2. pc-audio
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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
 
dbtom2,
 Thanks! Yes that helps a great deal - most appreciated!
ejr1953
917 posts
 
The more I think about the "business case" Tidal must have evaluated to decide to stream MQA in the (near) future, the more I suspect that they will do the MQA conversion in their app, maybe give you the option to stream MQA "natively", but to have spent gobs to get their library converted and only be able to offer the MQA option to those with an MQA-capable DAC probably doesn't make sense.  Plus, from what I've read, MQA is delivered to the DAC in a "PCM wrapper", so I suspect that streaming MQA, converting it in the Tidal app to FLAC and outputting that converted format to the DAC would probably give the benefits of MQA.

Fingers crossed.
devilboy
1,176 posts
 
Can I control the volume on Tidal from the ipad I'm about to purchase?
marktomaras
544 posts
 
Another vote for tidal.  I love it.  I use it on the browser in my office, and I use it via Roon on my hifi system.

killer system, student!  My system in my student years paled in comparison!
dbtom2
382 posts
 
@devilboy If I understand your question correctly, you will control Tidal's volume using the volume controls of the iPad. However, it you're using bluetooth to transmit Tidal music to a bluetooth device, it depends on whether the device allows volume control via bluetooth. In my case I can control using the same iPad volume controls.

Good luck.
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