Tidal which has been around as Wimp for 5 years is not new. It has just been sold to Jay-Z. Later this year working with Meridian it will bring out a service that will stream HiRez. I love Tidal and it sounds much better than Spotify
Alan
Alan
Tidal Streaming Service
I don't know if any of you have heard of Tidal yet, but I figured I would give my first impressions based on using it today.
Tidal is a new music streaming service that lets you stream in FLAC format. Early reviews that I read were quite positive so I gave it a go.
Simply put, the sound quality is a massive step up from Spotify, Pandora, etc. That alone makes it worthwhile to me....CD quality audio from a streaming service.
My source is a 2014 MacBook Air, connected to an Oppo BDP-105D as a DAC. That feeds a Rogue Cronus Magnum which in turn powers a pair of Focal 1028BE. The only major comparison I have done so far is Oscar Petersons Night Train, but it is an album that I am quite familiar with. It sounded very much like the bluray copy of the album that I have, and was easily distinguishable from the same album streamed from Spotify in 320kbp.
That said, there are a number of drawbacks to the service right now. You can only stream Flac through Google Chrome at the moment. Outside of that, the quality is on par with Spotify. There are holes in the services library, essentially missing albums that would be available on more established services. The toughest omission for me to swallow is the inability to control what is playing on one device with a different devices, ie controlling the sound on the computer from an iPad/iPhone. Spotify's implementation of this is what I consider to be the industry standard.
Finally, the price is steep...$20 a month for the membership that allows for HQ streaming. This is not a big deterrent for me as I was already spending $17 a month on streaming, so canceling those services about evened things out.
The thing that excites me the most about Tidal is that it will likely force the hand of others in the industry like Spotify, Pandora, etc, to begin streaming in high quality formats. Then it boils down to libraries and how the company chooses to deliver its service (app quality, etc). Thats a winning proposition for all music fans.
I do wonder what it will do for the sites currently selling hq CD's and downloads. I would imagine the streaming business model will become quite a significant threat once their sound quality is on par with (or better) then what the buy to own sites have available. There is no question that the buy to owns sites will not be able to compete on the strength of their libraries alone.
It's a truly interesting and wonderful time to be immersed in the world of high quality audio. I would love to hear anyones thoughts on where the industry might go next.
Tidal is a new music streaming service that lets you stream in FLAC format. Early reviews that I read were quite positive so I gave it a go.
Simply put, the sound quality is a massive step up from Spotify, Pandora, etc. That alone makes it worthwhile to me....CD quality audio from a streaming service.
My source is a 2014 MacBook Air, connected to an Oppo BDP-105D as a DAC. That feeds a Rogue Cronus Magnum which in turn powers a pair of Focal 1028BE. The only major comparison I have done so far is Oscar Petersons Night Train, but it is an album that I am quite familiar with. It sounded very much like the bluray copy of the album that I have, and was easily distinguishable from the same album streamed from Spotify in 320kbp.
That said, there are a number of drawbacks to the service right now. You can only stream Flac through Google Chrome at the moment. Outside of that, the quality is on par with Spotify. There are holes in the services library, essentially missing albums that would be available on more established services. The toughest omission for me to swallow is the inability to control what is playing on one device with a different devices, ie controlling the sound on the computer from an iPad/iPhone. Spotify's implementation of this is what I consider to be the industry standard.
Finally, the price is steep...$20 a month for the membership that allows for HQ streaming. This is not a big deterrent for me as I was already spending $17 a month on streaming, so canceling those services about evened things out.
The thing that excites me the most about Tidal is that it will likely force the hand of others in the industry like Spotify, Pandora, etc, to begin streaming in high quality formats. Then it boils down to libraries and how the company chooses to deliver its service (app quality, etc). Thats a winning proposition for all music fans.
I do wonder what it will do for the sites currently selling hq CD's and downloads. I would imagine the streaming business model will become quite a significant threat once their sound quality is on par with (or better) then what the buy to own sites have available. There is no question that the buy to owns sites will not be able to compete on the strength of their libraries alone.
It's a truly interesting and wonderful time to be immersed in the world of high quality audio. I would love to hear anyones thoughts on where the industry might go next.
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- 9 posts total
Tidal launched here in the US back in November. I jumped on board the first day. There are quite a few threads on here about Tidal, (the search function is your friend). Tidal just had a huge press conference at 5PM yesterday in New York to announce and introduce the new owners...all music moguls. They also introduced a new $9.95 service to compete with Spotify/Beats/Rhapsody. This is NOT the CD quality service, but a lower (MP3/320Bit) service. The CD quality (FLAC 16 bit/44.1 (1411kbps) is still $20. I agree with Arh...Tidal is the cat's meow. LOVE me some Tidal!!! |
i did a trial run of tidal before deciding to stay with spotify--the sound quality is significantly better than spotify (though not as much a quantum leap as, say, spotify from pandora). however, like the above, i found tidal's library a lot thinner and the interface not nearly as good; it's also quite buggy and prone to freezing, etc., though i'd assume they'll work those issues out. also, the kind of non-critical listening i'm doing with the streaming (gym, office background, etc.)probably doesn't justify the $10 premium. what continues to surprise me is how, despite the influx of all these new premium services (tidal, beats, itunes radio, etc.) pandora continues to hang in there, despite its limited playlist and lousy sound--i wonder just how important sound quality is for most listeners. |
- 9 posts total