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Topic: Tidal and hifi (Read 15009 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tidal and hifi

Hi to all the community ! So, here's my problem :

Christmas is coming fast and i wanted to get a hi-fi system, a good one and then i discovered Tidal that streams lossless music, i signed up for the free hifi for one month but on my little hifi system i don't hear a difference and i wondered if Tidal was streaming real lossless music. I don't want to buy a good hi-fi system for nothing.
I wanted to know if TIDAL was a scam or if it was really lossless...It received good reviews and some people don't like it because they think it's placebo...What should i believe in ? is Tidal streaming real lossless or is it scam ?

Thank you !!
 

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #1 –
What are you comparing tidal to on your mini HiFi?
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #2 –
What do you mean what i compare tidal to ? I want to know if TIdal is streaming real lossleess music because i don't want to spend all my money on Tidal and a hifi system :)
Sorry if my messages aren't that clear, i'm from France :)

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #3 –
sorry, what i meant was are you comparing tidal to high bitrate MP3s or M4As?

It is lossless but if you're comparing it against high bitrate lossy your going to have a really hard time telling the difference unless the masters are different.
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #4 –
Quote from: A_Man_Eating_Duck on
It is lossless but if you're comparing it against high bitrate lossy your going to have a really hard time telling the difference
...and it's extremely unlikely that throwing a bunch of money at a hifi system is going to change that.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #5 –
Oh, okay :) I  just wanted to know if it was lossless ;) How do they get their songs/albums ? Is this the record company that sends the albums or anything like that ?
My goal was to buy a good hifi system to have the best sound that i could get really.
Why would people compare it to lossy files since it's lossless ? I mean, the quality is best on a lossless file obviously...

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #6 –
My goal was to buy a good hifi system to have the best sound that i could get really.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #7 –
Quote from: TheModifiedDog on
Sorry if my messages aren't that clear, i'm from France :)
When you are in France you may consider qobuz streaming that is from France.
Both qobuz and Tidal stream Universal Music Group watermarks in highest quality packed lossless in CD or higher bitrates music.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #8 –
Quote from: TheModifiedDog on
I mean, the quality is best on a lossless file obviously...
Not necessarily. The quality ultimately depends on what you actually hear.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #9 –
A decent pair of speakers will improve your listening pleasure more than the difference between high bit-rate MP3 and lossless, in my opinion.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #10 –
Ok ;) What kind of brand of speakers should i look into to have a better listening experience ?

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #11 –
what type of speakers are you looking for?

Bookshelf, floorstanding, near field?
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #12 –
I was looking for bookshelf ! Sorry, i should have said it first !

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #13 –
You won't be able to hear difference between a Spotify ( Vorbis 320 kbps) and Tidal (FLAC lossless).  It's not matter of speakers, sound card, DAC ...  Vorbis 320 kbps is transparent. Spotify has less delay where I live. Tidal has a significant delay like 3-5  seconds (not matter whether I enable lossless FLAC or lossy AAC). It's annoying.

There is a lot of speakers, studio monitors etc.  JBL LSR 305 line is a good alternative.  Unbeatable at its price range.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #14 –
I don't know really what kind of speakears should i get..My friend who has the Bose Companion 20 said it was good enough to have a clear and good sound but i have to admit, i hesitate they are desktop speakers so..Maybe, i don't know !

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #15 –
Monitor audio have some good bookshelf speakers. I have the older Bronze BX2 and it's a great sounding speaker that only cost $500ish NZD.

They do have dealers in France so maybe hit them up for a listen.
https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/where-to-buy/
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #16 –
Quote from: TheModifiedDog on
I don't know really what kind of speakears should i get..My friend who has the Bose Companion 20 said it was good enough to have a clear and good sound but i have to admit, i hesitate they are desktop speakers so..Maybe, i don't know !
If you're in France, you could be patriotic and have a look at Triangle or Cabasse loudspeakers. Or look across the channel to KEF, Monitor Audio, Tannoy or whatever.
What's your budget and, if there's anything you particularly like about your current speakers, what make/model are they?

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #17 –
TheModifiedDog: Buy good earphones!

1. As far as everyone knows, Tidal does offer a lossless stream. But see 3.
2. You are not likely to hear the difference except if the masterings are different (and then it is not the lossiness, it is the different editions of the same song).
3. As Wombat points out, Universal throws in a watermark, a warbling effect, to all (?) their streaming files and paid downloads. That means that Tidal will play losslessly what they get from Universal, but Universal has intentionally tampered with the signal. Garbage in, garbage out - but nothing to do with the lossiness/losslessness of the format. It is kind of a case of item 2.


By the way, you will find lots of people who claim they hear differences. Most often the refuse to do blind tests. Guess why.
Some idiots claim that Tidal is not lossless because the bitrate indeed is less than 1411 kbit/s. Yeah, that is how FLAC works, and how .zip file works, and how file system compression works.

You can test here: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15168340/lossless-audio-music-compression-test-spotify-hi-fi-tidal

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #18 –
Quote
I don't know really what kind of speakears should i get..My friend who has the Bose Companion 20 said it was good enough to have a clear and good sound but i have to admit, i hesitate they are desktop speakers so..Maybe, i don't know !
I recommend you go to an audio/video store and just listen to some different speakers...   Big speakers, little speakers, expensive speakers, less-expensive speakers, etc.      You don't have to buy anything on your first visit... Just go and educate yourself...  See what you like and what you like that's within your budget.

If your music source is your computer, one option is powered studio monitors.   You can plug the monitors into your soundcard just like powered computer speakers with no other equipment required.    Igor recommended the  JBL LSR 305 which is a studio monitor.   The larger 308 also has a reputation for good sound at a good price (about $400 USD a pair here in the U.S.).   You probably won't find studio monitors at the audio/video store.   They are usually sold where they sell musical instruments and sound equipment.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #20 –
That are also in the Tidal catalog? Possibly; but once you remove synthetic samples or cherry-picked, one-off recordings, non-transparent encodings will be much harder to come by.

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #23 –
Ok thanks to all of you ;) Now, i will go to bed less dumb ^^

Re: Tidal and hifi

Reply #24 –
Quote from: ajinfla on
Quote from: IgorC on
Vorbis 320 kbps is transparent.
There are no killer samples that can trip it up?
Mean Score for Vorbis at 128 kbps  was 4.79 of 5 max kbps http://listening-tests.hydrogenaud.io/sebastian/mf-128-1/results.htm

Do you still want to know what expect from Vorbis @ 320 kbps?
Mean score would be like 4.999.... (put as much '9' as You wish you still will be within <1% of estimation). 

I really enjoy Spotify already for very long time  and couldn't notice any difference.  And don't care that is 'oh my goodness, it's lossy, oh my ...'.