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Alternative to Pandora One

I thought Tidal sounded much better than Spotify. But my findings were verified when my wife noticed. She asked if Spotify's sound had improved one morning playing music. I told we changed to Tidal.

I am hoping Tidal improves it's library soon.
 
I have found Tidal's sound quality far superior to the other services mentioned on all of the systems I listen on.

You have to make sure to go through the settings menu and select HiFi playback as it is set to a lower standard by default.

Tidal does seem to have some growing pains like instability in the mobile app and some limitations in the library but I am hoping things will improove as it becomes more popular.
 
I switched from Spotify to TIDAL a couple of months ago and haven't looked back.

IMHO, the higher fidelity is worth $20 per month. The service offers a deep (and growing) library and a decent interface. There have been a few isolated bandwidth issues when streaming in the HiFi mode (over WiFi) but, overall, the experience has been a good one.

An earlier point about mobile data usage is accurate, so I typically stream in "Normal" mode via the TIDAL app on my phone. From home (and other WiFi situations), I connect computer to integrated amp via optical cable. In my experience, the audio quality is just slightly a notch below CDs, but definitely superior to 320kbps services.
 
My take

Long time Mog user. Went to spotify recently. Sounds good. Have not mastered the use of the desktop app yet. Does not seem intuitive. Selection just OK. New releases a bit slow in comming. Jim:music:
 
mtlmn1971 said:
You could take the Tidal test and see if you hear the difference. http://test.tidalhifi.com/

I got 2 out of 5 correct.
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i dont hear any difference at all between A & B when clicking on them during the test. the fact that i got 2 out of 5 "correct" was just luck. to me all sources sounded the same.


edit: went back and listened again to A and then B , 2 times each. i just cant tell any difference.

DAC: AUNE T1 w/1961 Mullard ECC88 Tube , HEADPHONES: Sennheiser HD600
 
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mtlmn1971 said:
You could take the Tidal test and see if you hear the difference.
Click to expand...

When I compare 320 to a cd spinning in my cd player there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to wav or hi-rez files there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to low bit-rate mp3 there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to Tidal's HIFI there is not a clear difference....it is minimal most of the time. It has been stated that not all of Tidal's music is lossless, even if the HIFI logo is lit up. I would really have to believe this is true.
 
so i went through it again and answered A on all and it told me 1 and 3 were incorrect. i then went through it again and answered B on all and it told me 2, 4, and 5 were incorrect. so it does seem to believe that b,a,b,a,a are the tidal-lossless files. i did it this way to verify it wasnt changing which was which on the answers. still not hearing any difference.

when i compare 320 to vinyl there is a clear difference

when i compare a CD to vinyl there is a clear difference

when i compare tidal's hifi to 320 i dont hear any difference at all.
 
SWL3600 said:
When I compare 320 to a cd spinning in my cd player there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to wav or hi-rez files there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to low bit-rate mp3 there is a clear difference.

When I compare 320 to Tidal's HIFI there is not a clear difference....it is minimal most of the time. It has been stated that not all of Tidal's music is lossless, even if the HIFI logo is lit up. I would really have to believe this is true.
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I find this very interesting that you can discern a clear difference between 320 and wav/hi rez/cd but barely if that with Tidal HiFi. For me, the fidelity is the most important factor. If I were paying $20 monthly for mid-fi sound after ditching Pandora One's $3.99, I'd flip.

Not looking for the latest releases here, most of my music is more vintage than my components, being largely 50s-current jazz and 60s to 70s Rock. I seek something that will sound great on my home systems and sound reasonably good from a smart phone via a wired output.
 
Valveglow said:
Not looking for the latest releases here, most of my music is more vintage
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Same here. I find my most of my 'new' music....which is actually 'old' music with Spotify or Rdio. Both are very good at 320kbps and the way they are set up it is so easy to 'stumble' into different kinds of music.

I don't know what is up with the Tidal sound quality thing. I was really pulling for them.
 
Valveglow said:
Thank you. Yes, I have been thinking about Tidal. I do want to hear some other comments about Spotify, etc., and whether $20 lossless steaming is a better value than $9.99 for 320kbps. Pandora One, which sounds "OK", streams at 192kbps. Most of my listening is done at home with CDs, losslessly copied CDs or LPs. On the Harley, between the pipes and the wind, I cannot discern bit rate differences!
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And this is 'the' key parameter to consider bitrate hype wise with streaming services. To me the entire point of using an on-demand subscription streaming service is to have "your music" anywhere & anywhen you want it. Given the varied environments, noise floor, and sub systems I consume my "cloud collection", the nascent lossless/flac offerings just don't justify the premium.

Of the 320k sweet spot options, (Beats, Spotify, All Access, rdio) you'll probably see Spotify mentioned the most. IMO, that's simply because they've always had the "biggest ad in the yellow pages" so to speak. Spotify is the most "pop"ular/ubiquitous service due largely to them breaking into the market with a free ad supported service.

Among other factors such as library size, native apps, artist bio/album info, etc. none really stand out; they're all pretty much on equal footing.

So all that's left (but by no means least important) is ease of use with a clean uncluttered interface.

That said, here's the best on-demand streaming service you've never heard about the last 5 years and running.

 
Thanks to the Tapatalk Pro app and it's timeline view of this forum, I found this awesome thread! I have been a long time subscriber to Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, Rhapsody, and a few other streaming services and have been somewhat satisfied with them but as of late, I got rid of Spotify because of their not-so-good randomization of the artist radio. I listen all day at work and like to select an artist and listen to similar music with lots of variety; which is why I went back to Pandora One, but their quality of audio was somewhat lacking. Thanks to all you who mentioned Deezer and Tidal, I now have found a new satisfaction to my streaming needs. I looked at both closely and decided I needed to go with Deezer because of two reasons: 1. Out of the two, Deezer was the only one available on Sonos which is how I stream in my main system and 2. According to many articles I read, Deezer does have a larger library of music. Thanks again everyone for enlightening me to this awesome service!! Happy New Years!

Cheers,
Jared
 
I started with free Pandora, quickly upgraded to Pandora One for better quality and no commercials and then added Spotify premium and recently added Tidal. Tidal has the best SQ of all three (I still have all three) but I don't care much for its GUI and have had some "skipping" issues. My sons are going to come over and check and see if the problem is in my set up. Luckily they both live close to me and the older one is a computer scientist and the younger one is an audio engineer. In fact my younger one bought me a Schiit Modi DAC recently just for this purpose.
 
WOW! Tons of information, but I am still finding it difficult to make a choice. Please keep the personal experiences with these services coming. Thanks to all, and Happy New Year!
 
Second day with Tidal it is good so far,Gonna try Deezer next,spotify is still my choice so far.tidal will play a few songs then stop I have to restart the song.seems like the software is still a little rough.
 
Spotify crushes beloved around here Mog because they don't chop off the beginning of songs. It's a mighty important part of it.
 
Valveglow said:
WOW! Tons of information, but I am still finding it difficult to make a choice. Please keep the personal experiences with these services coming. Thanks to all, and Happy New Year!
Click to expand...
The choices can appear daunting; but it's not like you're leasing a car. ;)

All services offer some form of free trial. Take them all for a spin to see hands on which one appeals to you most. I recommend test driving one service at a time for the full trial period so you have ample time to absorb the features of each.
 
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