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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

Showing 4 responses by n80

n80 OP
2,133 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.
n80 OP
2,133 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?
n80 OP
2,133 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.
n80 OP
2,133 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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