@lalitk ~ Tidal rocks! I had a friend over who wanted to compare the latest Remastered version of Brothers In Arms (Dire Straights) from Tidal vs my regular issue pressing of Brothers In Arms...he went away in disbelief... |
@james1969 ~ I guess he wasn’t thinking clearly :-)
Now let’s get back to our discussion of how great is Tidal streaming, even for Vinyl lovers 😉 |
I also like listening to Tidal Streaming music because it is
easy to use and I love the variety. Of
course, the BEST part is their excellent uncompressed sound quality. In addition, I can change my mind on an
album and quickly find a different album to listen to. The flexibility and outstanding sound quality of Tidal is
a big listening plus for me. Tidal music selections are improving and additional albums
are always being added including MQA Albums. Tidal also
offers various play lists you can select or you select your own album. Another
advantage with Tidal is that you can select an album and then page down to see
additional albums by that artist.
You can go to the genres tab, and then select classical music, jazz,
country, etc. Here you will see a variety of content.
You need to decide if the Tidal $20 per month charge is
worth it. I feel the Tidal sound quality is well worth the $20. I suggest you
give Tidal a try for one month and then decide. I highly recommend Tidal Streaming.
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@clearthink, I solely meant using Tidal to listen to music. I subscribe to the 44.1 kHz sample rate (the premium) for good sound through my system. If I find new music that is available on vinyl, I buy it. Radio is not what it use to be, nor is MTV for that matter. So where do you go for new music these days? Tidal is my tool for new music, it does not replace my music collection. My records are my greatest treasure, so to add new music to my record collection, I am using Tidal to enjoy new music through. Peace dude. |
@clearthink,
I think you have taken @james1969 words out of context. He may be referring to the content of a album.
I ‘listen’ to lot of content on Tidal and other sites that allow audio samples before buying downloads or 24bit CD’s.
And yes, I agree with you there is no way to tell by listening to a album on Tidal that the same album on LP or CD’s will be better sounding or vice versa. |
@clearthink...I interpreted this is mean "if you like the album, (songs, music, etc) then you can buy the vinyl copy.
I did this all the time with CDs. If I was interested in the artist/title, I would buy the CD, if I liked the CD, I would purchase it on vinyl.
Tidal has eliminated the "CD" step. I haven't bought a CD in a couple of years. I listen to it on Tidal, if I like it, I'll buy the LP.
YMMV |
"
Tidal is also a good tool to find new vinyl, listen before you buy. "
That is ridiculous Tidal is exclusively and solely a digital service you obviously have no idea how audio works or you would not make this claim. There is no way to tell from a digital stream how a "vinyl" as you say would sound because very often the "vinyl" is mastered from a different source than the file for the digital stream and even if the "vinyl" was made from the same file there is no way to know anything meaningful at all about the quality of the actual "vinyl" pressing that you might choose to purchase because of course the quality of vinyl pressings very widely. |
I can get sensational sound quality from steaming Tidal's upper quality service
+1
Tidal is fantastic. Tidal is also a good tool to find new vinyl
+1 |
Tidal is fantastic. Tidal is also a good tool to find new vinyl, listen before you buy. |
Also not sure what "lose control of all your music" means? All of "my" music is at my fingertips on a NAS drive and I can play anything I want from Tidal as well. I would call that much better "control" of my music and much more convenience.
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My streamer, Auralic Aries Mini, displays the sampling rate of anything playing on the Lightning DS app so i always know. And direct comparisons to my own ripped files and Tidal have mostly been about even, where I start to see differences is when one version is a better master. i.e. I may have ripped a K2 version of a cd and Tidal doesn't have the K2 my version may sound better. Other than that it's a wash.
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As Shadorne has said, some DACs display the incoming signal. The bottom line is what type of sound quality you can get from your rig. I can get sensational sound quality from steaming Tidal's upper quality service through ROON. But, to get the most out of it you need to work with ROON's digital engine settings. I have heard some MQA demos and I'm not terribly impressed. Pretty overblown imo. |
No concern with Tidal. My Roon software is set to play the files natively (no conversion) and my DAC reports the incoming bit and sample rate on the display. So I know I am streaming CD quality or better. |
I am new to streaming. I've had audiophile aspirations most of my life and have collected and listened to music for the past 55+ years. I have a modestly extensive collection of LPs, CDs and SACDs that I have accumulated over this time. I enjoy having this collection and have tried to optimize my system to get the most out of my physical media. All of this is to say that I do have an investment in physical media and certainly that is the comfort zone of my experience. So I went into streaming in general and Tidal in particular with a bias toward physical media. My experience with Tidal is that in many ways it has transformed my listening experience. For those audiophiles who truly enjoy music and the discovery of new music I think Tidal is great. In my experience the sound quality of of their lossless and MQA albums are on a par with what I get from my CD player...and sound quality IS important to me. I am not sure if Tidal is "audiophile approved", nor do I care. My ears still work and I can discern between good and bad sounding recordings. I don't need a device to reveal to me the meta data of the digital file before I can enjoy it. |
Many DACs will give an accurate read on what bit Rate, etc is actually arriving at the DAC. Many on this forum have used this info to discover that some streamed music from Tidal or other streamed sources is not high res, and occasionally discovered that MP3 files are being used
Tidal tries to minimize this, but to answer your original question, the only way to control this is to own the file in a physical format
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@douglas_schroeder
Could you be a bit more specific, please.
Specifically, how do you know that the claimed file quality is actually streamed? What prevents streaming services from downgrading their signals?
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