Tidal

[Deleted]

Something is wrong somewhere. Beats is 320kbps....over 4 x's less resolution than QB. To me, the difference was obvious, and is what led me to sign up with QB. I don't know about the XDA? Someone familiar with it needs to chime in. But it was the A/B comparison on the same song that led me to go lossless route.

[SticknStones]

Oct 29, 2014 16:53:06 GMT -5 @islandman2020 said:

Something is wrong somewhere. Beats is 320kbps....over 4 x's less resolution than QB. To me, the difference was obvious, and is what led me to sign up with QB. I don't know about the XDA? Someone familiar with it needs to chime in. But it was the A/B comparison on the same song that led me to go lossless route.

Thanks I was using the Postal Service cd as it has some electronics, bass lines and such to a/b on.

[aviolentgrace]

Oct 28, 2014 14:45:26 GMT -5 KeithL said:

1) Do they support WASAPI? (Hopefully their App does; I'm pretty sure Firefox doesn't).

No. They're going through the Windows mixer in non-exclusive mode. So, output to your DAC of choice will be and re-sampled by the kmixer to whatever resolution you've specified in the Playback Device Properties page, volume-leveled, and muxed with all other shared-mode sound sources before being sent to the DAC.

Oct 28, 2014 14:45:26 GMT -5 KeithL said:

2) How good a selection do they really have? (Spotify had a really awesome selection - if only it wasn't for the limited quality.)

Pretty diverse. Others may have a different experience, but they've had at least *something* from every artist I've ran through it... except Metallica. (Lots of Megadeth, though... Dave FTW).

Oct 28, 2014 14:45:26 GMT -5 KeithL said:

3) How do they handle "offline listening"? (I assume they won't let you download and save your own "free-standing NON-DRM" FLAC copy of what you're listening to).

As soon as someone tries this out... do post your findings...

On Windows, there is (currently) no such "Offline Listening" thing (as of yet). Devices can download songs for offline, but they're trapped on the device, probably in the app's local storage sandbox, which means mere mortals without debugging tools likely won't be able to find or access them.

I've verified that in Windows they're caching the data in-memory from a TCP request to a "Varnish cache server". Without the right special sauce & magic keys, you just get a 403 Forbidden from the server, but readily available tools like System Internals' procmon.exe will tell you the IP if you care.

[jamco]

Learned about Tidal at Audio Fest 2014. Yesterday I received the Tidal launch notification and exclusive 30-day trial. I’ve listened to the new music service for about 5 hours. As stated earlier, the sound quality difference is obvious.  Here’s some additional information.

Future Streaming Players – Tidal has agreements with 34 audio companies.
tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201724751-Which-Home-Audio-Players-will-TIDAL-be-available-on-

Desktop Computer Operating Systems Supported – Windows, Mac or Linux.
tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201166432-What-are-the-system-requirements-for-TIDAL-

Internet Browser Note – You must use the Google Chrome browser to set the Standard Quality to the “HiFi” to attain Flac 1411 Kbps.

tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201724391-Where-do-I-find-The-TIDAL-Web-Player-

Airplay Note – Both MAC and PC (via Airfoil) are supported.
tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201724421--How-do-I-stream-through-Airport-Express-Airplay-

Two Install Options – Install Tidal.exe or just use your Internet browser.  I prefer using the Tidal.exe because of it's intuitive user interface. 
Hint on Tidal.exe: keep scrolling down on the home page
tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201314711-How-do-I-install-TIDAL-on-my-computer-

Simultaneous Devices – You can use 1 device in online mode and 3 devices in offline mode simultaneously.
tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201623252-How-many-devices-can-I-use-simultaneously-

 

Happy streaming...

[Deleted]

Well, I am trying to start my free trial with Tidal, and so far the set-up has been a disaster. In the middle of the download my laptop totally locks up. Eventually, after trying everything, I had to remove the battery to shut it down. TASK MASTER, etc., and everything was locked. It may have had nothing to do with Tidal, but coincidentally it happened at the same moment in time.

After several reboots my computer "seems" normal at this time, and I can log into Tidal, but as soon as I try to play a song this error message appears: "TidalMedia.exe" has stopped working. Completely uninstalling, and reinstalling has made no difference. I am awaiting a response from support at Tidal now.

Has anyone else had this problem? Also, the Tidal app takes about 5-8 secs to activate once it is clicked whereas Qobuz is pretty much instantaneous. Is this start up speed for Tidal normal?

[audiobill]

Islandman, I have been using Tidal every day since launched without any issues.

Please note that I stream using the ipad ios app.

Bill

[SticknStones]

Nov 4, 2014 16:49:21 GMT -5 audiobill said:

Islandman, I have been using Tidal every day since launched without any issues.

Please note that I stream using the ipad ios app.

Bill

To get lossless you have to use Chrome as the browser and I did reboot the computer as I was using firefox and was getting some downright strange behavior but now it is fine. It has a very "Mog" like interface where I can save my albums and artists which I absolutely love.

[audiobill]

The ios app also streams lossless.

[Deleted]

pp.

Bill[/quote]To get lossless you have to use Chrome as the browser and I did reboot the computer as I was using firefox and was getting some downright strange behavior but now it is fine. It has a very "Mog" like interface where I can save my albums and artists which I absolutely love.
[/quote]

Yeah I saw that they only supported Chrome which is what I mostly use anyway. 1) Does the Tidal app always take 5-8 seconds to respond? If so, I didn't know that and repeated clicked the app trying to get it to do something. Maybe I messed something up?

2) Also, does Tidal automatically bookmark, and start with the same song that you last listened to like on Qobuz? I found this especially helpful when you found a new song or artist and wanted to go back to them without having to find a piece of paper to write the group name or song down.

Anyway, maybe Tidal will respond by tomorrow. I have a dedicated to hifi netbook computer that is only 32bit vs the usual 64bit Windows OS. I wonder if that could be the problem?

[Deleted]

Just know tried downloading Tidal to my other laptop that is Windows Ultimate 64bit. That went without a hitch. So, at this point I am thinking that Tidal may not be compatible with 32bit OS. Still waiting for Tidal to respond about this from yesterday.

[SticknStones]

Nov 4, 2014 23:35:20 GMT -5 @islandman2020 said:

pp.

Bill

To get lossless you have to use Chrome as the browser and I did reboot the computer as I was using firefox and was getting some downright strange behavior but now it is fine. It has a very "Mog" like interface where I can save my albums and artists which I absolutely love.

Yeah I saw that they only supported Chrome which is what I mostly use anyway.
1) Does the Tidal app always take 5-8 seconds to respond? If so, I didn't know that and repeated clicked the app trying to get it to do something. Maybe I messed something up?

2) Also, does Tidal automatically bookmark, and start with the same song that you last listened to like on Qobuz? I found this especially helpful when you found a new song or artist and wanted to go back to them without having to find a piece of paper to write the group name or song down.

Anyway, maybe Tidal will respond by tomorrow. I have a dedicated to hifi netbook computer that is only 32bit vs the usual 64bit Windows OS. I wonder if that could be the problem?

I just logged into Tidal and was mid listen through a Pinback album. When I selected open web player it did indeed have the last song I played at the bottom. I pressed play and about 8 seconds later it finished buffering and picked up where I left off.

I like the MOG like interface as I have been adding my artists and albums. I do not do play lists as I am old school and pick an album to play all the way through. Now I just hope the artists get paid enough to support the streaming. Taylor Swift had her song pulled from Spotify this week. I love streaming and it is so much easier then fishing out a CD plus all the handling time.

[Deleted]

I have been a subscriber to Qobuz for about 5 months, and just started a free trial with Tidal just a few days ago. There are several things about Qobuz that are important to me that I do not think that Tidal has. Remember, I have only had a few days with Tidal so do not take what I am about to say as absolute fact!

1) Qobuz has gapless playback control whereas Tidal does not seem to. On Qobuz I set the gap at 2 seconds between songs. You can set the gap at 0 seconds and have no gap between songs. Cool!

2) Qobuz works a lot like YouTube in that you automatically build a history of where you have been. I do not see this on Tidal. For me, this is a really nice feature because as I explore new music , and want to go back to some of what I had listened to, I do not have to worry about writing down those groups that most interested me because the historical file of my listening sessions is there until I decide what to do with it (save, delete, add to favorites, etc.)

3) On both Qobuz, and Tidal you see the album art as a small part of the overall page, but on Qobuz when you click the “expand icon” (the one with the 4 arrows) your entire screen becomes the album you are listening to. My laptop dedicated to hi-fi has an HDMI out that I run to my TV. When the entire 60” screen looks like Elton’s “Yellow Brick Road” it’s a really neat alternative to just having the album art, song list, similar artist, etc. Looks like a giant album art picture hangin on your wall.

4) With Qobuz, the very last song/artist that you listened to stays in “queue” no matter how long you go before returning to the site. If the last artist is someone that you want to spend some more time listening you don’t need to try to remember who they were, or write them down because to the next time you go to the site they will be there. Tidal seems to start all over again with a “blank slate” each time. So I don’t think Tidal has this feature.

5) Sound quality seems the same between the two, but Qobuz’s homepage seems more alive, and attractive.

6) Tidal does boasts HD Music Videos, but I don’t find that necessarily enticing as YouTube, Mullet, Qello, Vevo, etc., all have good HD music videos.

7) I don’t know if Tidal has 24/96, 24/192 HD downloads like Qobuz. Qobuz recently had a sale of over 300 HD albums for 50% off which when I checked was less expensive than any other site; HDTracks, Hi-REZ, Acoustic Sounds, etc. I think this sale was just for the existing Qobuz subscribers which is a nice perk to your subscription.

8 At this point in time Tidal is less responsive than Qobuz. With Qobuz I will get a response usually the same day about a concern or question. The net day at the latest. Right now I have been waiting two days for Tidal to respond to whether they support 32bit Windows OS as I get a “tidalmedia.exe” error when trying to download their app to that computer. My 64bit Windows OS went without a hitch however.

For now I am going to keep comparing between the two to see who says and who goes!

[Deleted]

Does anyone know how to access the videos on TIDAL? I am having trouble figuring it out. I have even Googled it and there is nothing about how to get to the 75,000 video library.

[SticknStones]

Nov 17, 2014 22:51:15 GMT -5 @islandman2020 said:

Does anyone know how to access the videos on TIDAL? I am having trouble figuring it out. I have even Googled it and there is nothing about how to get to the 75,000 video library.

When you select the Artist there is a video link. I am listening to the new Counting Crows and they had about 4 videos there including 2 from the new album.

[Deleted]

Dec 1, 2014 14:56:22 GMT -5 SticknStones said:

Nov 17, 2014 22:51:15 GMT -5 @islandman2020 said:

Does anyone know how to access the videos on TIDAL? I am having trouble figuring it out. I have even Googled it and there is nothing about how to get to the 75,000 video library.

When you select the Artist there is a video link. I am listening to the new Counting Crows and they had about 4 videos there including 2 from the new album.

Tell me what what this video icon looks like and where on the page it is. I am on Counting Crows now.....looking all over for anything that looks like a icon to click on. No luck.

[audiobill]

Are you using the samp tidal player?

[SticknStones]

Hi Island Man! I am using my laptop and google chrome to login and open the webplayer. This is my screen shot! Also, there is a guy from Tidal Support named Colin who has been very responsive for me.


I just downloaded the Anrdroid Player. To get to videos just swipe the screen from right to left Tracks-Albums-similar artists.......Videos. I did not see Artists or Albums on the app but still playing with it.

[Deleted]

Ok, finally I see how to do it. You have to 1) go to the very very bottom left of the page and click the artist name that is in very very small letters, lol. 2) Then the page that you show above pops up! Ok, thanks everybody!

[linvincible]

there's a beta now for adding Tidal (and other streaming services) to Logitech Media Server
through ickStream
forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102497-Pre-announcement-ickStream-open-beta-release-on-Squeezebox-

[CrazyBlue]

Checking this out. Was a MOG fan for the simple reason you could sample entire CDs as well as do the playlist thing built around whatever artist, and slide a percentage scale to boot. If this is similar but 16 44.1, I'm in. My whole music side is built around really clean 16 44.1. Good enough for me.

What?