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its HIFI TIDAL worth the money on? or just use spotify ?

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well, i have been trying out TIDAL hifi i can say the music is clearer , but i just wanna know your thoughts on whether TIDAL HIFI is worth the money to spent it on.
also i am looking to get a good set on speakers for my PC any recommendation ?
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Annie_Yazbeck
2
Jun 12, 2019
Absolutely, I think Tidal HiFi worthes so much as it offers Hi-Fi quality with 44.1 kHz / 16 bit resolution. And I have found a great Tidal Music Converter for Mac that enables me to download Tidal music to my computer for offline listening without Premium and convert Tidal music to MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, etc. for better compatibility. So nice to meet Tidal music world.
boMD
162
Jan 12, 2018
I have both Tidal HiFi and Spotify family. My wife mostly uses Spotify and I primarily use Tidal HiFi. I enjoy the CD quality streaming quite a bit, and MQA is a nice perk if you have a renderer or decoder. I definitely think it's worth the cost and is a nice option in the marketplace.
... And yes, I can tell the difference between 320Kbs lossy and 1411Kbps lossless.
Mrs.Estherhause
2
Dec 23, 2019
Rhelf
1
Jun 11, 2020
Mrs.EstherhauseDon't beat yourself up! You need to know the tracks intimately to choose correctly every time with such a short burst.
Massjim
15
Jan 12, 2018
I love Tidal, lossless is the way to go if your equipment is up to it. Plus, Tidal supposedly pays a higher royalty to the artists than their competitors do, well worth the cost for that alone. Looking to get an MQA capable DAC like the IFI Nano Black to decode Master qaulity files on Tidal for an even better sound quality. Right now I upsample Tidal to 192k via the excellent Teac UD-501 DAC.
TheIzzardKing
359
Oct 18, 2017
Go buy CD's from pawnshops at $3 a pop and convert to flac.
A good pawn shop will even have newer stuff from say about a month or two behind the release....
If you are dirty you can actually turn around and flip the cds on ebay...not something i would do as its just not worth the effort for me but i know people who do this...and yes, they are dirty people imo. Lol
prud475
90
Oct 16, 2017
Either settle for 320kbps (not that bad) Or get a local FLAC library. Tidal is NOT worth it You could also just buy CDs of music you want and then convert them to FLAC it's much cheaper than purchasing digitally, and then you've also got a physical backup
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.
Tragique
712
Oct 8, 2017
Tidal hi-fi is outstanding. I'm no audiophile but I have some pretty nice earphones and headphones and a JDS The Element DAC. My iTunes music sounds ghetto in comparison to Tidal tracks. I play my iTunes through JRiver and that really cleans it up and gives it punch. You need good gear though.
compliance
45
Sep 28, 2017
My primary source is Spotify on an Android phone. After testing my new DAC/AMP with a Chromecast I brought it to work to use with my phone and discovered the amazing sound I had heard was now just OK. I'm considering jumping to Tidal because they support bypassing Android's crap audio sampling (through UAPP), and Spotify doesn't (and doesn't seem to care to for some crazy reason).
Long winded way of saying I am also considering Tidal, and there is compelling reason to if your phone is a source for you. I'm already entrenched in Spotify, so just trying to evaluate my options before making the leap.
prud475
90
Oct 16, 2017
complianceor get a cheapo dac/dap it would be much more cost effective than tidal in the long run and you'd still be able to use stuff that you're familiar with
Sonnenwender
41
Sep 28, 2017
I can definitely recommend Tidal Hifi, but what is even better is Roon player software with integrated Tidal which is as seamless an experience as you can get
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