aashish351
Well-Known Member
Hi Folks!
It has been a long time since I posted in the forum. I was really tied up with academic work load for the past 12 months. Anyway, came across this new lossless streaming service called Tidal Hifi here in UK. I have just started the 7-day trial and listening to it right now. I will reserve my comments on sound quality till I reach home and listen to it through my DAC and Grado SR80i. But it sounds good even through the 30 RHA 350 in-ears (for those not familiar, it is a Scotland based headphone maker and the entry level model 350, I think, is far better than the current popular choice - Soundmagic E10). But I digress.
What I can comment on right now is the streaming service quality - no buffering problems at all till now (a few extra seconds at start and track changes) on my University's connection (which is of course very good at 30 mbps through wifi). So I will also try this on mobile 3G/4G while on the move and report back. But I don't think that matters, because, the real advantage is for those of us who care more about proper home listening with the benefits of streaming (discovery, convenience) without compromising on sound quality. And the home broadband connections of 4 or 8 mbps should also work. Tidal says it needs at least 2 mbps. They have already tied up with Sonos and Bluesound and it works on all device platforms - iOS, Android, Mac, PC etc.
There are three settings for quality - AAC 96, AAC 320 and FLAC 1411 (Yes really!). Needless to say the last one is all I am interested in. There is no free ad-supported service, which again I am happy with. The price is a bit high at 20 per month, but still worth it, if the sound quality truly matches CD listening on proper systems.
I don't know if all of you will be able to try this as it says the service is available only in UK and US right now, but, its worth a shot still. Do let me know if you try and it works. There are alternatives like QOBUZ and Deezer Elite, but those again I think are not in India yet (am i right?). I tried QOBUZ but was not happy with the interface. Tidal on the other hand is almost like Spotify.
That's it for now. Stay tuned for updates.
Best,
Aashish
It has been a long time since I posted in the forum. I was really tied up with academic work load for the past 12 months. Anyway, came across this new lossless streaming service called Tidal Hifi here in UK. I have just started the 7-day trial and listening to it right now. I will reserve my comments on sound quality till I reach home and listen to it through my DAC and Grado SR80i. But it sounds good even through the 30 RHA 350 in-ears (for those not familiar, it is a Scotland based headphone maker and the entry level model 350, I think, is far better than the current popular choice - Soundmagic E10). But I digress.
What I can comment on right now is the streaming service quality - no buffering problems at all till now (a few extra seconds at start and track changes) on my University's connection (which is of course very good at 30 mbps through wifi). So I will also try this on mobile 3G/4G while on the move and report back. But I don't think that matters, because, the real advantage is for those of us who care more about proper home listening with the benefits of streaming (discovery, convenience) without compromising on sound quality. And the home broadband connections of 4 or 8 mbps should also work. Tidal says it needs at least 2 mbps. They have already tied up with Sonos and Bluesound and it works on all device platforms - iOS, Android, Mac, PC etc.
There are three settings for quality - AAC 96, AAC 320 and FLAC 1411 (Yes really!). Needless to say the last one is all I am interested in. There is no free ad-supported service, which again I am happy with. The price is a bit high at 20 per month, but still worth it, if the sound quality truly matches CD listening on proper systems.
I don't know if all of you will be able to try this as it says the service is available only in UK and US right now, but, its worth a shot still. Do let me know if you try and it works. There are alternatives like QOBUZ and Deezer Elite, but those again I think are not in India yet (am i right?). I tried QOBUZ but was not happy with the interface. Tidal on the other hand is almost like Spotify.
That's it for now. Stay tuned for updates.
Best,
Aashish
