Tidal vs. Spotify

Obviously fillysun and nikky are the same person or at least work for the same company and are shilling some software. Just be honest dude. Pisses people off when you are all shady shillin. At least it bothers me. 

Compared with Tidal and Spotify, I think Spotify is better than Tidal, because Spotify is free for us to listen all music online without premium. Now I used Spotify Music Converter to convert music to MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, etc to play offline on any music players without free account, I hope you can like it too.

Comparing with Tidal and Spotify, I perfer Spotify than Tidal,beacause Spotify can through some tools to convert my favorite music on MAC and other players.I used to use Spotify Music Converter to convert music ,hope you also can like it.

I have both.  Spotify has a better selection but Tidal integrates to Roon and that is the most important thing for me.  I have many great playlists I get from Spotify.  I use soundiiz to convert my playlists to Tidal.  Spotify is fine for casual listening but I would never sit down and really listen to something on it, the difference in sound quality is major especially when comparing Tidal via Roon 

Tidal vs Spotify, my option is Spotify. It is free for all users to listen to music online without limitation. If you are eager to download and play Spotify music offline, I think Spotify playlist converter will be a good choice for you. It is for all users to download and convert music to MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, M4A, M4B, etc at faster speed with zero loss quality. You can check more info on Audcope.

If I were you I would use MusConv tool to transfer my playlist to Spotify.

This is a fascinating thread.  Basically, it seems to boil down to a debate between convenience/usability (Spotify) and sound quality (Tidal).  Given that this is an audiophile forum, I expected very few would prefer Spotify. But while it appears Tidal does have the majority here, there are a surprising number of Spotify users.  I wonder what the manufacturers of streamers and DACs will make of this thread?  
Personally, I ended up subscribing to both Tidal and Qobuz so I can generally find almost anything I am looking for.  When I first got my current system (Aurender N10, Levinson 585, Focal Kanta No 2s, REL S/5s, Transparent cables) I compared a very good recording for which I had both a compressed file and a 192/24 file.  The compressed file actually didn't sound bad, until I played the hires file.  You didn't need 'golden ears' to tell the difference. NOT subtle.  The convenience issue isn't a problem for me - but my previous system only had a manual turntable, so maybe my perspective is a little different!

Day and night. PS, I listen to classical mostly. Use Oppo205 decode MQA, balanced line out ->  Sennheiser HDA600-> balanced XLR silver wire -> Sennheiser HD650 and HD600. Super transparent and clear sound.

I love spotify. It's the best music streaming software. And i used MUSCONV tool to transfer my playlist to spotify. It's amazing. MUSCOV take just few minutes only to transfer large playlist. If you want you can try. Find more details at www.musconv.com 

51strebel.

Not sure what issue you have with Tidal search?
I have been using for over a year and have zero complaints at all.
I think the Tidal interface is superior to Spotify and as for the sq, not even on the same planet.
Also just started investigating Deezer which seems to be pretty comparable to Tidal in search and sq.
But of course all just my opinions...

Qobuz should be available in the US this year.

I find Qobuz much better than Tidal and Spotify but to be able to subscribe you have to live in Europe if i recall.

Comparing Tidal and Spotify is like comparing bananas with iceskates.
Spotify is way superior in usability, serachengine, intelligent music suggestions, etc.
But, in terms of sound quality, spotify is ok for the kitchen stereo or the boombox you bring to the beach. But utterly unacceptable as source in any serious setup.
In any serious setup, the difference between spotify and tidal hifi, is instantly obvious.
The sense of air, 3d imagin and realism dissapears when you switch to spotify. Where tidal delivers a soundstage that is wide, deep, high, airy and precise, everything just sounds compressed and, to say it like it is, shitty! in comparison, when played on spotify.. 

So essentially Im going in circles.  I'll try to explain.  I am trying to resign up for the Spotify Premium subscription but I forgot my password.  When I request that they e-mail me they say that my e-mail is not associated with an active account so that lead me to think that I just need to sign up again but when I try to do that they say I can't use my user name or e-mail because it is taken already (by me, I assume, from my prior subscription). 

I filled out the Spotify contact form for help but when I get to the end and press send I get the response that my session had timed out.  I filled the form out again a second time, cut and paste therefore really quickly, and I still got the same session has timed out response.

I will say that cancelling my subscription last time was a real hassle, just like my trying to resubscribe right now.  Poor customer service in my opinion; we'll see if my e-mails requesting help actually made it through to them or not.  

B_limo...I use Spotify Premium on a MAC.  Things might look different if you run Windows.  At any rate, at the top of my Spotify screen there is a Help button in the toolbar.  Click on that and a Search pop-up appears with several choices including, "Your Account".  Clicking on Your Account opens an "Account Overview' window with yet another Help button.  Click on this Help and another window opens in "Support".  Try the "Solutions" box or the "Spotify Community" to describe your problem.   In this same Support window at the top there is a Solutions button.  Click on this and there are Account and Tech Support options.  I'd probably post my problem in every and all available dialog boxes until someone got back to me.  Hope this is some help.  Good luck getting back on Spotify Premium.

Okay, so I'm trying to resubscribe to Spotify Premium simply because the playlists and music selection smokes Tidal.  It seems like Jay Z is just pushing a bunch of rap crap.  Blah.

Anywho, Spotify Premium was an absolute pain to cancel, now I'm finding I can't resubscribe.  Contact support you say?  What support would that be?  The problem I am running into is that if I try to resubscribe it says my E-mail is already a registered E-mail, so my logic was to log-in then if my E-mail is already registered but I can't remember my username and login so I enter in my e-mail and they say I don't have an account... Wtf man??

Thanks, kacz.  I was not aware of those a'phile playlists.  Great suggestion.  Lots too explore.

So after having spotify premium for quite a while now I can say I'm totally satisfied. Search "audiophile" playlists. The first few will blow you away. Just go through all the songs on the list. Most those recordings are nothing short of incredible. You'll be staying up for hours and hours late into the night, not being able to stop listening. 

I use  Tidal with Roon software installed on MacMini which is connected via USB to  Marantz NA11S DAC/network player.
The integration is flawless and sound quality is really like CD one.

Ghosthouse, thanks for the heads up. Will check it out.
The Jazz for Autumn playlist is what I have been listening to for my recent experiment.
It's interesting that Spotify does indeed sound like redbook quality.

Glad you got an improvement, Jon.  Check out The Antisocial Club when you get a chance.  Maybe you will like it.

Tried both and it was no contest. Inputting the native Spotify signal to the dac followed by upsampling wins hands down.
Guess Windows was doing a hack job of digital upscaling. :)

Not at all, ghosthouse. Quite the contrary. I am actually curious as to how the 2 methods compare. :)

Hi Jon - 
I wasn't trying to one-up your method with my comments...
The Gungnir doesn't have a USB input so I have to use the MF USB/SPDIF adapter and that's what is doing the upsampling.  Mainly wrote in response to your positive comments about Spotify sound quality which opinion I share.  

Not 100% certain about current pricing for that iFi dual-headed cable.  I got my cable off Ebay from Doukmall (China) on the suggestion of Williewonka.  Since then we've become aware of a "USB Disruptor" by robpriore for $74 and his has a power supply.  Maybe that will save you a few bucks over the iFi version.  You can find his cable under DA Converters.   Hopefully the link here will work too.   

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-usb-disruptor-kills-noisy-usb-power-improves-usb-dac...

If interested in a Spotify selection with great SQ, try The Antisocial Club. It will be under "various artists" but is an Alan Pasqua project.  Interesting music (jazz/fusion) and, as I said, good sonics.  

Ciao.

Ghosthouse,
I used to have the iFi USB power that separates the power from the signal via a bihedral cable like yours until it crapped out. I guess it's time to get a new one after this recent experiment. 
I will try your method of letting the dac do the upsampling work and see how that compares with Windows.
 

jon2020 - 
I find the sound from Spotify very good too.  I'm using a split USB cable (separate signal and power legs) from MAC to a Musical Fidelity 192 USB/spdif converter that also upconverts to 24/192; from the MF192 via Stereovox coax to a Gungnir DAC; from the Gungnir via Morrow Audio RCAs (MA-3s or MA4s...don't recall) to pre-amp (or amp).  CD playback - especially ripped - can sound a little fuller bodied but for finding and listening to new music and playing things I haven't purchased yet, Spotify has been excellent.  An audio bud that had visited thought the sound of Spotify was CD-quality.  It sure ain't like listening to crappy MP3s.  
  

I am now listening to basic Spotify with Windows upscaling everything to 24/192 before outputting via USB to my iFi USB-spdif converter and thence to the coax input of the Esoteric K-01 player which is 24/192 capable. 

I have no idea how Windows does the upscaling but the sound is indeed stunning!
For those interested to try this, right click the sound icon on the taskbar -> Playback devices -> select your USB device -> 'Properties' tab -> 'Advanced' tab -> scroll down and select 24 bit/192 kHz(studio quality).

Enjoy! J. :)

Neither!

Even at home, Spotify > iBasso SPDIF Convertor > Simaudio 100D > Simaudio I-3 > Totem Rainmaker sounds pretty good to me.  

Because I travel 50% of the time, the ability to listen to my playlists/albums offline while on an airplane makes Spotify great for me. I used Tidal for about 3 days a few months back and thought the sh*tty interface wasn’t worth the increase in sound quality.

kacz - I've been a Spotify Premium subscriber for months and months now.  To me, the best $10 per month subscription ever.  I've not noticed any variation in quality of their stream based on time of day.  I have noticed that not all the available recordings are of the same quality.  Some are noticeably better than others.  Given spending $10 per month vs $20 and based on the very subtle degree of difference I heard in Tidal's own audio quality "test" (as in, "Are your ears or is your system good enough"...words to that effect) Tidal was just not worth it to me.  If comparing the non-premium, free Spotify SQ to Tidal SQ however, I could see why some might think Tidal is much better.  

Yep.  Reading Stereophile and having access to the music you are readng the reviews on uncompressed, with Tidal, is sweet.   

I can't bring myself to pay the $20 a month for Tidal. It seriously needs to be lower or they will never be able to compete and get enough people to stay strong and be able to pay for enough content. So I just upgraded to Spotify premium for $10 (well 90 days free first). The regular sound quality of Spotify is not great. But the premium is phenomenally better. I actually think Spotify lowers the bitrate though at peak times to handle the peak loads. At least on the free Spotify. A hunch I have. That drove me nuts because it seemed the sound quality would lower at certain times. So I got premium and really hope they don't do that with premium.  I'd love hi def music videos though. I might do Tidal at $15. But honestly they really drop the ball by not having a free service with ads or something, or at least needs to be easier to jump in and get going and get a feel for it before I'm having to give my credit card. 

This month's Stereophile has 56 Records to Die For, some of which are on the obscure side.

Forty of them are on TIDAL.  I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and get to listenin'.

The key to the search function is to know that you have to spell words right, and that the field in which you input your query (artist or album, for example) denotes the _output_ of your search.  So if I want to find the album Armed Forces by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, I'll enter just two distinctive words -- Elvis Armed -- in the Album search box and it will pop right up.  Less intuitive, yes, but if you know how to work it, it works....

Hands down Tidal. The difference is quality of the tracks is not subtle - it's downright obvious. On my main system (220SE with CM9S2) or on my macbook speakers. There is no contest, no ambiguity - Tidal sound better. And I'm a paying member of Spotiy Premium and Tidal Premium (not even Tidal HiFi). 

i just succumbed and subscribed to tidal in order to compare it to spotify. results are mixed. tidal's sound quality is unarguably better (it's not a vhs-to-dvd improvement, but significant  nonetheless) and i actually prefer its interface, which is simpler and more intuitive than spotify's, although as others have opined its search functions aren't as intelligent. tidal's library is, for my tastes, perfectly fine, about 85/% as good as spotify. however: (a) tidal's mobile platform is buggy and unreliable--lots of delays, buffers, etc.; (b) volume is significantly lower; probably a function of the flac format--i really need to crank up my phone; and (c) streaming tidal through my oppo bdp (one of its main attractions) requires use of an app on my mobile phone, which is cumbersome.
as a related aside, numerous pundits are predicting tidal's imminent demise, all citing the $20/mo. price as the weighing factor. this surprises the hell out of me--consumers don't seem to have a problem paying more than that for cable channels or sports packages + you can actually get the service for less if you prepay. there also appears to be artist backlash over the service being too "corporate," even though the same artists are getting higher royalties from tidal. others claim samsung is acquiring tidal, which sounds interesting.

Ummm, the point is that the audible difference is clear, but a lot still has to happen for ease of use. If I sit down at my rig once a week, but I listen to music every time I walk, drive, cook, or fly, the lossless part of the equation only comes into play ~5% of the time.

My "reference" rig is ready for the throughput. The rest of my life isn't ready for the inconvenience. But thanks for the critique.

Guys - tidal is ready, your system is not. Its throughput guys. If you don't build the proper infrasturcture, don't knock it. It has nothing to do with tidal.

Tidal not ready for prime time.
Albums, play lists, ease of use.
Sticking with JRivers
I'm just saying ✌️

I like the fact that the Tidal interface is relatively simple and uncluttered. Along these lines, it's also quite stable and seems to use less of my computer's resources. In contrast I find Spotify's interface to be extremely busy, highly unorthodox from a navigation standpoint, full of 'features' I don't use and never will use (yet they compete for my attention on the busy interface) and it can take a minute or more before I can play any music because the client has so much stuff to load before I can play music.

I agree that Spotify has more in the way of playlists but I find the personalization there pretty poor. Despite the fact I've 'starred' hundreds of songs, it does a poor job of driving useful music discovery for me. It's surely better in this respect than Tidal, but I see Tidal as more of a library or tool whereas Spotify suggests (but doesn't deliver on) personalization. Pandora does do a much better job at personalization, likely because they have a very strong human element in the personalization exercise and have been doing it for a very long time.

I hope Tidal does get some healthy traction. I think they deserve it - not just for the high quality sound but I really do like the interface (and I'm normally very critical of user experience and navigation frameworks).I trust their service can only get better.

I like listening to streaming music because it is easy and I love the variety. I can change my mind every two minutes and quickly find different music to listen to. Of course, listening to music stored on my hard drive offers the very best quality. However, the flexibility and sound quality of Tidal is a big listening plus for me.

I agree with the above posts that Spotify gives you more music selections and that Tidal gives you much better sound quality (uncompressed). Tidal music selections are improving but additional albums need to be added. There is a very slight delay when starting music on Tidal and another slight delay from song to song. This is not a problem for me since the sound quality is very good.

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. As I stated above, Tidal Hi-Fi streaming is ONLY available on the Chrome browser.

Okay. I sometimes listen to Pandora for background music or to find out if I like a specific album or type of music.

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.