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Newbie with Tidal question.

New to hifi. I have a nice but probably 15 year old system. Sounds great via CD player. 

Just signed for 30 day trial of Tidal hifi. 

However, it’s going into the pre-amp from my laptop through the headphone jack/RCA ‘y’ cable. 

It sounds pretty good to me. A/B testing verses an actual CD of the same song is better but the difference doesn’t seem huge. 

I’m just wondering what I’m actually getting quality-wise with this setup and if it is any better than the Tidal low-fi option or iTunes. I’m assuming even if I’m using the Tidal desktop app that the signal is still coming from the laptops sound card. 
n80
7 responses Add your response
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
Well, I can say this: The SQ is much better through the laptop headphone jack than it is through the iPhone.

I may compare Tidal  SQ vs iTunes run to pre-amp the same why to see if I can tell a difference.

The lack of a remote feature makes Tidal much less appealing to me though.
ajnackman
60 posts
 
If you are using the headphone jack out from your laptop then you are hearing the onboard DAC in your laptop. If you want your streamable content to sound better consider buying a standalone DAC between your laptop and preamp. Tidal makes use of MQA compression, there are some affordable DAC's that can "unfold" the compression completely such as the meridian explorer 2. Or choose something like the HRT music streamer HD, no MQA support on that unit.

However if you are serious about achieving a streaming system that can rival your CD's be prepared to go down the rabbit hole :)
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
Thanks for the response. I guess the million dollar question is: Do you need to go down the rabbit hole to get your money’s worth of Tidal’s hifi streaming?
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Look into the Meridian Explorer 2 as a reasonable option to get a good sound from your laptop for streaming Tidal.
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
Thank you. I'll look into that.

Comparing iTunes to Tidal hifi (both directly from the laptop via headphone jack) I could hear very little difference between the two. Certainly not enough to spend double the money.

So the answer for me is: if running off the computer via the headphone jack, Tidal hifi has nothing to offer over iTunes or others. And in truth, neither one sounded all that great this way.

So, I'll either have to look at some additional hardware and software options or just use streaming to search for music and not for serious lsitening.
hfaddict's avatar
hfaddict
97 posts
 
@n80  Not a knock on you but with your current set up, it sounds like Tidal Hi Fi isn't worth the extra cash.

Depending on how resolving your system is (amp and speakers), the next logical step is probably an external DAC if you wanted to utilize what Tidal Hi Fi has to offer over Tidal standard.  Your computer DAC isn't doing you any favors unfortunately.   
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
hfaddict, I agree. I'm new to this but from what I understand my system (inherited) is pretty high end and even being new I can hear pretty easily that iTunes and stuff run through the computer is not as good as CDs and vinyl. 

The potential for Tidal to be an enjoyable pastime is certainly there but for their hifi to be worthwhile to me will take more equipment and software AND an easy way to control it remotely.
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