Who has tried "TIDAL" vs other streaming applications?


Hello, I'm new to Audiogon, this is my first posting into Forums.

I enjoy streaming audio from my PC and have been using Spotify for a number of years now (college student discount to premium $5 a month). I just recently stumbled upon a App called TIDAL, that streams Lossless 16/44.1FLAC with their "HI-FI" subscription (Student $10 a month). Since I can queue up Spotify and Tidal at the same time, I was able to do an A/B and used Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. I noticed that TIDAL indeed sounds better to me but am convinced none of my family members could tell a difference. I then did an A/B with TIDAL and the actual Brothers in Arms CD, to my surprise TIDAL sounded scary close, if not just as good as the CD! This is hard for me to believe, I think I'm just trying to justify the extra cost of TIDAL on a crazy tight student budget, maybe its a placebo effect? I need to drop one of the services, but which one? I would appreciate your thoughts please... Thank you!
My system:
PC = Gaming Rig I built myself, using dedicated high quality audio card.
Krell KAV 400xi integrated
Sonus Faber Electa's with Sunfire HRS Sub
Cambridge AZUR 840C CDP/DAC
Luxman T117 Tuner
Sony SCD - C2000ES SACD Player
Kimber Silver Streak throughout  


grm

Showing 12 responses by cerrot

The only people who can say Spotify is superior to Tidal are deaf people.  
In order to listen to Tidal via Roon, you need to download everything you want to be able to listen to.  No other player/streamer does that.  I was not a fan. I love Tidal, but not with Roon.  
The download is just so you can play the music.  It did not reside on my harddrive, just the tag lines.  Every time I started it up again, I had to redownload everything.  I will try Transporter/Tidal w/o ickstream if I can figure it out.

thanks,
In order for Roon to play Tidal for me, I had to download the playlists or albums, which was just crazy.  It also did not like my JRiver and Pono apps so I dumped it.  JRiver is awesome for the hi res and I use Ickstream via my Transporter for Tidal and it is pretty incredible.
Ghosthouse - you were unable to hear the difference between spotify premium, at 320 kps, vs Tidal, at 14,400 kps?  I hope you had Tidal set for hifi.
Ghosthouse - I don’t think it "narrows the gap" but distorts the sound to where you are unable to discern the difference. There is a HUGE difference between 320kps and 14,400 kps. (you would walk out of a concert at 320 - not at 44.1). Its like 32 bit color and 256 colors. As for "sampling" I do upsample my 44.1 to 96k as my dac really likes that but I would not think I was getting a decent sound by upsampling a 320kps signal. There is just not enough info (320kps) there. I have sattelite radio which is an MP3 signal (your spotify is MP3) and I upsample it and it sounds like crap compared to a real 44.1 signal.

Loomisjohnson - Tidal is not "buggy". The buffering issues are due to lag with your internet connection. Tidal is a robust signal which needs the appropriate infrastructure.
'Based on listening tests, mp3s at 256 kbps were found indistinguishable from CD'

I am laughing so hard, my side hurts...
Ghosthouse, that article was basically laughed at by everyone in the audio industry.  Its like saying resolution is not a telltale of the quality of a color photo.  All due respect if you system cannot easilly distinguish an MP3 from a CD, you need to take a look at your rig.  These are night and day differences.  Even with the best recorded MP3 (hurts saying that) and a poor red book, you should still hear the difference, unless you are listening through a transistor radio.  Now, we are talking about native signals, not an MP3 "upsampled" to a higher sampling rate.  That is not hires and is still crap.