Tidal HiFi Streaming?


Tidal just launched in October at $19.99/mo. They claim to ONLY steam at 44.1kHz/16 bit (1411kbs) so it is CD quality. Has anyone signed up for this? Is Tidal the way to go or Deezer? And, what would I need to start the service- I have WiFi or hardwire option, an iPad- would I need a laptop? External DAC? Sorry to ask so many questions but it's an exciting service, especially if I can save files to my hard drive. Rather than invest in an upgraded FM radio, this seems the way to go.
carja

Showing 1 response by nanotweeter

Like Arh, I too subscribed to Tidal for a short time. I cancelled my subscription after one month because (1) not all albums are in 44.1/16 - my experience indicated that perhaps about 25% of the ones I wanted to stream were not cd quality (or HiFi quality as labeled by Tidal) (2) a remote control app is not available so all interaction and program communication must be done at the connected computer (3) the gaps between tracks were long at best and frequently unbearably long at over 15 seconds, and this was with a high speed connection and dedicated macbook pro (4) I would get a static-like clicking on occasion during the louder passages on some albums that to me sounded like some type of clipping.

I really like the idea of high quality streaming and wish that Tidal would have been it for me. But it wasn't. At least not yet.