Tidal HIFI streaming

I saw a month or so ago where someone posted a link about a new streaming service called Tidal. the service went active in the USA this week and offers a free 30 day trial. After that is 19.99/mo which is steep in my opinion. I use the paid version of pandora. It's 4.99/mo. If this service were in that price range, I would subscribe without hesitation. I am using this service now and it sounds great. For a simple description, it works much like pandora streaming but, you can search for specific artist or songs. It also streams a much higher bitrate. Where a normal MP3 is 320k bitrate, these songs on Tidal stream at 1411k. I can really tell a difference on my system.

I am posting this in the mcintosh forum because I have talked with many of you guys about mcintosh products and you know I'm not affiliated with the service. I wouldn't feed you a spoonful of sh** if I didn't think it was good. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up about this and tell you about the free trial. Atleast sign up for it and have fun with it for free, then cancel if you want. You guys know how the deal works. If you sign up, you enter your credit card up front. Make sure you cancel in time before you get charged if you intend to do so.

Andy

There's already another thread in general audio discussion about this service if anyone wants to follow that one as well. I must have overlooked it somehow.

I signed up yesterday for Tidal. The quality is amazing and easily bests all the rest. I plan on keeping it. I hope they really succeed.

Sounds pretty darn good. Approaching native high res, not quite there yet, but getting very close!! I'm closing my spotify account.

Tidal

I have been waiting patiently since the demise of MOG to have a higher quality streaming service. I signed up the first day for Tidal. It was an easy install. Here is my first week impression. 1 The interface is not as good as MOG's. When my Ronnie Earl record ends it goes to what ever is on the main page as a featured artist.(So far Cream) 2 The sound quality is great "for streaming". I compared a song played on CD through my system, a ripped CD played through Amarra, and streamed through Tidal. Predictably, in order: ripped CD, spinning disk CD, Tidal. But not by that much. The difference was noticeable, but not right away. I had to listen a few times , until I decided the spinning CD was slightly better. The thing was they were different. It took time to decide upon which was better. Ripped CD's played back through Amarra sound very analog like. The streamed music had this sound also, but not the frequency extremes of a spinning CD. The ripped CD was always best of the 3. Last, the library has lots of jazz and classical, but not as much blues. Rock seems pretty good.