Usability Issues with Tidal

Well wakethetown, your system is definitely 21st century audiophile quality. I would say that your cd player and the Node 2 are the weak links in your system. They are good quality but not at the level of the rest of your system.

Digital playback, both cd and streaming, have been steadily improving. Since you are satisfied with the wired Node 2, I would enjoy what you have while you look for an upgrade to your digital components. You will eventually come across a great deal on a better cd player and/or streamer, or someone will come out with one that is a big improvement at a reasonable price.

There is a lot going on in the digital world so there is no harm in waiting.  Our options are getting better.  There are components that combine the cd player and streamer, so you will have the option to replace two components with one. I think the newer Oppo units do this but I have not heard them. That’s about all the advice that I can can provide. Enjoy what you've got while you look for an upgrade.

Browsing the DAC listing this looks like a very good deal for $1500 from a company on the cutting edge of digital Chord, no affiliation with the seller.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-2018-01-05-digital-183a4592-7636-46c0-bebb-c97379db3...

Cheers,
Jon

Tidal has been great! Have had a few technical issues with streaming but no more than with Spotify, hifi is for sure worth it and premium on Spotify is good too, I use both and have a / b the sound quality, on some stuff I can’t hear the difference but on others the difference is very apparent, I like the the info on tidal but I find the premade playlists better on Spotify 

As audiophiles we should demand better no service that requires a monthly fee without telephone support should be tolerated. We are confronted with the words high end yet tech support is low end. I called schitt to get some presale info on their dacs and they have not returned my call. It appears they only wish to communicate through emails yet they want to sell you a dac for $2300. Moving forward as for myself any company wishes sell goods and services with the slogan high end will have telephone contact or I will not spend my money with them. UNACCEPTABLE.

@givin2u I agree with you about customer service. I never did hear back from Tidal about the difficulties I was having. A human to interact with is not too much to ask. They aren’t a startup anymore. 
In terms of SQ, after a few days listening to tracks, both MQA and CD quality, I have to say that it really varies from song to song. I can hear the tonal richness with the MQAs, the extra depth across the frequency range, but in many cases the codec seems to overly smooth things out. I don’t have the precise language to describe but it’s a homogenous filter that robs the music of energy. The CD tracks on Tidal sound a bit harsh, jagged in comparison, but have more energy and intensity. I’m not satisfied either way. As you all have mentioned perhaps I’m running into the limitations of the Node2’s DAC.

I’ve started reading about digital music. Oh my! Never realized what a labyrinth I was entering. Looks like MQA is going to become the standard just as Redbook did for business reasons not musical ones.  Arguments about PCM vs DSD, the limits of our ability to hear differences etc. It almost reminds me of the debates surrounding GMOs. I am not well-enough informed but it seems that the analogue mastering process is more “organic” whereas the digital codecs are allowing/forcing sound engineers to fiddle with the genetic structure of the music.  What I’m sometimes hearing is Franken-music. All the parts are there but in an arrangement that just seems “off”. Maybe there is no “right” just “different”. I’ve never contemplated this in such stark terms before. Hi-fi as a means to philosophical contemplation...