Anybody loving tidal

[Dynamicmad]

Man I cant get enough of it. I mainly stream music weather at work or home. I have used the sonnos player in the past but stream out of my computer for now. I havnt used all the services but I cant get enough of Tidal love the service and features and have no trouble with the $20 price tag. WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK

 

[henesy]

+one

like
thumbs up

 

[henesy]

it helps if you have a decent dac with your audio set up. I thought that MOG/Beats sounded good, Tidal showed me what I had not been hearing with streaming music. I guess we will see if this can only get better, like how digital photography is finally rivalling and surpassing 35mm pics.

Can a streaming service beat vinyl analog music reproduction someday?

 

[markfx]

I am only in the trial phase, but at first blush I find the sound quality outstanding.

However I feel the website is difficult to navigate, but this might be a function of not being a full subscriber?

And I don't use the computer to stream. Bluesound Node here...

 

[rcspkramp]

Absolutely!

 

[jmatt]

I love the music, but the server just crashed and I can't even load it. I'm on a seven day free trial, but if I was paying $20, I'd be pissed.

Often it stops in the middle of a song for 4 seconds as it loads up. Often it sits and spins and fails to load a song at all.

Hopefully it's growing pains. I'll probably pay $20 for another month, but if the service reliability doesn't improve, I quit.

 

[marantzfan]

I love the music, but the server just crashed and I can't even load it. I'm on a seven day free trial, but if I was paying $20, I'd be pissed.

Often it stops in the middle of a song for 4 seconds as it loads up. Often it sits and spins and fails to load a song at all.

Hopefully it's growing pains. I'll probably pay $20 for another month, but if the service reliability doesn't improve, I quit.

Could be your internet; those are large files to stream. Personally, I have had very, very few issues in the last few months.

 

[jmatt]

Could be your internet; those are large files to stream. Personally, I have had very, very few issues in the last few months.

I agree it could be my service provider. Except for the "DNS not found error" that suddenly prevented everything from loading....

 

[Arkay]

When I went to try it, I got a message that it is not yet available outside the US, Canada and the UK. I may try a proxy work-around, but for now, can't hear it. I guess a city like Hong Kong, with a huge number of tech-aware audiophiles and around a hundred thousand people with more than a million bucks in liquid cash to spend, isn't a good enough market for them. :sigh:

[And yes, I understand that it isn't THEIR market that interests them, but what they can get advertisers to pay for, or what other companies (and possibly governments) will pay them for their consumer-base information.]

 

[evan]

I am only in the trial phase, but at first blush I find the sound quality outstanding.

However I feel the website is difficult to navigate, but this might be a function of not being a full subscriber?

And I don't use the computer to stream. Bluesound Node here...

You can navigate Tidal through the Bluesound Desktop.No need to go to the Tidal website

 

[jmathers]

I love the music, but the server just crashed and I can't even load it. I'm on a seven day free trial, but if I was paying $20, I'd be pissed.

Often it stops in the middle of a song for 4 seconds as it loads up. Often it sits and spins and fails to load a song at all.

Hopefully it's growing pains. I'll probably pay $20 for another month, but if the service reliability doesn't improve, I quit.

Had similar problems yesterday. I am a subscriber and, yes, I'm pissed. Email sent to Tidal support. We'll see if they make it up to me. Otherwise, things have been near flawless with streaming Tidal on my end - and I'm streaming wirelessly for the most part.

 

[jmathers]

Received response from Tidal support this morning:

"Thank you for contacting TIDAL customer support.

We are aware of these playback issues, and our operations team is working very hard to get this problem resolved in the coming weeks. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and we appreciate your patience while we improve the playback experience. I have provided you with a complimentary month of service that has been added to your paid subscription. We hope that by the next time you encounter a charge from TIDAL, these issues will be resolved.

Best Regards,
TIDAL Support"

Nice to get a free month of service. Hopefully as they say streaming issues will be fixed ASAP. I must say that their support team has always been very responsive when I've had issues. And, I suppose, ought to be for $20 a month.

 

[gcgst]

I am a subscriber and not pleased with the reliability. I have 50 mbps down internet and everytime the Tidal app complains about bandwidth problems I run a speed test and have 55 mbps down. I noticed if I play a new album listed on the home page, it usually plays fine. But it took 5-6 tries to play an old Billy Joel album without it hanging. I assume the newer albums are cached or otherwise served differently than the old archives. If they continue to hang, I will cancel.

 

[Drugolf]

Just signed up for the trial. It should only get better. Patience. I have Spotify now and will only pay for one service so I will have a choice to make.

 

[markfx]

You can navigate Tidal through the Bluesound Desktop.No need to go to the Tidal website

Thank you. This is great to be using the computer to control the Node!

 

[chicks]

You can navigate Tidal through the Bluesound Desktop.No need to go to the Tidal website

From what I've read, the Bluesound app's UI is on par with Sonos'. Sounds like they took the time to do it right.

 

[Bigerik]

Tidal is wonderful. Not the sound quality of high res, but very very nice. i've also noticed some weird lag and slow response, but it is pretty rare. Overall, I think it is a great service.

 

[withmusic]

Nice to get a free month of service. Hopefully as they say streaming issues will be fixed ASAP. I must say that their support team has always been very responsive when I've had issues. And, I suppose, ought to be for $20 a month.

Tidal support is quite good. I wish I could try Tidal, but I don't have the necessary gear to truly experience it or note any difference between it and Spotify. I think what I need is a good outboard DAC. How did I find this out? By talking to Tidal support without even a trial period. They were very kind in answering my questions and even evaluated my gear for the service. They confirmed that I would not benefit from the service at this time, however, they also turned around and said that when I am ready they have put me on an open invite for a 30 day trial!
So yes, Tidal support is very good, not just because of the 30 day offer, but because of the willingness to answer questions honestly which is way more important to me than a 30 day trial.

I only recently found out about Tidal on the Squeezebox, which has a decent dac, so I'm thinking about it. I just don't think I can run to the $20 per month at this time. Perhaps in a few more months?
I currently subscribe to Spotify which is good enough since I don't really listen to streaming audio, I use it for research mostly and occasionally for background.

 

[ashok]

I have been taking advantage of a 3-month free trial from Tidal, having purchased a Bluesound Node recently. The sound quality appears to be very good, and I have not had any issues with dropouts, etc. The node is hardwired to the router to avoid wi-fi issues.

I also have a separate Logitech Media Server setup, and with the ickStream plugin, can play Tidal on my Squeezebox Radio. This sounds very good as well.

In terms of user-interface, I prefer the ickStream/iPeng UI for Tidal, compared to the Bluesound UI. The "Moods" feature is not available in the Bluesound UI. I think the ickStream/iPeng UI is a little more logical than Bluesound's.

I also have a Spotify family account, and Spotify Connect is extremely handy to cast a playlist to the Bluesound node. My family members like the fact that they can play their music on the main audio system with a simple tap on their phone.

In my cursory comparison of Spotify and Tidal, I cannot really say that there is a difference in sound quality.

 

[uofmtiger]

Tidal is wonderful. Not the sound quality of high res, but very very nice. i've also noticed some weird lag and slow response, but it is pretty rare. Overall, I think it is a great service.

You may not have to wait long for Tidal to get high resolution. I heard the editor of AVS forum on a talk show saying that Tidal was at CES saying that they were adding hi res.