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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
grm OP
149 posts
 
jond,
Hi. My CDP/DAC is reporting 96. This is adjustable on my PC audio card through its app, I can set the sampling to 44.1, 48, or 96. I set it to 96 just guessing this would be the best way to go. Is there any reason to set it to either 44.1 or 48? I do know that once my CDP/DAC gets ahold of it, it upsamples again to 384/24. Thanks!
grm OP
149 posts
 
Strange?
Rebooted system and "Masters" came back??
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
if you did not do a double blind test then it could indeed be placebo effect

or... maybe the Bros. in Arms CD is really well mastered and Tidal used the same master(???)

I would not spend hard to get $$ on a Tidal subsc. if I was (still) a student

- spend it on your education; major is something with job prospects and don't take on too much debt - you can then listen to expensive components when older
jond's avatar
jond
5,812 posts
 
grm no reason to set it to a lower sampling frequency unless you prefer the sound, it shows up lower than 96 for me I assume because Auralic doesn't support MQA.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,988 posts
 
I would not spend hard to get $$ on a Tidal subsc. if I was (still) a student 
Tidal actually does a 50% off rate for students.
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