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Tidal HiFi Streaming?

Tidal just launched in October at $19.99/mo. They claim to ONLY steam at 44.1kHz/16 bit (1411kbs) so it is CD quality. Has anyone signed up for this? Is Tidal the way to go or Deezer? And, what would I need to start the service- I have WiFi or hardwire option, an iPad- would I need a laptop? External DAC? Sorry to ask so many questions but it's an exciting service, especially if I can save files to my hard drive. Rather than invest in an upgraded FM radio, this seems the way to go.
carja
early's avatar
early
63 posts
 
Been using Tidal for a couple of days. Very enjoyable. Sound is comparable to basic CDs . Love the convenience of using my IPad to Apple TV (via Airplay) and into my DAC.
Haven't been able to stump it, and have discovered lots of wonderful music.
Been rock solid so far.
hgeifman
2,236 posts
 
A friend of mine reports the "quality from Tidal, when it plays, is really, really good. But, he reports he has had some serious problems getting Tidal to play on a consistent basis. It is something wrong on their end, and they admit it, but they have not been able to fix the problem".

Are other experiencing similar problems getting Tidal Streaming to play on a consistent basis?

I like listening to streaming music because it is easy and I love the variety. I can change my mind every five minutes and quickly find different music to listen to. Of course, listening to music stored on my hard drive offers the very best sound quality. This is why I am asking about the quality and consistancy of Tidal music streaming. QuBuz is another CD quality like option but it is not available in the US.
cymbop
315 posts
 
I've never had a single hiccup from Tidal, either with the Chrome-based web player or the ickstream plugin for Squeezebox Touch. Very, very happy here.
yyzsantabarbara
4,880 posts
 
I am using Tidal now for about 2 weeks. I listen about 8 to 10 hours at work. Occasional 1 second Tidal music pause when I switch browsers tasks. I have an extremely busy computer (software developer). However, music stream has never gone done.

At work I have an Emotiva DAC and Benchmard A2 speakers and a DELL XEON server. I was shocked at how much improvement I got with TIDAL and the DAC on those small speakers. I was assuming the A2's would not be able to deliver that much improvement over Beats, Spotify, Pandora. All which I used at work in the past.

This weekend I manually built up my Album and track lists on Tidal from my Beats account. No way I go back to Beats after Tidal. At home my home office system I have a Becnhmark DAC2 + KEF LS50 + Parasound A23 amp + DELL XEON server. I have zero interruptions in the music stream at home, my system is not as busy as at work. The quality of the sound is just phenomenal. I cannot see myself ever buying a CD again. Yes to some hi-res downloads but I see TIDAL being my source of new music.
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