Is Tidal messing up for you? Would you Choose Amazon over it?

Is Tidal messing up for you? Would you Choose Amazon over it?

for me, no and no

Already did and wouldn't look back.  Amazon with a Prime membership is much cheaper than Tidal (look at the annual plan) and a much better selection. 

Device support is much more limited though and playing in the car thru the pone works really well for me.

I do believe that Sonos supports AmazonHD so that shouldn't be an issue.  I don't use Alexa so I can't comment on that.

I've been using Amazon for well over a year and except in no service spots its worked.

Qobuz

Neither. +1 Qobuz.

I've used Tidal several hours a day almost since it was introduced, both at home and remotely, and have had no problems at all.

I use Amazon HD with a Bluesound Node 2i and am very happy with it and have not had any issues. Great sound quality on high res and CD quality songs and Amazon has a great library for my taste in music which is mainly Rock and Americana.

I stream Amazon from an iPhone in my car and at the gym and it has worked great for me.

+2 Qobuz. 

Qobuz.

Qobuz!

Incidentally, Steve Stone did a comparison of streaming services in Absolute Sound, and he found Amazon HD lacking.  They might get there eventually, but they apparently ain’t there now.  FWIW. 

Qobuz again 

Never have a problem with Tidal. When used in my car, it is streamed directly from my cell, not downloaded. I think I would check out your Sono as a possible culprit. I used to have problems occasionally with my old inexpensive streamer, but none with my iFi Zen Stream, using Tidal Connect.

+1 Qobuz

tidal and qobuz are clearly a cut above spotify, amazon, deezer, etc etc in sound quality in their higher res feeds

the delta between tidal and qobuz is more subtle, there are other recent threads describing the sonic differences

tidal has the mqa issue, but smart users largely ignore this, just enjoy the music... if you have roon, it decodes mqa when it is there... set the setting and you don't need to think about it

both are thoroughly enjoyable and with an excellent system, the source feed is as good as any...

Make Mine Qobuz

I enjoy Tidal. Any few issues arose, I contacted Tidal Help and they came back promptly. The MQA sound on many albums is superior. Neal

@jjss49  darn you.

I really didn't want to believe it but Qobuz is better than AmazonHD.  

Just signed up for the Qobuz free trial and with WASAPI (exclusive) mode it's just  better.  The bass is tighter and there is an increase in clarity which isn't what I wanted to hear as I just renewed the Amazon annual plan.

errrrrr!!!

Ironically, I contacted Tidal support, pointing out the fact that identical songs played both, through my sonos on my home system with the cable internet, and my car playing, using AT&T cell service to stream, have the same corrupted issues…. Their response.. “Try using a VPN of XYZ”.

So are they implying that America’s streaming service has corrupt files, and I need to VPN to get their service through another country?  I don’t know that it’s even possible to make my Tesla use a VPN, and I haven’t put in a business class router, so I have no way to set a VPN for a specific device, and I’m not passing all of my internet through a free vpn which would basically throttle my internet service.. wtf are they smoking over there?  “What?  We have a file that’s corrupt through two entirely different internet providers?  You should just VPN so you pull from a different server!”… how about you fix your files!

I have never encountered a corrupted issue on any song played over Tidal, and I play Tidal often and long -- home and in car. That said, their response was gibberish. Neal

So are they implying that America’s streaming service has corrupt files, and I need to VPN to get their service through another country?

It’s free to try a Qobuz subscription, so just do that and see what happens. I will say that when I took my kid to soccer practice and the area had a not great WiFi signal Qobuz wasn’t great and I’d think Tidal’s compacted files may have worked better. But, from home, I much prefer Qobuz and will never go back to Tidal and their silly MQA crap. Just my opinion FWIW.

I listen to Tidal in my home office 5-12 hours a day 5 days a week for the last 2 years (thankyou, covid), and in my car (via iPhone) when I'm out and about. I can count on 1 hand the times I had a temporary problem related to the service. Your problems lie elsewhere.

That said, I prefer the quality of Qobuz (and think MQA to be pure bs), and would switch to Qobuz 100% if they had a connect feature (ala Tidal/Spotify). Until then, I wait. 

Incidentally, Tidal’s MQA algorithm alters the original content to what “they think” sounds better.  No thanks.  Also, MQA greatly restricts your choice of DACs.   IMHO the ONLY reason to consider Tidal is if you have WiFi data limitations that cause dropouts with other services.  But, 3G will make that a non issue.  Strike 3!  Qobuz also has a better user interface.  Strike 4!  Go with Qobuz.  

Streaming through the tidal app gives me fits while using it through roon seems to work as advertised. 

@soix 

I use Tidal with a Denafrips DAC. Denafrips does not do MQA, but I can still play all the offerings regardless. In addition, as Tidal came out with a tier without MQA, I switched to that, as I could care less about MQA. Again, I can play everything in the library. 

@jjss49 Roon only does the first of two Tidal "unfolds". You need a MQA DAC to do the second "unfold".

IMHO, rather than bother with any of this I use Qobuz with which I can enjoy hi-rez files without a special streamer or DAC.

I use Tidal with a Denafrips DAC. Denafrips does not do MQA, but I can still play all the offerings regardless. In addition, as Tidal came out with a tier without MQA, I switched to that, as I could care less about MQA. Again, I can play everything in the library. 

@bkeske Yeah, I get it.  But is the non-MQA in true HD?  Also, since your Denafrips doesn’t do MQA, why not try Qobuz?  It’s cheaper and most here seem to think it sounds better.  I had both and will never go back to Tidal if nothing else because I found the Qobuz interface to be much more user friendly.  Cheaper, easier to use, potentially better sound quality, and free to try — you do the math. 

@soix

Yeah, I get it. But is the non-MQA in true HD? Also, since your Denafrips doesn’t do MQA, why not try Qobuz? It’s cheaper and most here seem to think it sounds better. I had both and will never go back to Tidal if nothing else because I found the Qobuz interface to be much more user friendly. Cheaper, easier to use, potentially better sound quality, and free to try — you do the math.

Tidal now has a plan that is the same cost as Qobuz. It has ’high definition’, but does not include MQA. That is what I switched to. it is called their ’HiFi’ plan and plays files up to 1411 kbps (CD quality and all I need). I did the math. Pretty easy. Many files are still labeled ’master’. Their old plan with MQA is called ’HiFi+’, and includes MQA. I don’t need that, so saved money switching.

In addition, my iFi Zen Stream has Tidal Connect to get the best sound. I do not have ’Qobuz Connect’ with the iFi Zen Stream, unless I used Roon, which I do not.

@bkeske Yeah but, it’s absolutely free to try Qobuz so why not when so many members here prefer it and think it sounds better?  You have nothing to lose!

Because it does not have a ’Connect’ feature with the iFi Zen Stream. I won’t use (in my case) Airplay to play Qobuz. I know Airplay does not sound as good as ’Connect’. Ive tried both.

You made some untrue statements regarding Tidal, was just trying to clear that up.

I realize you like Qobuz, great, good for you. Many folks do. But let's not make untrue statements regarding Tidal.

Qobuz works fine with my ifi Zen Stream. Came right up during initial power up, no extra effort on my part.

ifi sez Zen Stream: "Works with any DLNA certified streaming app".

Qobuz has been DLNA compatible for years.

ifi sez Zen Stream: "Works with any DLNA certified streaming app".

Perhaps so, and I use DNLA to connect to one of my hard drives on my network, and it shows up inside the iFi app in order to use it/stream from it ‘directly’.

But, that doesn’t work like Tidal or Spotify Connect does, where it connects directly to the iFi Stream via the Tidal or Spotify app.

As I said, yea, an easy way to connect, for me, would be via Apple AirPlay, but that has limitations. I’m on Mac iOS and Mac OS systems only. Perhaps DNLA with mconnect, Roon, or similar is possible. Don’t know. I imagine you may need a third party app for non-Apple hardware/Qobuz as well (from what I have read). I’ve read a few postings about this, but not many, as at this time it does not concern me.

From an iFi rep:

We are working with Qobuz on integrating it directly into iFi software.