Tidal

[dollsbitches]

Can we talk about Tidal? I'd like to know what you guys think.

I was always a big advocate of lossless audio. I think it's because I listened to a lot of music when mp3s were just starting out, and I could always really hear the difference between a 128kbps mp3 and a CD. I still have some old, rare mp3s in my library that sound really badly compressed. Also, I have a home audio setup that allows me to simulate 5.1 surround sound from stereo music. It sounds great but when you're listening to mp3s sometimes you can hear a bit of compression.

So I did that test to see if I could hear the difference (at http://test.tidalhifi.com/ ). First with my iMac and my sony earbuds, which I use all the time to listen to music. I got 3 out of 5 right. Then I tried it at home on my home audio system, while simulating 5.1 surround. I got 2 out of 5. The test uses 320kbps vs. lossless, which I think isn't a HUGE difference to begin with. I mostly listen to V0 compressed mp3s (they hve a variable bitrate with an average of 224kbps). But honestly, I don't really hear a LOT of loss in sound quality when I'm streaming music on Spotify on their 'high' setting (which is 160kbps).

Also, their catalog is not that impressive right now. It's kind of like Spotify, without the Spotify exclusives. I mean, if they would actually offer lots of material that wasn't out on any other platform, it would be worth every penny. So far I don't think I'll renew my subscription after the free first month.

[Spikey]

What is the difference in price? Two of my friends are Tidal fans. They say the difference with Spotify is huge, but uhm...I don't really hear it. I never used such streaming services myself, not so much because of the loss; I just don't like a lot of different music (which is why I don't listen to the radio either), so the access to such a giant library is pretty useless for me. Also, from what I do like, a lot of rare tracks that are just not available there.

I was always a big advocate of lossless audio.

No kidding btw. Remembering how you always insisted on flac, I would never have expected you to even use streaming services at all.

[dollsbitches]

It kind of changed when I got my iPhone, because FLAC files aren't accepted by iTunes and I was too lazy to convert everything to ALAC. And I have a limited data plan so I can't really go around streaming lossless audio. Plus I'm not sure my phone network would be able to handle it, because even though I'm in the center of the capital of our beautiful country, we don't have 4G everywhere.

The 'hifi' Tidal subscription (which is the one that offers lossless) is € 20. I just don't really think it's worth it.