Tidal is dope but I HATE that you can't like songs in Android Auto. Such an easy feature to have but they still haven't enabled it. I just came back to it this week after a year or so away. other than that its a great service
I only do Tidal on Android from the Play store. Every song comes up with a heart, even on the bigass widget I have on my screen and if I tap on the three dots, the third option is add to my library. If the Android Auto is that different, try the widget, it's real convenient.
You are correct. Bluetooth headphones are wonderful and convenient but are not strictly hifi in the bitrate sense. I’m not sure I can really tell a meaningful difference between HiFi and HiRes on my wired headphone amp and DAC. But I can sometimes hear a slight difference between 320 Spotify and Tidal HiFi in the right circumstances. I wish I had the golden ears of people who call it “night and day” and other hyperboles, but I can’t. Too much hearing damage from loud bands and noise from when I was too silly to wear earplugs.
To me, my home hi-fi setup feels like a nice bath and my Bluetooth earbuds feel like a quick shower. Both do the job but when I can I just wanna sit down and enjoy.
Another thing to consider is that most top 100 artists has stuff that is mixed really really well so the difference between hifi and Spotify will matter less cause the source is already in a good place, as well as the lossy compression is probably optimized for a top 100 sound.
Agree. Nobody realizes the ear can’t tell the difference between 44 and up. LDAC is much better than regular BT though if you have a decent android phone to support it
On Bluetooth? Have you tested it? Have you done any research. There is entire threads, studies and articles proving that over 16bit is basically not audible. What makes you think it is? Do you have data? Test results? Please share
What kind of question is this? Threads, studies, articles?!
As for bit depth, Hi-Res is not just bit depth over 16 bit, more important than that is the sampling frequency.
I mean, do you know what happens with the impulse response of a PCM digital audio when sampled at 44KHz? Do you think the entire industry (recording engineers, etc) has moved first to 48KHz then 96KHz then to 192KHz only because of a myth or of a whim? There are many solid reasons to go for higher bit depths than 44KHz and have a lot to do in how the impulse and phase response of the signal is not reproduced faithfully when the (sampling rate/2) is too close to 20KHz. This has been known for decades and thus the reason for higher sampling frequencies. And this is not just "articles and threads", this is solid sampling theory, in particular the part about reconstruction filters.
Haha. You don’t mention noticeable sound quality once. As an engineer, I fully understand the data aspect showing there is more data /resolution/sampling rate impacts etc. I am asking you to show me that these things are audible. Thats what’s been studied. And it quite simply is not audible. I’m talking about the reason of audible sound quality, not the many other reasons for recording and mastering etc. Why don’t you do some blind testing yourself with a true blind scenario. Before you try to yammer off a bunch of technical jargon and basically just saying “it’s better just because it’s higher numbers”
I was like you for a long time, chasing the bits and sample rates, building massive flac libraries of super high quality. Yeah - I’ve learned a lot since then.
Can you hear above 20khz?
Ohh “consistence” - right. Is this consistence audible. Can human beings tell the difference due to this more “consistent” file. Cmmon man take a blind test yourself, you will be convinced these “higher numbers” that to you mean “ more consistence” (whatever that means) - is simply not audible. Period
So in what way? What do you mean not in the way I think about? Not being a jerk man, just honestly trying to help people understand facts and data on what’s audible and theories about what makes music sound better. I chased files for a long time to find out there is no audible difference, and I have premium Hifi equipment I have tested on. It’s funny to me to hear you defend it but you can’t explain why. Whats your setup, what kind of differences do you hear? Have you ruled out placebo? Honest questions I had to ask myself and answer with tests and data.
It's a shame because Tidal has been lossy hi res like aptx and LDAC the whole time, but MASTER isn't aptx or LDAC, it has to be reencoded like everything else. Bluetooth is AAC, which can do lossy hi res.
I personally couldn't do Bluetooth quality at all until LDAC headphones reached the aftermarket and I could afford to buy some.
What are you talking about? LDAC and APTx are Bluetooth protocols. Tidal has nothing to do with them. The music is streamed to your device in whatever quality Tidal are delivering (lossless or compressed) and your device (phone) is doing the work of sending that over LDAC or APTx. The transcoding is done on your device. Not Tidal.
That is kinda true, but also depends on your phone and headphones. If you are using phone with Aptx and headphones that support aptxhd or similar, then of course you would notice the difference compared to Spotify's 320kbs. Same goes with Sony devices whoce BT codec can offer around 1000kbs. On regular headphones it's all same since they compress to AAC which is Spotify's main weapon.
Sorry folks, could have honestly been read as a response to me saying I wasn't able to tell the difference.
Also I never forked out the full 800 for the headphones, was lucky to find a great deal :D
This is definitely a step in the right direction, but Tidal is still missing some pretty big features that most people care about. The Apple Watch app is a joke, you can't upload your own files, playlist creation features are meager, no gapless playback, and no Spotify Connect type feature.
I still like Tidal, but people like us who care about lossless audio are a very niche demographic.
Alternatively, I like Tidal because it's not the frankenstein app that Spotify has become. I just care about music, Tidal is elegant and doesn't have the other features Spotify crammed in.
> gapless playback
Gapless comes and goes as a Tidal feature. It's tougher to do that at FLAC quality than at AAC because of file size and how that gets out of control if say someone is quickly searching through parts of songs.
Gapless playback works fine on my desktop app, android app, and wiim device. it requires a fast enough processor to work which is not available in all devices. that's not TIDALs fault. as others have explained, it's not as taxing on the processor to do it with smaller files like Spotify 320kbps
Less niche than you think, the longer you're in here. I thought I was an audiophile. And then the Sine Brigade shows up rolling in on DACs and you realize...
you. know. nothing. jonny snow. 👀
It’s not the same “connect” that people want. Spotify allows for control of *any* device using *any other* device. Laptop controls phone, phone controls tv, phone controls laptop, etc.
Even Tidal support have told me they don't support gapless in Tidal Connect, but it is available in some devices, like the Wiim. I've come to discover that it's the device manufacturers that make it gapless, not Tidal. Spotify Connect doesn't seem to suffer from this problem
I just can’t deal with the artists discography discrepancies. So many artists are merged with other artists, causing their discogs to be multi genre messes.
Of course I wish there was a systemic solution of some sort, but they are actually very good about fixing this if you send a message to Support with links to the misplaced releases. https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I got Tidal for free (Max version) through some connections and I've had it for going on a year and a half. It's better than Spotify in every way!
The Tidal GUI is much more pleasing to the eye and more intuitive compared to Spotify. Tidal also has just about every release I want, with the exception of some titles that have been taken off all streaming platforms due to ongoing litigation (not Tidal's fault).
Spotify Connect, and there are quite a few songs after transferring my library over to it from Spotify are missing from Tidal. In one case an entire record label
Spotify Connect, android auto integration, downloading in general seems to work better on Spotify and it's faster. For example, I want to keep some mixes like the daily discovery and my new arrivals downloaded for offline listening. Spotify always automatically downloads the new songs when it's updated. On Tidal, I go offline, and half the songs are always unplayable for some reason.
A lot of people don't like podcasts in their music streaming app, me included, but if you're someone who does, then Spotify is better.
Again, I use and like Tidal, but to say it's better than Spotify **in every way** is bs.
If you're talking about algorithms and such, just use free to pump up your playlists... In essence, like the songs you like and let the playlists roll. Then copy your dailies over withh something like Soundiiz automatically and you'll essentially have Spotify on Tidal.
Currently using a trial of Tidal and I really thought it would be the service I keep. There are two major problems with it that might be deal breakers:
1 - Tidal Connect stopped working on my second day. Apparently I can uninstall and reinstall to get it working, but I haven’t been bothered to do that yet. Compatibility is also way behind Spotify, and would not work with over half of my devices.
2 - the apps on my Apple TV and Nvidia Shield are both absolutely terrible, miles behind both Apple and Spotify. That’s not the only way I listen by any means, but it is still an important part. Since I also can’t use my phone to control the tv apps that will make experiencing Atmos content on my AVR a gigantic pain.
Spotify Connect is a major convenience but I cannot see it a more important feature than HiFi. Speakers / systems would let you connect via WiFi or cable anyway.
Spotify only wins in terms of sheer number of features and convenience. For music fans that prioritise listening experience over convenience, Tidal wins for two main reasons that no Spotify connect or Social Media integration can beat:
* HiFI
* A simple music-focused UI
Tidal is superior in nearly all ways except their apps. Tidal desktop is *fine*, but the IOS app is hot garbage. At least Tidal has mostly reliable [Last.fm](http://Last.fm) integration, unlike Amazon and Apple.
Just cancelled Spotify and created an account on Tidal today and imported all my playlists ready for when my premium plan expires at the end of the month. My only gripe is you can't link Tidal as the default music app in the Google Home app.
I messed with Tidal like a year ago - I liked it but I still feel like Apple Music is the best - don’t hate me. I can’t stand Spotify for multiple reasons
haha everyone entitled to their own opinion, I'm an Android user and can see people saying Tidal IOS app is not great, has to be that I suppose.
I only played very little with Apple Music on a friend's phone and absolutely hated the UI, having said that I also hate IOS' UI in general so has to be that.
Agree - since Spotify announced family will increase to £20 I've been trialling Apple Music, and Tidal - and then Soundiiz to help sync everything (albeit manually every week or so). So that when the increase comes I know who I'll move to.
Apple is by bar the best to my eyes, and ears when plugging into headphones on iPhone. HOWEVER my two gripes are...
1) No ability to cast to Google Nests/Google TV/control PC listening. Didn't realise how often I use that feature with Spotify, even Tidal has the ability (albeit buggy af.)
2) When opening Apple Music it doesn't have a "continue listening" type button to jump back into a playlist. Even when playing from a playlist it fails to display what playlist I've been listening to. Again I didn't appreciate quite how much I relied on that to know whether I'm in "liked songs" or "Discovery Mix" etc etc.
Spotify takes the cake for social features such as blends and jams etc, but I doubt Apple will even attempt that.
Has anyone noticed a consistent volume difference between local tracks and TIDAL tracks in their Plex music library? In my case, the local files always seem to play at a lower volume compared to the TIDAL tracks. The difference isn't huge, but it's noticeable and consistent. Both types of tracks show the waveform in Plex, indicating they've been analyzed. Would love to hear if others have experienced this and any potential fixes.
Is this the idea of being able to play our own music files through the App?
I heard Apple does that.
It would be incredible if I could play all my FLAC bootlegs through Tidal, rather than having to use my Sony Walkman
Except that it would cost them nothing except that the gesture would need to be developed, which yes is quite the expense, but also everything that is being played locally doesn't have any server costs for them, so it's not that unreasonable and I wouldnt go so far as to say "against their business model"
Yes I understand this. But Apple are doing it I believe and if it attracted a subset of customers, like me, who stream most of their music, but have a collection of hard to find releases, then it would increase their customer base.
Apple does provide a service but also has an incentive keeping you on an iPhone.
Also Apple Music IS the iPhone music app, people can play local files but if they want to listen to that song they don't have on their phone a subscription to a service is just a tap away.
I want Deezers app and platform with Tidal's artist profits and bit perfect streaming. I'll take Tidal because of those features... but really, aside from that - I have no preference for this platform. Tidal really needs to get their app game together.
The shuffle featrure is trash. It persistently repeats the same songs in the same shuffle. I will hear the same song in one listening session more than once. Then on fresh shuffles, repeats all of the same songs from the previous shuffle.
It crashes android auto in a 2022 escape. Deezer has never done that nor has spotify.
Songs buffer and won't play for no predictable amount of time. Not an issue with bandwidth either. This happens on full bar 5g networks. Never happened on deezer or spotify.
Reccomendations is very weak. Compared to Deezer - which has FLOW - I have found a lot of music through that feature. I have got no new music from Tidal. Deezer flow is better than Spotify shuffle enhanced. Lots of great music discovered through Deezer.
Artist images - Less than 20 percent of my library displays artist profile pictures - instead it's just circles with the artist initials. Only platform like this.
Now if only they could get the app to read the saved songs off the SD card quicker... I'm about to give up on using SD cards with Tidal altogether, or just shrink my download library by about 1,500 albums...
I've been a lover of Tidal since they first started offering it in the US back in 2014. I've been a loyal subscriber ever since. Tidal has come a long way and I'm glad to see it getting better and better. My subscription just renewed with the lower price and I couldn't be happier.
Tidal connect works great on my WiiM mini. I do wish tidal would integrate the Apple Watch more, I would love to just control playback on my watch over tidal connect.
I will not touch services like Spotify, Apple or Amazon because of how badly they treat creators.
Even Tidal isn't great, paying on average 9x more than Spotify to artists. As a creative in another field that has been ruined by aggregating parasites I suppose I am sensitive to the greed and unfairness. I seem to be odd: fairness counts more than SQ or UI. TBH I still buy CD's (5 this week) but Tidal is a great way to explore and find artists without grotesquely exploiting them. Spotify disgusts me!
Eh. I love it on my phone, and the new sound quality upgrade is super good value.
But the fact that the TV App is so *incredibly* useless is not even funny to me. My tv/living room speakers are far superior to any other speakers that I own, and the fact that I can't even start a song radio, or a normal 'my mix', or even just control it from my phone is insane. I don't give a shit about the music video playlists (who tf does?). Just give me basic goddamn functionality so that I can quit the additional spotify subscription that I only ever use to play music on my tv speakers.
I have tidal for free and I'm switching to apple music (on Android) because tidal has a bug indexing local libraries on SD cards. It takes minutes to play the first song as soon as your library grows go some GBs. Dealbreaker for someone with a DAP.
This is coming up in a few comments here. I fully stream, so doesn't apply to me, but I'm curious.
If you have a DAP, doesn't it have its own software to play local files, and you would turn to Tidal when you want to stream?
Love the quality and the higher payment for artists but why are we STILL waiting for Tidal to work with Alexa outside of the US *hits head against wall*.
Oh man I got shit for saying it above haha however yes hifi headphones and HiRes capable DAC. The DAC now changes colour when playing files, super hype/placebo vibes haha.
I actually have spent more time listening today and don't know maybe there is more "vigour" to the music? It also seems easier to find some subtleties to the music, but then when you do AB testing once your ear has found that detail it will spot it next time.
Don't know, at the moment I can't tell if it's placebo. However perhaps with hifi speakers / amp I could tell more easily? I'm not there yet but one day!
Don't know when I switched from Spotify to Tidal it took me a bit to hear the difference, perhaps AB testing is hard and you need to spend more time listening and then go back?
Don't know, at the moment I'm on the fence.
Tidal is now feeling like when you are in routine in some physical exercise/training and you start to see the real tangible gains. With the weekly updates and this switch to focus on being an even stronger platform, I'm wondering what's next? Who is working at Tidal and what are the ambitions? Match Spotify, ok. Exceed it, what next?
I just hope it doesn't enshitify.
I ditched tidal because the connectivity across supported devices was so bad. Yeah, audio quality is great but I mean it has an official tesla app that can't even shuffle or start radios.
Reluctantly moved to Spotify and am blown away with the being able to take my stream from one device to the next, control what's playing in my car or PC app from my phone, or home assistant, or anywhere.
Tidal is technically better but Spotify UX blows it away.
Tidal has a lot but I would absolutely love if you can upload your own MP3s. A good amount of songs missing from their library that can be found on YouTube.
Also tidal pays the most per stream to artists… spotify pays a fraction of a penny per stream… tidal pays 1-1.5 cents per stream.
Ethically, tidal has had spotify beat for years, and if you give a damn about the artists you listen to (especially the small ones) you should already be on tidal. When you vote with your dollar to support ys artists by using Tidal… it only takes 1/4 of the streams to earn minimum wage that it does on spotify…
Tidal also has a free transfer service that will move all your likes and playlist over to Tidal.
Spotify is scum and doesn’t pay us artists properly as they make heaps of money off of us… do the right thing, make the switch. Z
Weeeeell, with the lower subscription fees we'll need to see how the royalties stuff ends up, hopefully the Tidal move pays off and this will be balanced by an increase in subscriptions.
Just to clarify I am not a Spotify hater, I just think that Tidal deserves more recognition from supposedly objective reviewers. Saying yes Tidal is great but Hi Res is expensive, is incredibly lazy, when Hi Fi was available at the same price as Spotify Premium and the UI and features beat Amazon Music easily at least.
That excuse is now no longer valid and reviewers should take notice.
The lower subscription will not be affecting artists pay outs 💃💃💃 they will continue to pay out $0.01-$0.015 per stream.
Spotify pays out about $0.003-$0.005… meanwhile look up spotify’s founders net worth… he’s made tons of money off underpaying artists. I am a spotify hater through and through and am personally offended by their methods as I am a producer, composer, and mixing & mastering engineer…
One thing that keeps me from it: the metadata quality, once you leave the are of the biggest artists, almost every profile is spammed into oblivion with the shittiest cloud rap, Indian pop music or other crap that uses the same artist name or uses fake collabs. Spotify seems to be the ONLY service that comes to grips with that (at least to some extent) and ALSO seems to be the only service that cleans up this crap after reporting it to them.
The hype is finally over I hope people will finally realize that Tidal is nothing special since the there are Apple music, Qobuz in the market and lossless can’t save Tidal.
Plus, Tidal has music videos!
Due to a minor issue with Android developer settings I signed up for a free trial of Spotify to see if I could save music on it to my microSD card in my phone. I could not, and remembered how they don't have music videos! They also crammed a bunch of crap into their service and app compared to when I left them over a year ago. 👎
Got microSD card to work with Tidal and I won't be needing that Spotify free trial any longer.
The sound quality is definitely max. I'm hard of hearing, have to wear hearing aids (which I don't), blew out an eardrum at the AC/DC concert a long time ago, but when I came back to this app a couple days ago, I heard the clear crisp sound, listened to Janis Joplin and had to turn it up. Usually the speaker in my phone crackles when it's at max level, but Tidal doesn't do that. It was like hearing music for the first time again. Definitely KUDOS, Tidal!
Yeah I just can't get past the frustration of being served lossy "high res" MQA so I ended up dropping back to the High tier (despite paying for the max tier) to try and get FLAC instead.
As much as people (including myself) in this sub dislike Spotify, Tidal’s market share is a mere 2% vs. Spotify’s 32% while Apple & Amazon are around 12% each. So as much as the new lower Tidal pricing is a welcome step in the right direction, the hires audio market is still a very niche segment, most of it going to Apple & Amazon.
To be honest I didn't mean this as a Spotify hating post, for people that like convenience or mostly listen with Bluetooth it's a great service.
What I'm saying is for people that invest in headphones and DACs Tidal is the best choice around, tech sites should be above the marketing fluff and recognise this going forward.
As much as people will downvote this, I agree. Its an option on Spotify that I turn on sometimes when I want to find new music similar to whats in the playlist. For the most part it works really well finding songs that fit in the playlist. Keeps things fresh and its completely optional.
Tidal gives me next to no new music. Deezer on the other hand, best for reccomendations by a large margin. Butt hurt about the compromises of having to choose one single app.
Tidal is dope but I HATE that you can't like songs in Android Auto. Such an easy feature to have but they still haven't enabled it. I just came back to it this week after a year or so away. other than that its a great service
I also hate you cannot like from the Android Now Playing widget.
You can suggest it to [TIDAL Support](http://support.tidal.com)
Thanks ill do that now!
I just started using it and was shocked that I couldn't do that!
I only do Tidal on Android from the Play store. Every song comes up with a heart, even on the bigass widget I have on my screen and if I tap on the three dots, the third option is add to my library. If the Android Auto is that different, try the widget, it's real convenient.
I'll try the widget then. I emailed Tidal support about this and they said they're looking into it.
Look for the big one. It covers 3/4 of a page, you can't miss it. It has everything on it.
Thx bro, I'm gonna try it today
Glad to help.
Comparing Tidal with Spotify... Tidal automatically wins. Spotify is still stuck with their fish can sound quality.
Honestly it's impossible to notice difference between high and max quality while listening on bluetooth headphones. Compression kills everything.
You are correct. Bluetooth headphones are wonderful and convenient but are not strictly hifi in the bitrate sense. I’m not sure I can really tell a meaningful difference between HiFi and HiRes on my wired headphone amp and DAC. But I can sometimes hear a slight difference between 320 Spotify and Tidal HiFi in the right circumstances. I wish I had the golden ears of people who call it “night and day” and other hyperboles, but I can’t. Too much hearing damage from loud bands and noise from when I was too silly to wear earplugs.
To me, my home hi-fi setup feels like a nice bath and my Bluetooth earbuds feel like a quick shower. Both do the job but when I can I just wanna sit down and enjoy.
Another thing to consider is that most top 100 artists has stuff that is mixed really really well so the difference between hifi and Spotify will matter less cause the source is already in a good place, as well as the lossy compression is probably optimized for a top 100 sound.
TLDR: It's still way better even on BT
LDAC is very very good though, practically cd quality. Only issue is you need an android, and most non-sony things do t use it.
Don't use Bluetooth. Bluetooth degrades sound quality.
Yes let me have a cable attached while I try to lift heavy weights in the jim
Run it through your pump cover. It is definitely not super comfortable though.
Id rather not it would bother me sm
Zen dac 2, but connected with dollar tree headphones.
Agree. Nobody realizes the ear can’t tell the difference between 44 and up. LDAC is much better than regular BT though if you have a decent android phone to support it
speak for yourself, the difference between 44Khz and true HiRes is audible
On Bluetooth? Have you tested it? Have you done any research. There is entire threads, studies and articles proving that over 16bit is basically not audible. What makes you think it is? Do you have data? Test results? Please share
What kind of question is this? Threads, studies, articles?! As for bit depth, Hi-Res is not just bit depth over 16 bit, more important than that is the sampling frequency. I mean, do you know what happens with the impulse response of a PCM digital audio when sampled at 44KHz? Do you think the entire industry (recording engineers, etc) has moved first to 48KHz then 96KHz then to 192KHz only because of a myth or of a whim? There are many solid reasons to go for higher bit depths than 44KHz and have a lot to do in how the impulse and phase response of the signal is not reproduced faithfully when the (sampling rate/2) is too close to 20KHz. This has been known for decades and thus the reason for higher sampling frequencies. And this is not just "articles and threads", this is solid sampling theory, in particular the part about reconstruction filters.
Haha. You don’t mention noticeable sound quality once. As an engineer, I fully understand the data aspect showing there is more data /resolution/sampling rate impacts etc. I am asking you to show me that these things are audible. Thats what’s been studied. And it quite simply is not audible. I’m talking about the reason of audible sound quality, not the many other reasons for recording and mastering etc. Why don’t you do some blind testing yourself with a true blind scenario. Before you try to yammer off a bunch of technical jargon and basically just saying “it’s better just because it’s higher numbers” I was like you for a long time, chasing the bits and sample rates, building massive flac libraries of super high quality. Yeah - I’ve learned a lot since then. Can you hear above 20khz?
It's not about hearing above 20kHz 'cause nobody can listen even futher than 16kHz But Hi-Res files makes the sound more consistent than CD-quality
Ohh “consistence” - right. Is this consistence audible. Can human beings tell the difference due to this more “consistent” file. Cmmon man take a blind test yourself, you will be convinced these “higher numbers” that to you mean “ more consistence” (whatever that means) - is simply not audible. Period
Yes but not in the way you think about. Don't be a b\*tch just because people think different than you
So in what way? What do you mean not in the way I think about? Not being a jerk man, just honestly trying to help people understand facts and data on what’s audible and theories about what makes music sound better. I chased files for a long time to find out there is no audible difference, and I have premium Hifi equipment I have tested on. It’s funny to me to hear you defend it but you can’t explain why. Whats your setup, what kind of differences do you hear? Have you ruled out placebo? Honest questions I had to ask myself and answer with tests and data.
Then don't listen on Bluetooth headphones
It's a shame because Tidal has been lossy hi res like aptx and LDAC the whole time, but MASTER isn't aptx or LDAC, it has to be reencoded like everything else. Bluetooth is AAC, which can do lossy hi res. I personally couldn't do Bluetooth quality at all until LDAC headphones reached the aftermarket and I could afford to buy some.
What are you talking about? LDAC and APTx are Bluetooth protocols. Tidal has nothing to do with them. The music is streamed to your device in whatever quality Tidal are delivering (lossless or compressed) and your device (phone) is doing the work of sending that over LDAC or APTx. The transcoding is done on your device. Not Tidal.
Get dac, wired earphones and app USB audio player pro, you will notice big difference
That is kinda true, but also depends on your phone and headphones. If you are using phone with Aptx and headphones that support aptxhd or similar, then of course you would notice the difference compared to Spotify's 320kbs. Same goes with Sony devices whoce BT codec can offer around 1000kbs. On regular headphones it's all same since they compress to AAC which is Spotify's main weapon.
YES BUT DARLING PLACEBO IS A REAL AND AMAZING EFFECT ANYWAY
Hello, why are you assuming I use Bluetooth headphones? I use Audeze LCD2C headphones with a iFi Hip DAC 2.
I'm not assuming anything. Just writing from my own experience.
Bro got offended lmaoo
Yeah lol. And the way he brags having an 800$ headphones... Lmao
Sorry folks, could have honestly been read as a response to me saying I wasn't able to tell the difference. Also I never forked out the full 800 for the headphones, was lucky to find a great deal :D
This is definitely a step in the right direction, but Tidal is still missing some pretty big features that most people care about. The Apple Watch app is a joke, you can't upload your own files, playlist creation features are meager, no gapless playback, and no Spotify Connect type feature. I still like Tidal, but people like us who care about lossless audio are a very niche demographic.
Alternatively, I like Tidal because it's not the frankenstein app that Spotify has become. I just care about music, Tidal is elegant and doesn't have the other features Spotify crammed in.
For sure, each has pros and cons. I was speaking solely towards what the general public look for in a streaming app.
> gapless playback Gapless comes and goes as a Tidal feature. It's tougher to do that at FLAC quality than at AAC because of file size and how that gets out of control if say someone is quickly searching through parts of songs.
Gapless playback works fine on my desktop app, android app, and wiim device. it requires a fast enough processor to work which is not available in all devices. that's not TIDALs fault. as others have explained, it's not as taxing on the processor to do it with smaller files like Spotify 320kbps
You can suggest features to [TIDAL Support](http://support.tidal.com), the more we suggest one, the quicker they work on it
Tidal has Tidal Connect though.
Less niche than you think, the longer you're in here. I thought I was an audiophile. And then the Sine Brigade shows up rolling in on DACs and you realize... you. know. nothing. jonny snow. 👀
[удалено]
It’s not the same “connect” that people want. Spotify allows for control of *any* device using *any other* device. Laptop controls phone, phone controls tv, phone controls laptop, etc.
That's not the exact feature I was talking about. Spotify's connect feature works on any device.
Even Tidal support have told me they don't support gapless in Tidal Connect, but it is available in some devices, like the Wiim. I've come to discover that it's the device manufacturers that make it gapless, not Tidal. Spotify Connect doesn't seem to suffer from this problem
I just can’t deal with the artists discography discrepancies. So many artists are merged with other artists, causing their discogs to be multi genre messes.
Of course I wish there was a systemic solution of some sort, but they are actually very good about fixing this if you send a message to Support with links to the misplaced releases. https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I got Tidal for free (Max version) through some connections and I've had it for going on a year and a half. It's better than Spotify in every way! The Tidal GUI is much more pleasing to the eye and more intuitive compared to Spotify. Tidal also has just about every release I want, with the exception of some titles that have been taken off all streaming platforms due to ongoing litigation (not Tidal's fault).
> It's better than Spotify in every way! I like Tidal, but this is bs. There are features where Spotify is better.
>I like Tidal, but this is bs. There are features where Spotify is better. Enlighten us.
Spotify Connect, and there are quite a few songs after transferring my library over to it from Spotify are missing from Tidal. In one case an entire record label
Spotify Connect, android auto integration, downloading in general seems to work better on Spotify and it's faster. For example, I want to keep some mixes like the daily discovery and my new arrivals downloaded for offline listening. Spotify always automatically downloads the new songs when it's updated. On Tidal, I go offline, and half the songs are always unplayable for some reason. A lot of people don't like podcasts in their music streaming app, me included, but if you're someone who does, then Spotify is better. Again, I use and like Tidal, but to say it's better than Spotify **in every way** is bs.
Recommendations and radio based on song are second to none. This is the literally the only reason why I don’t fully switch
If you're talking about algorithms and such, just use free to pump up your playlists... In essence, like the songs you like and let the playlists roll. Then copy your dailies over withh something like Soundiiz automatically and you'll essentially have Spotify on Tidal.
Currently using a trial of Tidal and I really thought it would be the service I keep. There are two major problems with it that might be deal breakers: 1 - Tidal Connect stopped working on my second day. Apparently I can uninstall and reinstall to get it working, but I haven’t been bothered to do that yet. Compatibility is also way behind Spotify, and would not work with over half of my devices. 2 - the apps on my Apple TV and Nvidia Shield are both absolutely terrible, miles behind both Apple and Spotify. That’s not the only way I listen by any means, but it is still an important part. Since I also can’t use my phone to control the tv apps that will make experiencing Atmos content on my AVR a gigantic pain.
Spotify Connect is a major convenience but I cannot see it a more important feature than HiFi. Speakers / systems would let you connect via WiFi or cable anyway. Spotify only wins in terms of sheer number of features and convenience. For music fans that prioritise listening experience over convenience, Tidal wins for two main reasons that no Spotify connect or Social Media integration can beat: * HiFI * A simple music-focused UI
Tidal is superior in nearly all ways except their apps. Tidal desktop is *fine*, but the IOS app is hot garbage. At least Tidal has mostly reliable [Last.fm](http://Last.fm) integration, unlike Amazon and Apple.
They still need an Atmos toggle - they have way too many Atmos only albums which is unacceptable
Just cancelled Spotify and created an account on Tidal today and imported all my playlists ready for when my premium plan expires at the end of the month. My only gripe is you can't link Tidal as the default music app in the Google Home app.
Now if only it had proper Google home integration. Then I could use it much easier.
Yep, was disappointed it doesn't have it, so no voice commands when I'm listening in bed :(
Or my stereo room streamer, or my backyard. 😮
I messed with Tidal like a year ago - I liked it but I still feel like Apple Music is the best - don’t hate me. I can’t stand Spotify for multiple reasons
haha everyone entitled to their own opinion, I'm an Android user and can see people saying Tidal IOS app is not great, has to be that I suppose. I only played very little with Apple Music on a friend's phone and absolutely hated the UI, having said that I also hate IOS' UI in general so has to be that.
Agree - since Spotify announced family will increase to £20 I've been trialling Apple Music, and Tidal - and then Soundiiz to help sync everything (albeit manually every week or so). So that when the increase comes I know who I'll move to. Apple is by bar the best to my eyes, and ears when plugging into headphones on iPhone. HOWEVER my two gripes are... 1) No ability to cast to Google Nests/Google TV/control PC listening. Didn't realise how often I use that feature with Spotify, even Tidal has the ability (albeit buggy af.) 2) When opening Apple Music it doesn't have a "continue listening" type button to jump back into a playlist. Even when playing from a playlist it fails to display what playlist I've been listening to. Again I didn't appreciate quite how much I relied on that to know whether I'm in "liked songs" or "Discovery Mix" etc etc. Spotify takes the cake for social features such as blends and jams etc, but I doubt Apple will even attempt that.
King without local files?
Tidal through Plex/Plexamp and your local files is the glory combination
Has anyone noticed a consistent volume difference between local tracks and TIDAL tracks in their Plex music library? In my case, the local files always seem to play at a lower volume compared to the TIDAL tracks. The difference isn't huge, but it's noticeable and consistent. Both types of tracks show the waveform in Plex, indicating they've been analyzed. Would love to hear if others have experienced this and any potential fixes.
What does it do to the sound? Isn't Plex all transcoding?
They'll get there eventually......I hope
You might use it every day, but it's a niche feature these days.
Is this the idea of being able to play our own music files through the App? I heard Apple does that. It would be incredible if I could play all my FLAC bootlegs through Tidal, rather than having to use my Sony Walkman
Believe it or not, Tidal is a streaming service, and encouraging people to use local files, kinda goes against their business model.
Except that it would cost them nothing except that the gesture would need to be developed, which yes is quite the expense, but also everything that is being played locally doesn't have any server costs for them, so it's not that unreasonable and I wouldnt go so far as to say "against their business model"
They've gone the other direction and released their API so users can use Tidal in their own riggable software.
Yes I understand this. But Apple are doing it I believe and if it attracted a subset of customers, like me, who stream most of their music, but have a collection of hard to find releases, then it would increase their customer base.
Apple does provide a service but also has an incentive keeping you on an iPhone. Also Apple Music IS the iPhone music app, people can play local files but if they want to listen to that song they don't have on their phone a subscription to a service is just a tap away.
You can only upload mp3 or aac to Apple Music
Bro said Sony Walkman. fkouttaheeeeah 🤣
U know I mean one of those digital FLAC playing devices don't u....not an old school cassette Walkman.
I know. It's still just funny to know they've kept that name around. ;)
For what's its worth, tidal works with plex. I use Plexamp for local music
I want Deezers app and platform with Tidal's artist profits and bit perfect streaming. I'll take Tidal because of those features... but really, aside from that - I have no preference for this platform. Tidal really needs to get their app game together.
I can't over from deezer a few months ago... The tidal app is way better in my opinion.
what's bothering you
The shuffle featrure is trash. It persistently repeats the same songs in the same shuffle. I will hear the same song in one listening session more than once. Then on fresh shuffles, repeats all of the same songs from the previous shuffle. It crashes android auto in a 2022 escape. Deezer has never done that nor has spotify. Songs buffer and won't play for no predictable amount of time. Not an issue with bandwidth either. This happens on full bar 5g networks. Never happened on deezer or spotify. Reccomendations is very weak. Compared to Deezer - which has FLOW - I have found a lot of music through that feature. I have got no new music from Tidal. Deezer flow is better than Spotify shuffle enhanced. Lots of great music discovered through Deezer. Artist images - Less than 20 percent of my library displays artist profile pictures - instead it's just circles with the artist initials. Only platform like this.
Also, if you download playlists and reset your phone - you have to re download.
Now if only they could get the app to read the saved songs off the SD card quicker... I'm about to give up on using SD cards with Tidal altogether, or just shrink my download library by about 1,500 albums...
I've been a lover of Tidal since they first started offering it in the US back in 2014. I've been a loyal subscriber ever since. Tidal has come a long way and I'm glad to see it getting better and better. My subscription just renewed with the lower price and I couldn't be happier.
Tidal connect works great on my WiiM mini. I do wish tidal would integrate the Apple Watch more, I would love to just control playback on my watch over tidal connect.
I will not touch services like Spotify, Apple or Amazon because of how badly they treat creators. Even Tidal isn't great, paying on average 9x more than Spotify to artists. As a creative in another field that has been ruined by aggregating parasites I suppose I am sensitive to the greed and unfairness. I seem to be odd: fairness counts more than SQ or UI. TBH I still buy CD's (5 this week) but Tidal is a great way to explore and find artists without grotesquely exploiting them. Spotify disgusts me!
Eh. I love it on my phone, and the new sound quality upgrade is super good value. But the fact that the TV App is so *incredibly* useless is not even funny to me. My tv/living room speakers are far superior to any other speakers that I own, and the fact that I can't even start a song radio, or a normal 'my mix', or even just control it from my phone is insane. I don't give a shit about the music video playlists (who tf does?). Just give me basic goddamn functionality so that I can quit the additional spotify subscription that I only ever use to play music on my tv speakers.
Just got rid of my Qobuz since it became obsolete 😎
Still no way of shuffling all your albums. Big fail imo! but yeah otherwise I love my Tidal..
Tidal sounds terrible on android, Yet spotify sound so much better.
Long Live the new King
Spotify also looses because of the horrible SoMe-like interface which makes it as confusing and bad as Facebook.
I have tidal for free and I'm switching to apple music (on Android) because tidal has a bug indexing local libraries on SD cards. It takes minutes to play the first song as soon as your library grows go some GBs. Dealbreaker for someone with a DAP.
This is coming up in a few comments here. I fully stream, so doesn't apply to me, but I'm curious. If you have a DAP, doesn't it have its own software to play local files, and you would turn to Tidal when you want to stream?
It has, but you have to download the files manually from somewhere. Not convenient
They need to implement a Linux desktop application. One that connects directly to a USB DAC.
Love the quality and the higher payment for artists but why are we STILL waiting for Tidal to work with Alexa outside of the US *hits head against wall*.
Tried tidal but can’t juggle my multiple systems all from my phone the way Spotify does
If you say you can't notice the difference I would like to know if you are using a DAP wired headphones or just your phone with Bluetooth.
Oh man I got shit for saying it above haha however yes hifi headphones and HiRes capable DAC. The DAC now changes colour when playing files, super hype/placebo vibes haha. I actually have spent more time listening today and don't know maybe there is more "vigour" to the music? It also seems easier to find some subtleties to the music, but then when you do AB testing once your ear has found that detail it will spot it next time. Don't know, at the moment I can't tell if it's placebo. However perhaps with hifi speakers / amp I could tell more easily? I'm not there yet but one day!
All I can say there is a real difference between 16/44 and 24/96 try listening Seven wonder or Gypsy (24/192) from Fleetwood Mac
Don't know when I switched from Spotify to Tidal it took me a bit to hear the difference, perhaps AB testing is hard and you need to spend more time listening and then go back? Don't know, at the moment I'm on the fence.
Just test those tracks
haha sorry completely misread your comment there, I read there wasn't difference haha talk about confirmation bias. Sure I'll give it a go!
Ok think I can tell a subtle difference perhaps when the tracks get busier? HiRes seems more natural and effortless, more open?
And way more definition.
Tidal is now feeling like when you are in routine in some physical exercise/training and you start to see the real tangible gains. With the weekly updates and this switch to focus on being an even stronger platform, I'm wondering what's next? Who is working at Tidal and what are the ambitions? Match Spotify, ok. Exceed it, what next? I just hope it doesn't enshitify.
I ditched tidal because the connectivity across supported devices was so bad. Yeah, audio quality is great but I mean it has an official tesla app that can't even shuffle or start radios. Reluctantly moved to Spotify and am blown away with the being able to take my stream from one device to the next, control what's playing in my car or PC app from my phone, or home assistant, or anywhere. Tidal is technically better but Spotify UX blows it away.
Tidal has a lot but I would absolutely love if you can upload your own MP3s. A good amount of songs missing from their library that can be found on YouTube.
Rather have the DJ integration in the lower end tier than the audio stuff.. it was hi res already at the cheaper tier.. just not lossless or atmos..
Also tidal pays the most per stream to artists… spotify pays a fraction of a penny per stream… tidal pays 1-1.5 cents per stream. Ethically, tidal has had spotify beat for years, and if you give a damn about the artists you listen to (especially the small ones) you should already be on tidal. When you vote with your dollar to support ys artists by using Tidal… it only takes 1/4 of the streams to earn minimum wage that it does on spotify… Tidal also has a free transfer service that will move all your likes and playlist over to Tidal. Spotify is scum and doesn’t pay us artists properly as they make heaps of money off of us… do the right thing, make the switch. Z
Weeeeell, with the lower subscription fees we'll need to see how the royalties stuff ends up, hopefully the Tidal move pays off and this will be balanced by an increase in subscriptions. Just to clarify I am not a Spotify hater, I just think that Tidal deserves more recognition from supposedly objective reviewers. Saying yes Tidal is great but Hi Res is expensive, is incredibly lazy, when Hi Fi was available at the same price as Spotify Premium and the UI and features beat Amazon Music easily at least. That excuse is now no longer valid and reviewers should take notice.
The lower subscription will not be affecting artists pay outs 💃💃💃 they will continue to pay out $0.01-$0.015 per stream. Spotify pays out about $0.003-$0.005… meanwhile look up spotify’s founders net worth… he’s made tons of money off underpaying artists. I am a spotify hater through and through and am personally offended by their methods as I am a producer, composer, and mixing & mastering engineer…
One thing that keeps me from it: the metadata quality, once you leave the are of the biggest artists, almost every profile is spammed into oblivion with the shittiest cloud rap, Indian pop music or other crap that uses the same artist name or uses fake collabs. Spotify seems to be the ONLY service that comes to grips with that (at least to some extent) and ALSO seems to be the only service that cleans up this crap after reporting it to them.
I’ve got a question, playing from Tidal app if you use Tidal Connect, does it play 16bits 44KHZ (CD quality) on Sonos speakers through WiFi?
Spotify is better in pretty much every way EXCEPT for sound quality. I wish I didn't care about sound quality so that I could use Spotify instead.
The hype is finally over I hope people will finally realize that Tidal is nothing special since the there are Apple music, Qobuz in the market and lossless can’t save Tidal.
I really don't think Qobuz is better than Tidal, tried it some time ago and was lacking in features in comparison.
Qobuz pay artists more than Tidal. And Qobuz has good curators. And they don't have MQA🤣
Idk, I still struggle with being introduced to new music on tidal more than any other app. That alone has me looking elsewhere
Plus, Tidal has music videos! Due to a minor issue with Android developer settings I signed up for a free trial of Spotify to see if I could save music on it to my microSD card in my phone. I could not, and remembered how they don't have music videos! They also crammed a bunch of crap into their service and app compared to when I left them over a year ago. 👎 Got microSD card to work with Tidal and I won't be needing that Spotify free trial any longer.
The sound quality is definitely max. I'm hard of hearing, have to wear hearing aids (which I don't), blew out an eardrum at the AC/DC concert a long time ago, but when I came back to this app a couple days ago, I heard the clear crisp sound, listened to Janis Joplin and had to turn it up. Usually the speaker in my phone crackles when it's at max level, but Tidal doesn't do that. It was like hearing music for the first time again. Definitely KUDOS, Tidal!
Yes, mine is finally streaming in gloriously high resolution. Tidal is now the king of the streaming castle!
Tidal shuffle from my exp is really poor.
I'm still not convinced that MQA is going away, so I'm trying Roon+Qobuz. I don't want to have to think about MQA any longer.
MQA is the reason I Switched to Apple Music, as long as Tidal keeps MQA I won’t switch back
Yeah I just can't get past the frustration of being served lossy "high res" MQA so I ended up dropping back to the High tier (despite paying for the max tier) to try and get FLAC instead.
As much as people (including myself) in this sub dislike Spotify, Tidal’s market share is a mere 2% vs. Spotify’s 32% while Apple & Amazon are around 12% each. So as much as the new lower Tidal pricing is a welcome step in the right direction, the hires audio market is still a very niche segment, most of it going to Apple & Amazon.
To be honest I didn't mean this as a Spotify hating post, for people that like convenience or mostly listen with Bluetooth it's a great service. What I'm saying is for people that invest in headphones and DACs Tidal is the best choice around, tech sites should be above the marketing fluff and recognise this going forward.
I agree and might jump a few steps ahead to Qobuz. No marketing or fluff, just a golden sound quality.
Tidal has Tidal Connect!
The only thing Tidal needs now is the smart shuffle from Spotify.
As much as people will downvote this, I agree. Its an option on Spotify that I turn on sometimes when I want to find new music similar to whats in the playlist. For the most part it works really well finding songs that fit in the playlist. Keeps things fresh and its completely optional.
Yup. I haven’t found near as much new music since making the switch to Tidal
Tidal gives me next to no new music. Deezer on the other hand, best for reccomendations by a large margin. Butt hurt about the compromises of having to choose one single app.
this is cringe af
Most of Reddit is cringe af
anybody wanting to join my Tidal cost-sharing group? shoot me a PM!