I've been using Tidal for about three months now and find the Hifi version sounds better than any other streaming service I've tried, including Spotify Premium. The hifi version does have fewer selections than the standard version, but for the most part I am OK with this. Tidal has quite a few titles in MQA, which to my ears sounds better than CD quality. Hopefully they will continue to add more MQA titles.
I currently have the fastest possible service from Comcast and do not experience issues with the sound dropping like I did before I upgraded to the faster speed. I also run an ethernet cable directly from my router to my network player. I am also using Roon to manage my library, and find this sounds a lot better than JRiver, though it does cost a lot more. One thing to consider when evaluating the cost of Tidal vs other services: they offer a family version of the hifi service for $30/month. I currently use Tidal at both of my business locations, so to me this cost is a bargain, as I can stream Tidal from up to 5 different devices. I gave my son and daughter a login as well, since they are always bugging me to pay for Apple Music. At only $6/user/month that's a lot of music value.
Tidal all the way. Spotify does have a greater selection (not that I really find Tidal lacking... an album here and there, but definitely not a dealbreaker), but the sound quality just isn't there.
I signed up for Tidal with MQA, it is awesome. I have many HDTracks 24 bit recordings (use JRiver) and Tidal MQA for same sounds just as good. Please use the service as I don’t want to loose it!
Tidal is great if you really want to hear the absolute best sound quality, but Spotify sounds great also. There's a difference in sound quality between Tidal Masters and everything else on both services, but "HI-FI" on both is supposed to be "CD quality".
That DAC is a few years old, no? It's not going to support MQA through Tidal.
Tidal is tipped towards hip-hop, R&B, and other new artists. I think you'll find a lot more in the way of playlists and "stations" on Spotify that caters to the type of music you enjoy. You'll be able to find most of the types of music you mentioned on Tidal also, it just won't be featured on Tidal.
Unless you have "golden ears" and plan to upgrade your DAC, Spotify might be the best choice for you.
'Tis a problem.I love the recommendations that come out every week on Spotify for me, but having just set up my streamer (Cambridge CXN) for Tidal, the sound quality is just better. Rest of system PrimaLuna Dialogue HP with KT 150; Vivid Oval 1.5 and JL E112 subwoofer with pretty ordinary cables. Hard to give up finding new music, but prefer the sound out of the Tidal which is also easier to control from my phone or PC.I didn't think I would hear a difference in sound but I really do. It's not the cost of the Tidal, it's just the introduction to new music.
Tidal vs Spotify, there are a lot of differences.
Tidal is well known for its exclusive contents and lossless songs while Spotify dominates the streaming music market for its user friendly interface, affordable price and free trier of services.
You can use
MusConv to transfer songs between your services, I've been using it
and i think it has been the easier way to transfer playlist from one to
another.
To be honest, I have tried to use Spotify and Tidal before. I prefer Spotify rather than Tidal.
-Spotify launched over a decade ago and is now one of the biggest subscribed-to services in the world. -Tidal has also made a huge name for itself by focusing on superior sound quality including CD-quality lossless streaming and hi-res FLAC-based audio files.
-If you're on a tight budget, go for Spotify. It offers a free subscription plan supported by some (fairly annoying) adverts. Step up to Spotify's £10 a month Premium subscription plan and the audio quality shoots up to 320kbps.
-Tidal doesn't off a free, ad-supported subscription plan – only a free 30-day trial. The cheapest plan - Tidal Premium will set you back £10 a month. It's ad-free and streams music at 320kbps.
Apart from music streaming service, there is a Spotify Music Converter from DumpMedia to convert your favorite songs and keep them forever. It is a tool that removes DRM protection. This converter offers you a free-trial period so that you can try to use it before pushing to the purchase.
I think you're mistaken. Pandora is lo-res mp3 quality.
"Paid subscribers enjoy three mobile bitrate tiers that impact the music's sound quality. You can select Low (32Kbps AAC+), Standard (64Kbps AAC+), or High (192Kbps)"...
AGREED!Pandora + streams at 24/192 ...You can select Low (32Kbps AAC+), Standard (64Kbps AAC+),
or High (192Kbps)"
You're confused, @freediver. Pandora's 192 Kbps is 16-bit lo-res mp3. Compare that to CD (16 bit/1,411 kHz) or true hi-res such as can be found on Tidal or Qobuz, which are 24 bit and have a bit rate of 9,216.
Do not have anything to do with Spotify as their customer service stinks. Some low life SOB signed up for Spotify and somehow got my credit card number to use for the sign up. I have been callling several times to remove my credit cards from their files and I keep getting excuses and lied to me that it was done. They suck. Go with Tidal, Qobuz, Pandora or another other music source.
Tidal is better than Spotify. The HiFi subscription is CD Lossless, and it costs the same as Spotify Premium, which is lossy. Spotify Hifi is not out yet, delayed due to licensing issues, so no one knows yet about that.
For Tidal, their HiFi Plus subscription is controversial. It uses MQA which is not lossless, making Tidal not a great option if you want high res (higher resolution than CD), for that, consider Qobuz. What MQA does offer is high res that is much smaller file size compared to similar resolution flac files, while being vastly higher quality than MP3. It's a weird trade off considering the audience and the fact that bandwidth is generally not an issue.
For CD Lossless, Qobuz and Tidal are pretty much rivals, many people buy both and use Roon to manage playlists, this will maximize quality and track availability. I just use Tidal and then buy CD's of what's not on it and rip them myself to flac for network streaming.
Given the music genres you are interested in there are not a lot of high-quality recordings. That is not a slight on the Op at all it just means that Spotify would probably be sufficient. That said, Spotify is good, Tidal is better and Qobuz is the best for SQ imo. I use them all. The only time I use Tidal is if an artist is not available on Qobuz and that is rare. If I am outside I always use Spotify because SQ does not matter in that instance.
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