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TIDAL in the US TODAY!!!


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Can't contain my excitement. And can't listen to it either until I get home...

NUC10i7 + Roon ROCK > dCS Rossini APEX DAC + dCS Rossini Master Clock 

SME 20/3 + SME V + Dynavector XV-1s or ANUK IO Gold > vdH The Grail or Kondo KSL-SFz + ANK L3 Phono 

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku > Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Signal cables: Kondo Silver, Crystal Cable phono

Power cables: Kondo, Shunyata, van den Hul

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What are you referring to?

 

CD "quality" streaming service.

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

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CD "quality" streaming service.

Correct. WiMP's service in the US and UK (I believe it was released there as well). Obviously WiMP is not a good name in an english-speaking country! There must be a dictionary somewhere to check that your brand doesn't mean tampon or similar in some other language.

 

It might not be DSD or DXD quality, but for music discovery you CANNOT beat a catalog of 25 million songs in CD quality streaming. Plus in many (most!) cases of good music there's nothing better than CD quality anyway.

 

Jud: Regarding your "quotes", do you have experience of this being not as good as advertized?

 

Thx.

NUC10i7 + Roon ROCK > dCS Rossini APEX DAC + dCS Rossini Master Clock 

SME 20/3 + SME V + Dynavector XV-1s or ANUK IO Gold > vdH The Grail or Kondo KSL-SFz + ANK L3 Phono 

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku > Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Signal cables: Kondo Silver, Crystal Cable phono

Power cables: Kondo, Shunyata, van den Hul

system pics

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Got my invite this morning and signed up for a free 30-day trial.

 

Early experience is good - I've been using Qobuz for some time, and it's a relief not to have to exercise my feeble French to translate the interface to English all the time ;) Sounds great, and no issues (so far) with streaming any content.

 

One niggle: it appears you are not able to save tracks locally with the desktop client, only with the mobile (e.g., iOS) clients. I understand the paradigm (i.e., when you're sitting at your desk, you don't need to save the tracks), but Qobuz gives you that option and I like being able to do it.

 

Early days - but I like what I'm seeing so far.

John Walker - IT Executive

Headphone - SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable Ethernet > mRendu Roon endpoint > Topping D90 > Topping A90d > Dan Clark Expanse / HiFiMan H6SE v2 / HiFiman Arya Stealth

Home Theater / Music -SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable HDMI > Denon X3700h > Anthem Amp for front channels > Revel F208-based 5.2.4 Atmos speaker system

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Correct. WiMP's service in the US and UK (I believe it was released there as well). Obviously WiMP is not a good name in an english-speaking country! There must be a dictionary somewhere to check that your brand doesn't mean tampon or similar in some other language.

 

It might not be DSD or DXD quality, but for music discovery you CANNOT beat a catalog of 25 million songs in CD quality streaming. Plus in many (most!) cases of good music there's nothing better than CD quality anyway.

 

Jud: Regarding your "quotes", do you have experience of this being not as good as advertized?

 

Thx.

 

Nope, and my apologies for any impression I may have given to that effect. The quotes just refer to the fact that for some people, "CD quality" is an oxymoron. I personally have no deep religious convictions either way - I've heard sound quality I really enjoyed from CD and from hi res as well.

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

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I've been enjoying since I got my email this morning. So far, so good.

 

I'm listening in the office now, but I'm curious to hear how it sounds on the "big" system.

 

--David

Listening Room: Mac mini (Roon Core) > iMac (HQP) > exaSound PlayPoint (as NAA) > exaSound e32 > W4S STP-SE > Benchmark AHB2 > Wilson Sophia Series 2 (Details)

Office: Mac Pro >  AudioQuest DragonFly Red > JBL LSR305

Mobile: iPhone 6S > AudioQuest DragonFly Black > JH Audio JH5

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I got it up and running this morning once I updated Flash. The white background in the desktop app is a nice change from Spotify. The functionality of the OSX desktop app feels like "Spotify Lite". I do like how they incorporate the play queue as a frame in the lower third. It sounds fine so far, but I haven't done any A/B comparison yet with Spotify or my local files.

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Nope, and my apologies for any impression I may have given to that effect. The quotes just refer to the fact that for some people, "CD quality" is an oxymoron. I personally have no deep religious convictions either way - I've heard sound quality I really enjoyed from CD and from hi res as well.

Absolutely... There are plenty of CDs that sound amazing and probably more hi-res that sound terrible.

NUC10i7 + Roon ROCK > dCS Rossini APEX DAC + dCS Rossini Master Clock 

SME 20/3 + SME V + Dynavector XV-1s or ANUK IO Gold > vdH The Grail or Kondo KSL-SFz + ANK L3 Phono 

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku > Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Signal cables: Kondo Silver, Crystal Cable phono

Power cables: Kondo, Shunyata, van den Hul

system pics

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I'm pretty sure this service will cause me to stop working, disconnect from society and devote the rest of my life to listening to music.

It could be worse.

Thanks for the great heads-up.

Joel

I thought wine, music, and the internerds would do that to me... Not yet.

NUC10i7 + Roon ROCK > dCS Rossini APEX DAC + dCS Rossini Master Clock 

SME 20/3 + SME V + Dynavector XV-1s or ANUK IO Gold > vdH The Grail or Kondo KSL-SFz + ANK L3 Phono 

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku > Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Signal cables: Kondo Silver, Crystal Cable phono

Power cables: Kondo, Shunyata, van den Hul

system pics

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I registered this morning and see that I can do offline on three devices: the question is: how many Macs can I download the application to under the same account?

 

As far as I can tell, you can't use "offline" mode on Macs, only on portable devices (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Android phone, etc.). So I would think you could download the desktop client on as many machines as you want; i.e., you can stream to as many devices as you like. You are only limited on how many *portable* devices you use in offline mode.

 

From the FAQ:

 

 

  • You can use up to three different offline devices with one TIDAL account. All three can play music simultaneously. In addition, you can play music in TIDAL on your PC or Mac simultaneously with your offline devices.

John Walker - IT Executive

Headphone - SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable Ethernet > mRendu Roon endpoint > Topping D90 > Topping A90d > Dan Clark Expanse / HiFiMan H6SE v2 / HiFiman Arya Stealth

Home Theater / Music -SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable HDMI > Denon X3700h > Anthem Amp for front channels > Revel F208-based 5.2.4 Atmos speaker system

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Thanks Mr. Walker! I was certain I couldn't go offline on the Mac, but I want to be able to run the desktop client on both my laptop at work and my Mac mini music server at home.

 

Let us know if you find out you can't ;)

John Walker - IT Executive

Headphone - SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable Ethernet > mRendu Roon endpoint > Topping D90 > Topping A90d > Dan Clark Expanse / HiFiMan H6SE v2 / HiFiman Arya Stealth

Home Theater / Music -SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable HDMI > Denon X3700h > Anthem Amp for front channels > Revel F208-based 5.2.4 Atmos speaker system

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It's a bit of a cacophony, but I'm able to play from the desktop client on my iMac, the desktop client on my Mac Mini and the web client on my iMac simultaneously.

Play some Philip Glass. You won't be able to tell it's out of sync.

NUC10i7 + Roon ROCK > dCS Rossini APEX DAC + dCS Rossini Master Clock 

SME 20/3 + SME V + Dynavector XV-1s or ANUK IO Gold > vdH The Grail or Kondo KSL-SFz + ANK L3 Phono 

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku > Avantgarde Duo Mezzo

Signal cables: Kondo Silver, Crystal Cable phono

Power cables: Kondo, Shunyata, van den Hul

system pics

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My beatsmusic streaming account is toast.

Speaker Room: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Pacific 2 | Viva Linea | Constellation Inspiration Stereo 1.0 | FinkTeam Kim | Revel subs  

Office Headphone System: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Golden Gate 3 | Viva Egoista | Abyss AB1266 Phi TC 

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I was excited when I got my email today with VIP invite!

Signup was super-easy, and getting to the web player was easy since I already use Chrome. I may install the desktop and mobile apps at some point, but for now I'm just using the web player.

 

The reason I want to try this is to find out if it can replace Spotify in my life. The sound quality of Spotify is not great, but I mainly use it for finding new music and deciding if I want to buy it. I also use it if I'm stuck in a waiting room. If this is like Spotify but with good sound quality, I'll be happy.

 

Here are my first impressions:

 

Browsed around for a few obscure artists to see what the music selection looks like. Tons of Bill Frisell, so that's a good sign. Let's take a quick glance and see what else we can find:

Trio Pim Jacobs: Wow, can't believe they have that! I had to order that CD from Japan.

Nektar: Obscure prog-rock, can't believe they have it.

Talk Talk: Surprised they have it.

Stereolab: Not everything available, but quite a bit.

Guthrie Govan: Hmm...only one album.

Crowded House: Yep

Pekka Pohjola: A few albums, missing my favorite one (Harakka Bialoipokku)

Philip Glass: Some, not a lot. One thing I noticed is that they have the "real" original Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack, and not the re-recorded one or the horrible "complete soundtrack" version. Nice!

 

How about something more common:

Beatles: Not very much. None of their studio albums.

Steely Dan: Missing a few of their studio albums, but a decent selection...

Miles Davis: Tons

Led Zeppelin: Yep

Pink Floyd: Lots (I think it's all the studio albums)

King Crimson: nothing

Yes: Lots

Rush: Yep

Metallica: Nope

Iron Maiden: Nope

Daft Punk: Yep

Phish: Lots, including live stuff

 

It seems like the selection varies quite a bit. I will spend some more time exploring when I get home tonight and can really focus on it.

 

Let's take a listen. I'm at work, and my work PC is nothing special. I'm just using onboard sound and some old Sony MDR-V600 headphones. I typically use JRiver Media Center at work, and listen to FLAC files. It sounds good. Not as good as listening to my HiFi at home, but it gets me through the days.

 

How does Tidal sound? The first song I listened to, by the Trio Pim Jacobs sounds "grainy" to me. My FLAC files in JRiver are as smooth as silk, no grain at all. I wonder where Tidal got their files. My CD is a Japanese remaster.

 

Let's try comparing something else. Dave Matthews Band, Ants Marching. Sounds spot-on. Can't tell a difference between my FLAC files in JRMC and what Tidal is playing.

 

How about Nickel Creek's Elephant in the Corn? I think I might hear a very slight difference in the EQ. A little rolled off the high end. I'll have to check that out on the HiFi at home.

 

There's much more comparing to do, but that will have to wait until I get home tonight.

More to come.

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Is it lossless 16/44 only or do they also have high resolution?

1. WiiM Pro - Mola Mola Makua - Apollon NCx500+SS2590 - March Audio Sointuva AWG

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