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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
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.

grm OP
149 posts
 
Hi,
Thanks for the help. I still can not find the "Masters" selection anymore. Going through all of the TIDAL UI links on my PC it is not to be found. However, I remember the Eagles had a number of Master albums, so I did a search and found them including the non-master HIFI versions of the same albums right next to eachother. It was kind of cool because I was able to A/B the Master albums compared to HIFI ones very simply, such as "The Long Run", and yes, the Master sounded slightly better! Not sure why as my PC to DAC does not support "MQA" or whatever it's called, but the masters sound better never the less. So, bottom line, even though on my UI I can't find the masters link, the music is still out there, no big deal.
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