TIDAL Desktop Application or Chrome Browser?

I know you used to need Chrome to get 16/44. Am not sure if the desktop application gives 16/44. When 16/44 is playing the HIFI logo at the bottom of the screen is brite white. If not 16/44 it is grey
Alan

You don't want to play it through your browser.  Best is a 3rd party player.  I use a squeezebox transporter.  

The biggest issue with Windows playback is the driver settings and digital mixer. If your player software gets around that, I’m sure it’s better.

I use a Squeezebox in one room and a dedicated Linux PC in another.

The Oppo BluRay players are also very convenient Tidal players.  Actually I like Oppo for the Tidal UI. Much better than Squeezebox.

I can confirm what ahandler says re needing the Chrome browser for best Tidal playback quality...at least on a MacBook Air. Using Apple’s Safari web browser, Tidal’s highest resolution streaming is not available. The HiFi logo is grayed out. There is a message (somewhere) that access to Tidal via the Chrome browser is needed for higher resolution playback. Don’t know if Tidal always limited resolution for all non-Chrome browsers but this is currently the case for me.

On the other hand, as cerrot noted about 3rd party players, using an Aries Mini that came with a Tidal subscription, track resolution is displayed and is 16/44.

Hey @cerrot - you will be pleased to know with the Aries I’m finally hearing what you and others have been saying about Tidal HiFi sound quality. That’s using USB out of the Aries into a V-Link 192 and from there via DH Labs D-750 Coax into the BNC input of a Schiit Gungnir DAC. This path sounds better than RCA coax direct from the Aries into the Gungnir for whatever reason. Enjoying Tidal a lot but their library is definitely way limited compared to Spotify. It also does not seem possible to sort by Artist in My Favorites...only by Album title which is kind of a pain. [Have to get my shots in :-) ] but definitely enjoying it. Will be sorely tempted not to renew Tidal next year. Best regards.

Hi,

I'm not sure why I percieve a difference but I do, it seems to "my" ears using Chrome seems slightly better to me than TIDAL's desktop app, even though the desktop app displays "HIFI" during playback. Technically, I'm not sure why there would be a difference??

A negligible difference. Via Chrome, the presentation seemed ever-so-slightly warmer.  Via the app, the presentation seemed ever-so-slightly crisper.  Very subjective!    It's very easy to do an A/B comparison.

Glad you re enjoying it, Ghosthouse.  I use both my PC and my IPAD to do the searching and mark up my favorites.  I can sort by artist, album of playlist.  The squeezebox interface isn't very helpful, so my ipad comes in very handy.  As for playback, here is what I have found.  Playing through Chrome webplayer - sound very dependent on throughput and how well your puter is running/set up/other processes.  Playing through Tidal app - seems to do a better job of isolating out the windows processes and a bit less dependent on windows shortcomings.  On a 3rd party player - I feel all windows downsides have been eliminated and throughput issues are the the lowest.  I also find that the catalog is growing daily.  

Hi,
Been surfing the web regarding TIDAL and have found many threads indicating TIDAL is in dire financial straits (loosing 28M in the past year) as well as not paying some substantial depts. I really hope TIDAL can hang in there!

On another topic concerning TIDAL playback, I have found (after some PC tweaking) that the desktop App sounds best to me. Through sound configuration settings on my Windows PC, and in the TIDAL app, I was able to configure my system where TIDAL has exclusive use of the S/PDIF output of my audiocard. It took a great deal with A/B to find the best settings, but I think I have managed to get out of my PC and audiocard the best they can do without Windows messing with anything. Granted, this excercise yielded only a small improvement, but I'll take it!

FYI... Tidal windows desktop application has option under "streaming" to select exclusive use of your dac.  From my understanding this uses WASAPI.  It should yield a bit perfect 16/44.  It my case it does.  My USB dac detects it as 16/44khz.  You can also pipe it through your home avr via HDMI/SPDIF etc.

As for me, I usually use Chrome browser to access to Tidal, since I always use Audio Capture Mac to record Tidal music as MP3 for offline listening on my MP3 devices. And Audio Capture could be more stable using Chrome browser rather than Tidal app. 
Besides, audio quality in app and web player could be different. So you decide the final decision for better listening experience. 

I know these three letters are controversial, but if you want to listen in "Master" quality (MQA) I don't think Chrome supports that.  I use the desktop app.

I have used Tidal before, honestly I don't like it so much and I switch to Spotify within 1 month. I am just happy with Spotify. For more info, yu can learn the Tidal vs spotify. Hope this tips help you enjoy digital music service better.