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

For the last month, I’ve been battling with all kinds of issues, from corrupt audio files (primarily noticed in my Tesla, from main stream bands like Metallica etc), to songs buffering, skipping and so on).

Initially, I noticed the corrupt issues which always repeated on the same songs in my car, and I assumed they must have downloaded wrong, then when they came back to play again, were playing off a cached copy on the car that was already corrupt.  I’d get issues with random buffering issues here and there, but once again, thought it was an issue with my car and it being on a cell service.

At home, I stream from a Sonos player and have also had buffering issues, but I’m also having internet connectivity issues here, so I didn’t correlate the problem as a universal problem.  I also constantly had issues with Alexa unable to select a song from Tidal, or skipping to a secondary music service because it couldn’t communicate with Tidal, yet I’d open up the Sonos app and was able to select the Tidal song without a problem, so thought it was once again, an internet issue.

Today, I was having the buffering constantly issues.  I left the house to run some errands.  Same on my car.  Got home, continued problem.  Checked my internet.. 0 packet loss yet same problem.  Stream from my phone, same problem.  Switch music services and works great.  I’ve also had some songs sound distorted (at loud volumes, but it felt like a file problem and not an amplification problem).

Have you all had any issues like this before?  My phone is tmobile, my car is ATT, and my home is cable internet, so 3 entirely different internet sources, same

problem.  I’m considering switching to Amazon’s hifi, but it doesn’t have built in support for my car yet.  How have your experience been, and any of you tried both side by side and found benefits or downfalls to one over the other?

maverick3n1

Showing 5 responses by bkeske

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

@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. 

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

@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's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

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.

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

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.

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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