Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
fvgoulet
8
Oct 13, 2017
To focus on your initial question, here's my 2 cents; (BTDT)
Tidal is not worth it, because for my needs, the App, the songs available and the monthly fee are less interesting than Spotify and Soundcloud combined. (I know that these are not perfect sources)
Because I'm listening to music everywhere, from places where I have access to Hi-End audio, others where the setup is totally crappy, subscribing to Tidal which would cost me more monthly than Soundcloud and Spotify Family combined, is ridiculous for the little (NOT OPTIMAL) gain I would get by subscribing to Tidal.
As @Heefty mentioned, if you particularly digg an album or a song, there's nothing like the original source, when you have a proper audio setup to make it shine to its true potential.
If your use case is that you have a Hi-Fi phone/protable dac with good travel headphones and want very good sounding music on the go + discover during travel without the hassle of downloading FLACS for everything, Tidal is worth it (not perfect). But hey, this is a pretty specific use case, which I doubt is yours.
If you want to get the most of your audio setup, original sources like CDs, Vinyl and FLAC would deliver. So any streaming service wouldn't do it. When you try the real thing for a bit, listening to streaming service is a totally different experience: Sometime it's completely disturbing and I dislike it, sometime it's interesting to the point I digg it.
For example, the song Melting Pot from Booker T. & the M.G.'s sounds amazing from its original source with a good audio setup, but when I streamed it from Spotify to low-end box speakers, the bass started slamming through the loose wooden floor they were standing on and the whole room started to groove with it and totally complement this song. The room accoustic which was far from optimal, transformed the original song to the point where I prefered it like than its "HI-FI audio setup" version.
So in the end, it's not a matter of source nor audio setup to enjoy a song, in the right conditions, all streaming services can be enjoyed, sometimes it could be perfect for your needs.
Hi-Fi is nice when you have everything into place to get the perfect experience, but having Hi-Fi speakers without room accoustic, man, you're wasting time and money IMHO. Headphones are the cheapest way to get into Hi-Fi, but you'll have to hack your way in to have the full experience.
If you want something nice for a better experience with the HE400i you're planning to buy, get yourself a sub woofer with these, you'll thank me later ;-)
bmezy
12
Oct 14, 2017
fvgouletAgree with this. I really want Tidal to be the best one-stop-shop for all our HiFi needs on the go, but it just isn't. For the music that really matters, FLAC direct is the way to go. Or, I don't believe that Google Music compresses your FLAC uploads, so that might be a good option.
PRODUCTS YOU MAY LIKE
Trending Posts in Audiophile