Spotify free vs Premium vs Gaana free vs paid streamed vs downloaded vs Tidal

[manav24]

If one chooses to 'listen' to their music and not just fret about the numbers and specifications of the equipment then this MQA issue is a non-starter in its current state. I do not have MQA 'certified' hardware and have no intention to get any, yes it can be a problem if there is a monopoly and it is made a mandatory standard. If it goes that way then the threat is real but the chatter about DRM has always been there ever since people learned to share content over the www but we survived.

TIDAL MQA is available on Nvidia Shield and for all other android devices, as well for windows, it is certainly much better quality wise than any other streaming service, been using it for 6 months.
As for content and ease of using nothing beats Spotify premium and quality is not that bad as well.

 

[Kumar101]

I have been using Tidal HiFi for a while now and have regularly played 24 bit 96KHz tracks, as far as I am aware my Marantz NA8005 does not have MQA capabilities but plays them just fine.
In the right track the difference is discernible, so to summarize I have not had any issues playing supposed DRM enforced music. More importantly at least till now I have not felt in anyway that I am being arm-twisted and made to pay over the top for a service that I did not ask for, the subscription fee we each pay for a Tidal Hifi family plan is in my opinion quite reasonable for the quality at offer.

What format are you choosing in the Tidal App. Are you explicitly selecting "Master Quality Audio Albums" ?

Also in settings have you selected "HiFi/Master" ?

One other thing does your Receiver display show bit and sampling rate of current song being played?

If these "Master Quality Audio Albums" play on your non-MQA Marantz receiver then it contradicts what they state in their Q/A!

link:

TIDAL Masters and Master Quality Audio

What is TIDAL Masters? TIDAL has partnered with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to create TIDAL Masters and deliver guaranteed master recordings directly from the master source to TIDAL members ...

support.tidal.com

 

[manav24]

What format are you choosing in the Tidal App. Are you explicitly selecting "Master Quality Audio Albums" ?

Also in settings have you selected "HiFi/Master" ?

One other thing does your Receiver display show bit and sampling rate of current song being played?

If these "Master Quality Audio Albums" play on your non-MQA Marantz receiver then it contradicts what they state in their Q/A!

link:

TIDAL Masters and Master Quality Audio

What is TIDAL Masters? TIDAL has partnered with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to create TIDAL Masters and deliver guaranteed master recordings directly from the master source to TIDAL members ...

support.tidal.com

I think you are confusing MQA enabled devices with receivers as the receiver are just playing what is streamed to it and its the device doing the original streaming like Nvidia Shield or any android device that is decoding the MQA and streaming to the receiver.

 

[Kumar101]

I think you are confusing MQA enabled devices with receivers as the receiver are just playing what is streamed on it and its the device doing the original streaming like Nvidia Shield or any android device that is decoding the MQA and streaming to receiver.

I dont think you read my earlier post where I wrote about this!

Their Folding/UnFolding Audio Origami: So, The App only performs the first unfold and sends it to the MQA enabled device to do the final unfold.

 

[manav24]

I dont think you read my earlier post where I wrote about this!

Their Folding/UnFolding Audio Origami: So, The App only performs the first unfold and sends it to the MQA enabled device to do the final unfold.

ah okay I got it, its just doing partial decoding and you will need a specialized device to fully enjoy the studio quality sound. thanks for en-lighting me .

 

[Kumar101]

MQA is a complex if anyone wants to more info on how it works this video is worth watching:

ah okay I got it, its just doing partial decoding and you will need a specialized device to fully enjoy the studio quality sound. thanks for en-lighting me .

Just need to clarify something - it will still play the file on a non-MQA device. However to get the full optimal MQA Experience so to speak you need to have MQA device which has the "MQA renderer".

My main objection to MQA is there are additional license fees involved which in turn puts up price the consumer has to pay for their music. We live in a world where we can stream in video in 4K, bandwidth is not a problem, So why not stream an existing Open format such as FLAC. Why create a new proprietary format.

 

[shibashis]

What format are you choosing in the Tidal App. Are you explicitly selecting "Master Quality Audio Albums" ?

Also in settings have you selected "HiFi/Master" ?

One other thing does your Receiver display show bit and sampling rate of current song being played?

If these "Master Quality Audio Albums" play on your non-MQA Marantz receiver then it contradicts what they state in their Q/A!

link:

TIDAL Masters and Master Quality Audio

What is TIDAL Masters? TIDAL has partnered with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to create TIDAL Masters and deliver guaranteed master recordings directly from the master source to TIDAL members ...

support.tidal.com

So possibly I am not able to take 'full advantage' of the MQA ecosystem or presumed superior audio quality, as I said earlier though, I am quite happy with what I am getting and are not looking to pay any extra for these 'specs' and numbers on my equipment.

Having said all that, I do see your point. There is potential for exploitation of this arrangement going forward. There always is when there is a monopoly, lets hope that does not happen.

TIDAL MQA is available on Nvidia Shield and for all other android devices, as well for windows, it is certainly much better quality wise than any other streaming service, been using it for 6 months.
As for content and ease of using nothing beats Spotify premium and quality is not that bad as well.

No, not bad quality at all. Spotify would have sufficed perfectly adequately if I had not experienced Tidal. Just like a Sony boombox would have been perfect if I never knew this world HiFi existed!

 

[Krishroy2004]

I am using Tidal HiFi on LG V30+ smartphone which has a built in DAC and can decode MQA. This is the cheapest way to get MQA with DAC.
Can feel the difference in Sound quality.
For Hindi songs using Gaana premium (Got 1 year sub for 99/- only)

 

[dazoy]

Where Spotify really scores well above other services is the curated or generated playlists.

I have discovered artists and music from suggestions by Spotify that would have never found out about. I have 4-5 auto generated playlists every morning based in the genres of music and etc, and suggestions based on listening habits and interests.

The streaming quality is Ogg Vorbis format at 320Kbps, and they are running trials with los-less audio, which hopefully is available soon to everyone.

I have tried all other streaming services and found Spotify with the biggest catalogue and a more intuitive interface than other services.

 

[manav24]

I am using Tidal HiFi on LG V30+ smartphone which has a built in DAC and can decode MQA. This is the cheapest way to get MQA with DAC.
Can feel the difference in Sound quality.
For Hindi songs using Gaana premium (Got 1 year sub for 99/- only)

how did you connect the phone with AVR? or do you have the option to stream it through wifi ?

 

[Krishroy2004]

Phone headphone out to AVR Audio in

 

[manav24]

Phone headphone out to AVR Audio in

you mean by using Aux cable?
isn't that defeat the entire purpose of having a dedicated DAC for playing TIDAL MQA?
I believe it cannot be same as compared to other dedicated Dac using optical cable.

 

[Krishroy2004]

Ok.
Can you tell me what is the cost of a dedicated DAC which and decode MQA?
LG V30+ will cost you 25K with a DAC and an MQA decoder (Also with a B&O headphone). Phone DAC is activated through the headphone out only. it is better than playing music through Bluetooth.
It's a budget option which can be considered.

 

[Ashenden]

A very interesting analysis I found on Youtube doing a wave form analysis and measuring the difference wave between the master file, Tidal, Spotify, Apple music and Youtube. It's 18 min long:
Streaming service comparison

 

[rksingh1]

ast 2500km drive

OT - what drive was it?

I have mostly been using 320 mp3 for my music consumption. Amazon Music is my streaming service. Nothing great with it though. I can configure Spotify within my Yamaha AVR. Haven't done that as I haven't felt a need for it as yet. Might try it out for fun.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I am using the free version of Spotify on my shield and it’s doing a good job. But Spotify advertises that premium is 3 times better in clarity. Is it true or just a gimmick? Can some one who tested both confirm?

Spotify Premium is 320 Kbps. Naturally it sounds better than free Spotify at lower bit rates, but also decidedly better (in my A/B comparisons) than Apple Music which is Apple format at 256 Kbps. It’s difficult to quantify as ‘x times better in clarity’ - what they might mean is 3 times better in resolution that free Spotify. You’d need to listen carefully through reasonably resolving headphone/home audio system to discern this. For casual mobile-based listening during travel or through Bluetooth speakers, the difference wouldn’t reveal, and you’d rather be better served by considerations of content, user experience etc than sound quality.

And at those subscription rates, it’s a steal! Try for a month and deciede for yourself.

Your post’s title refers to comparisons with other streaming services (which your actual post doesn’t). So here’s further. Not sure about Gaana’s resolution, but the sound quality doesn’t feel like 320 Kbps, though it’s not poor by any standards. However, Gaana has better collection and organisation of Indian music, especially film music. I don’t know about Tidal Standard, but Tidal Hifi subscription is FLAC and in a different segment in terms of SQ than all of the above. Once you get used to streaming FLAC, it’s difficult to go back to compressed.

There are other parameters beyond SQ in choosing a streaming service. User experience is one (it’s subjective, I like Apple Music’s the best), Customised Suggestions is another (general consensus is that Spotify tops here, but not yet in my experience). Then there’s integration with services like Shazam (Apple Music has) and Last.fm (Spotify scores here) for those who value it. Tidal is integrated well with Roon.

And then there are niche services like Idagio (less known but FLAC quality exclusively western classical), Calm radio (relaxing music in hundreds of channels across genres) and so on. Among the other standard ones, it’s difficult to get Qobuz, Deezer etc in India.

 

[ssf]

I am currently subscribed to :

1. Amazon Music
2. Youtube Premium
3. Spotify Premium
4. Apple Music
and as of today, Tidal Masters and Roon.

I have to keep Amazon as I also watch Amazon Movies
I will keep youtube premium as I watch a lot of youtube music video etc

Spotify and Apple might have to go. Tidal is very good. Was listening to quite a lot of music today, especially vocal centric music and it was a real good experience. Darn expensive though considering that 4K HDR Netflix is only 800 per month. But nonetheless, keeping it.

 

[Ashenden]

Darn expensive though considering that 4K HDR Netflix is only 800 per month.

Yes. If they launch here in the future pricing per month should be around Rs 150-200 (cost of an ACD) for it to attract a wider subscriber count

 

[newlash09]

My most staple diet for music is the gaana paid subscription. And I feel they are taking the rips of recent movie releases from the original master tapes. So even at a 320 kbps resolution, it sounds great when streamed by my CCA going to an external dac. I use tidal mostly for English tracks. And gaana is really close in audio quality for me. But then I run the CCA off a long chain of power treatment to eliminate its weak power supplies, which used to lead to back ground noise and lack of dynamics in the past

 

[Ashenden]

My most staple diet for music is the gaana paid subscription. And I feel they are taking the rips of recent movie releases from the original master tapes. So even at a 320 kbps resolution, it sounds great when streamed by my CCA going to an external dac. I use tidal mostly for English tracks. And gaana is really close in audio quality for me. But then I run the CCA off a long chain of power treatment to eliminate its weak power supplies, which used to lead to back ground noise and lack of dynamics in the past

I’ve never been able to distinguish between Gaana plus and same on CD. In some cases it sounds better on Gaana. They must’ve got good copies from the master.