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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
reubent
7,002 posts
 
jyprez,

Do you know how to get Tidal integration on a Raspberry Pi? I built a Rasberry Pi 3, HiFiBerry Dac+ Pro, iFi power supply music server and run the moOde Audio OS. There is no ability to integrate Tidal. If there was, I would be a very happy camper. However, when you boot it using the moOde Audio OS image, you are limited to the functionality built into moOde and streaming services are not yet integrated into the OS.

Are you familiar with any specific audio OS for the Raspberry Pi that has Tidal integration?
jyprez's avatar
jyprez
241 posts
 
Reubent, The short answer is no, as I am just starting to work on some of the same issues myself.
 My son built a Raspberry PI server but he is a Spotify user and he is helping me build my Raspberry PI but we haven't gotten to the music software issue yet. 
Others appear to have done it from what i have seen on the web so I will share whatever I can learn.
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
http://www.hifizine.com/2016/06/how-to-stream-tidal-to-the-raspberry-pi/
grm OP
149 posts
 
Hi,
Where did TIDAL "Masters" go? I'm running the desktop app and I think after a TIDAL update I can no longer find it? When I check my settings, HIFI/Masters is selected and my HIFI does light-up while streaming.

Thanks for your help!
dbtom2
382 posts
 
Masters are still part of the What's New/Album display on my Mac's Tidal Desktop app (ver 2.1.5.228 (W: 2.1.0--28) (NP: 2.3.26)

In addition, Tidal now identifies a Masters album with an "M" in a small box in the lower right of the album box. 

Hope this helps @grm

T.

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