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
curious if they look as hard at the owners of the equipment companies they buy from...
...or the people who make the music.  If you enjoy rock especially, you really don't want to know what kind of people many of them are.
All the times I have heard Tidal, I was extremely unimpressed.  I could tell right away that it sounded compressed.  If you are more into having a million songs at your fingertips than the ultimate in hi-res file quality, then it is fine.  Anyone on here thinking that streaming Tidal is the same as having 24-192k files fed into a decent DAC has a screw loose.
Anyone on here thinking that streaming Tidal is the same as having 24-192k files fed into a decent DAC has a screw loose.
Tidal has NEVER been associated with 24/192, (except maybe when MQA is talked about).  Tidal is a CD quality (16 bit, 44.1khz) service in a LOSSLESS format. Most of the other services are MP3 (lossy) and sound that way. The MP3 clocks in at 320kbps, Tidal is 1411kbps. Over 4 times the resolution.

If you compare Tidal to the other services (which I have extensive knowledge and experience with), it’s not even close.

I agree with your statement about 24/192’s sound quality, but comparing THAT to Tidal really isn’t fair...


@audiofreak32...I must have a screw loose because I don't care for upsampling at all as it sounds less natural and more artificial than a good NOS R2R DAC to me.
Too each his own, I guess.