Tidal Streaming

All -

With this new music streaming service, you have access to 25 million tunes at 16/44 resolution, and can be streamed over your desktop connected to your dac via usb, or from your iPhone, android or iPad to an Airport Express. A whole world of quality above Spotify, Pandora, etc.

It costs $20 per month, not much more than a download, cd or a pizza.

No need to download tunes, store anything, worry about storage and backups etc.

I've been using Tidal daily since it launched, and Qobuz before that.

It sounds wonderful, indistinguishable from CDs through my Grace m920 dac, M-125s and Dynaudio Geminis.

Why not jump on a 7 day free trial and see for yourself?

Here's a link:

http://tidalhifi.com/us

All we had ......years ago LPs..78s...reeltareel..DAT..FM radio....So free Spotify for Free...hehe
Sound killer on my laptop....Yes thay shill.....but FM is every tune....
Have fun with tube sound....2014 ...gofig

Oh right, here in TampaBay.....it in the 60s...
hope all is well....up in the N... an the tube space reaters are rocking....






Thanks for the Site Bob..............

audiobill wrote:All -

With this new music streaming service, you have access to 25 million tunes at 16/44 resolution, and can be streamed over your desktop connected to your dac via usb, or from your iPhone, android or iPad to an Airport Express.  A whole world of quality above Spotify, Pandora, etc.

It costs $20 per month, not much more than a download, cd or a pizza.

No need to download tunes, store anything, worry about storage and backups etc.

I've been using Tidal daily since it launched, and Qobuz before that.

It sounds wonderful, indistinguishable from CDs through my Grace m920 dac, M-125s and Dynaudio Geminis.

Why not jump on a 7 day free trial and see for yourself?

Here's a link:

http://tidalhifi.com/us

I've been using Spotify's premium player which is in beta for Linux/Ubuntu distros with pretty good results but the occasional hang which is to be expected. Any Linux junkies out there have a hack for Tidal?
Nemmind, I found a hack on their website. Will try it to-day.

Listening to their streaming just now, I'd have to say they've a leg-up on Spotify. Can't suss the player install, but so far so good.

Remember, at 1,411 kbps vs 320, it's 4 times the resolution of Spotify Premium and uses a better algorithm.

Enjoy!

Bill, listening to Spirit (Fresh Garbage) right now on Tidal. Sounds pretty good. I always guinea-pig this stuff on my ss Bedinis and Dyna A-35s before hooking up to the toobs.
So there's no player, it's just streaming? I had back down the treble pots on the EQ a bit, but it's much more alive than Spotify.

I envy you folk with real internet capabilities ... I'm afraid any streaming would eat up my 5gb a month real quick. That also puts a cramp in hires downloads. I keep a wishlist of music and check what I got left on the meter at the end of the month.

PS ... I had to give my "smart" tv a lobotomy too. I can only let it out of it's cage every few months to check for new firmware, otherwise it'd take over and leave me on dialup ...

(shudder)

No player, just streaming. Although you can download for "offline" listening IIRC.

OMG my internet speeds are typically 125 mbps to my desktop, and 40 or so to my ipad!

3.84 mbps upload
1.57 mbps download



That's on ATT using a 3G wireless modem/router that hits the local cell tower. I could upgrade to 4G service - but that'd just mean I use up my limit faster ...

Skizo, is a cable connection to your home available?

That will probably be coming here right after water, gas, and sewage ...

Probably never ...

I got Dish satellite for tv, and they do offer internet. No idea what their speed or limits are. I should also upgrade to HDTV, but every time I check, they want me to commit to another two years service, paperless billing, equipment rental, installation charges, happy ending, all that good crap. Been with them for over 10 years now, and as far as I'm concerned, that's enough commitment on my part.

Harumph!

sKiZo wrote:That will probably be coming here right after water, gas, and sewage ...

Probably never ...

I got Dish satellite for tv, and they do offer internet. No idea what their speed or limits are. I should also upgrade to HDTV, but every time I check, they want me to commit to another two years service, paperless billing, equipment rental, installation charges, happy ending, all that good crap. Been with them for over 10 years now, and as far as I'm concerned, that's enough commitment on my part.

Harumph!

Skiz, don't feel bad. Last time I upgraded with Verizon they wanted to be sure my grandkids would commit.
Don't go satellite service for internet. It's slow, very expensive, and the latency issues with VOIP will drive you nuts. I have a friend in that business and he talked me right out of it: it's only for somebody seriously out in the sticks, and using webmail will kill your bank account. OK for POP3 and one daily visit to Drudge, otherwise you're over your limit.

Audiobill, am enjoying Tidal. Wish, for the extra 10 bucks over Spotify Premium, that they had a bit more of an extended playlist. Can't find "Unhalfbricking" by Fairport Convention, which is on Spotify, also cuts missing from some albums. But definitely an improvement over Spot in terms of audio quality. I do get a pause in the music once in awhile, which I attribute to local speed slow-downs, like when all the kids in the 'hood wake up and start gaming. Otherwise, no worries. See how it behaves over the next week.

There have been some recent dropouts as they add server capacity to handle US market.

Hang tight!

Are the paying the artists? That was one reason I went to Spotify, because at least they kick down a bit to the musicians.

I believe so, Tidal is a divesion of Norway's Wimp, a public company.

Totally legit.

deepee99 wrote:I do get a pause in the music once in awhile, which I attribute to local speed slow-downs, like when all the kids in the 'hood wake up and start gaming. Otherwise, no worries. See how it behaves over the next week.

That's what I'd heard could also be an issue with cable ... after dinner, when everybody's downloading their daily fix of flix can bottle things up bad depending on how many subscribers are on the same line.

I also hear that Dish pic quality is much better than cable here - Comcast tends to play real loose when it comes to "HD" standards. My satellite box is strictly SD, so only way I can test that is comparing my OTA reception to the neighbor's cable on local stations, and I can say the antenna runs rings around the cable for pic quality.

Audiobill,
Having learnt their webpage conventions and listened for a bit, I would have to say Tidal's got a lot going for it, although their repertoire's a bit shorter than Spotify's. Hopefully they'll be adding musicians and cuts as they grow. Think I'll drop Spotify and not renew Sirius/XM. That will more than cover the $20/mo vig for Tidal and will also save me the cost of a DAC -- I'm just running a mini-to RCA cable out of the back of the 'puter. All is good. Thanks for the tip.

Great news!

Please do consider an external dac to really juice things up.

For value, check out the Emotiva XDA-2 .

audiobill wrote:Great news!

Please do consider an external dac to really juice things up.

For value, check out the Emotiva XDA-2 .

I'll investigate. It's a few months out yet. I'm just listening to Tidal through my sand amps in the man-cave for now, but the plan is to dedicate a Dell for streaming to the toobs in the living-room, in which case I'm guessing a DAC will improve things.
Will need to get under the house and string some wires of course; never fun in winter.
Skizo is quite enamoured with his Maverick DAC, which has some tubes in it at about the same price-point as the Emotiva.

If you have an iphone or ipad you can stream wirelessly and bit perfect from it to an Apple Airport Express that's connected to your dac via via toslink cable.

This is what I do every day- 25 million tunes controlled from my chair!

Trust me, the Emo dac will outperform the Maverick.......

audiobill wrote:If you have an iphone or ipad you can stream wirelessly and bit perfect from it to an Apple Airport Express that's connected to your dac via via toslink cable.

This is what I do every day- 25 million tunes controlled from my chair!

Trust me, the Emo dac will outperform the Maverick.......

Do you have to pay the Apple nazis for every download, or can this lashup bypass iTunes? Or do you just go to the browser?

Apple's not involved, no fees!

Think of the Airport Express as a wireless "receiver", and it also includes a dac so you can wait on purchasing that.

In this case, your iPhone or iPad is the wireless "transmitter", transmitting the Tidal "station".

The Airport Express can also set up a wireless network if you aren't currently running one at your home.

$99, or $75 as an Apple refurb with full warranty.

Best deal in Audio!

audiobill wrote: Apple's not involved, no fees!

Think of the Airport Express as a wireless "receiver", and it also includes a dac so you can wait on purchasing that.

In this case, your iPhone or iPad is the wireless "transmitter", transmitting the Tidal "station".

The Airport Express can also set up a wireless network if you aren't currently running one at your home.

$99, or $75 as an Apple refurb with full warranty.

Best deal in Audio!

Audiobill,
I have avoided iPads and Macs like the plague, being a Linux and typewriter guy, but my wife loves hers. Mebbe it's time to knuckle down and get one with the Airport Express.
We have medium-speed Verizon DSL bolted to a wireless router. So not meaning to be dense here, but how does the Airport express connect to a conventional preamp? Are there RCA outs, or is some special cabling required? Or am I back to needing a DAC again?

You can get a digital signal into the Airport Express from an Ethernet cable from your computer or router, or wirelessly from your computer or iphone/ipad.

As far as outputs, it can output an analog signal from its stereo minijack, or digitally from the same (dual-purpose) jack via toslink.

In the latter case, you bypass the AE internal dac, but many are happy with the internal dac and just drive a preamp directly.

It's a great way to wade into wireless digital audio without a big financial commitment.

I'm typing this on my ipad while listening to Tidal at 16/44........

The Emotiva XDA-2 has been replaced with XDA-2 Gen 2. Emo Gen2

I have an Emo XDA-2 Gen 1 available. I replaced it with a Grace Design M920 Monitor/Controller, which costs about $2K. The Grace unit is better, but not nearly as much as the price difference would imply!

In addition, I have an XDA-1 also available. The XDA-2 is a little better. Make a reasonable offer via PM, and either one can be yours!!

Thanks,

Gregg R.