Tidal vs. Spotify

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.  

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.

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

Neither!

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. :)