, it is not as good as the CDs into the Emm transport. Maybe if my streamer was an Aurender, it would close the gap.

steveinaz

I still use Pandora free on the patio/pool rig because I love the music Pandora picks for me.

joecoulson

I have to say that is the one super power for Pandora. It’s ability to randomly select music based on a song or genre is uncanny. No other service can do it even close.

steveinaz

joecoulson wrote: »

I have to say that is the one super power for Pandora. It’s ability to randomly select music based on a song or genre is uncanny. No other service can do it even close.

I setup a station on Pandora called "Kansas Radio" and it nails everything I loved musically in the 70's and early 80's.

Clipdat

joecoulson wrote: »

I have to say that is the one super power for Pandora. It’s ability to randomly select music based on a song or genre is uncanny. No other service can do it even close.

I asked you about this as I have similar feelings about Pandora and used it for a long time, and you claimed that Tidal had a similar feature that you found adequate.

I find it ridiculous that in 2019 the best quality that Pandora offers their paid subscribers is 192kbps mp3. So lame.

steveinaz

Tidal has pre-made playlists, but it's not the same radio-like experience of Pandora. Even at Pandora's lower stream rates, it still shames XM.

Here's an odd observation; the (free) Pandora app on my Oppo plays commercial free; but the app on my Samsung BR player on the patio has occasional commercials.

Clipdat

Steve, aside from the audio quality when I tried the free trial of Tidal using the desktop app, that was the biggest issue I had.

I inquired with support several times regarding how to go about getting that "radio" experience, and they kept referring me to the playlists. Well, the playlists were the same selection of songs every time, and various playlists I tried all had doubling up/overlap of songs. I expected it to be able to generate a completely new playlist each time I requested, so that I could have that true random radio listening experience like I had with Pandora.

I was hoping that this was an area that they had improved on in the year since I last tried their service.

steveinaz

I think Pandora premium is 320kbs now....?

Clipdat

steveinaz wrote: »

I think Pandora premium is 320kbs now....?

From their support page: "Change Audio Quality on the Web

Pandora on the Web plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192kbps for Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium subscribers."

rooftop59

Tidal now offers "artist radio" that, which perhaps not up to pandora or even spotify curated lists, is enjoyable. On the mobile app its the sound button next to the heart button.

I prefer to make my own playlists while listening at work. Takes no extra time. Then if something cool pops up on artist radio or one of the "my mixes," I just add it to the playlist. I always nail everything I like about that genre!

steveinaz

I'll have to check that out...

joecoulson

Drew you are very shrewd
Yes I did say that and I did say it was adequate but adequate is not a super power.
The algorithms on Pandora are just above everyone else IMO
But Tidals “go to track radio” feature does the job. And when it’s 44.1 it’s a darn sight better than 320 or less.