Official TIDAL HIFI Streaming Issues Thread

[hifi25nl]

Problem solved! In chromium and chrome I had Hola Better Internet enabled (United States). Disabling it now HIFI is working.

 

So, for people outside official countries, register with Hola Better Internet enabled. If registration is successfull switch off after for enjoying lossless sound.

 

This method should work also for qobuz streaming. For qobuz CD quality downloading enable Hola, pay and download.

[Toolio]

Problem solved! In chromium and chrome I had Hola Better Internet enabled (United States). Disabling it now HIFI is working.

 

So, for people outside official countries, register with Hola Better Internet enabled. If registration is successfull switch off after for enjoying lossless sound.

 

This method should work also for qobuz streaming. For qobuz CD quality downloading enable Hola, pay and download.

 

HiFi in Tidal ir Qobuz works without Hola, other VPNs or DNS unblockers (notwithstanding the Tidal dropout problem.) I am in Brazil and have used both with my regular internet connection. I am listening to Qobu z as I write this.

[rgord01]

Not had these problems, but I get pause between tracks so no Gapless playback

 

FYI for TIDAL: I also would like gapless playback. Tired of pauses between tracks on dance/electronica.

 

I also had problems with skipping and dropouts on Android devices. My 16GB Android phone doesn't have enough operating room to stream TIDAL in HiFi, even with the app housed on a 32GB SSD. My 32GB Android tablet was hit or miss -- but mostly "miss" with drop outs.

 

I switched first to a 64GB iPod Touch, which worked fine. I then swapped that for a 128GB iPad Mini, which has been perfect. I steam TIDAL, iTunes and other services to my Apple TV via AirPlay, and then connect Apple TV via TOSLINK to my DAC.

 

I think the service just needs lots of horsepower. Lack of gapless playback needs to be addressed, however.

 

STREAMING SYSTEM: Standard Optinum/Cablevision package (do not have the super high-speed package) / Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band gigabit router / 128GB iPad Mini 3 / AirPlay / Apple TV with PS Audio power cord / Analysis Plus TOSLINK cable / PS Audio DigiLink III DAC with Shunyata Venom power cord.... Was previously using an Oppo BDP-83 standard edition Blu-Ray player as a disc transport for Redbook CDs, but TIDAL sounds better.

[waff]

Like so many other folks using this thread, I had daunting problems with dropouts when streaming music from Tidal. Also, like all of you I have eagerly awaited the return of loss-less hi fi streaming since MOG died. I'm a freshman on this site, but by no means one where high fidelity sound is concerned. Working my way through a couple of years in college as a salesman at an audiophile store and as an engineer at commercial radio stations, I very quickly became addicted to the best of equipment and sound that was avaliable in the sixties. My first serious system included a pair of EICO 60 tube amps driving Bozak speakers in large infinite baffle enclosures. After numerous iterations and recent trials at computer/internet streaming, I've learned a couple of things. The complexity of processes on PC's or the like do not always work as expected or satisfactorily in a "wide band" streaming application. My first (and failed attempt) used an old hyper-threading Pentium 4 based PC. Like most people reporting on this thread, a crazy large number of dropouts and glitches were present. I live in the middle of nowhere where the only internet service available is satellite based with a seriously limited data allocation except from midnight to 5:00am when it is unrestricted. The Pentium 4, running under Windows 7 in 32 bit mode certainly has enough speed to keep up with hifi audio streaming. It was even challenged a bit with occasional dropouts when streaming from Sony Music at 320 kb/sec. Digital stereo sound is being output to an external DAC (Asus XonarU7) and fed directly to either (1) a Kenwood M2 amp and custom speakers using Peerless drivers or (2) headphones. This system simply would not produce output audio without significant dropouts, especially when Tidal hifi was the source. A notable improvement occurred when I switched to an ASUS U64E laptop (Intel i5 and 64 bit Windows 7). All I can attribute this to is possibly a more crude hyper-threading implementation in the older Pentium 4, producing glitches and cutouts frequently. For example, opening another window while streaming would produce a dropout. This type problem is gone using the Asus laptop instead of the older Pentium 4, and dropouts decreased but were not entirely gone. Still no Havana cigar! Another thing I learned was to keep my hands off the mouse and keyboard while streaming as this would occasionally introduce dropouts even with the ASUS. For inexplicable reasons, but apparently having to do with fixes on Tidal's end, I have had entirely no dropouts while streaming in streaming many hours of music over many sessions over the past 10 days or so. Flawless streaming!! It is more than just exciting and I am ecstatic. Sometimes I expect to wake up from a dream, but it is real. Yes Dorothy, it is possible with Tidal. Nothing else has changed on my end except that I have gotten out of the habit of trying to tweak stuff while streaming is going on, especially if it is being recorded. And yes I do record it using Total Recorder for time and spatial shifting, as otherwise it would be totally useless here for two reasons. The first is that my satellite internet data allocation would be used in no time if I streamed during anything but normal sleep hours and the time I spend in my shop, which is a metal building, has no satellite service and requires time shifting. The second is that the satellite bandwidth available during normal wakeup hours hours is often marginal for hifi streaming but is usually fine from midnight to 5:00 am when it is 12 to 20 Mbs. Yes, Tidal, lots of folks who have this kind of satellite service could use an easy-to-use recording capability that could be scheduled easily. And no, I do not sell or distribute these recordings. Total Recorder provides an effective, if not so user friendly way to accomplish this.

 

So my hat is off to Tidal HiFi. I just don't think my recent excellent streaming results could have been occurred without your having worked through some of the technical and/or software issues. I hope other people are having similar success and that this improvement is universal. My fingers are also crossed that this will continue as I have recently experienced it. This will make a lot of audiophiles very happy and will do much to guarantee the success of this music service into the future. This involves more than just receiving a high quality product for money. It may well involve the very expansion of available sound quality for a large and potentially growing fraction of the music community. I, for one, am sticking in with Tidal to give them the support and time to help make this the ultimate US hifi streaming service we all want so much. As for HiFi in general, playing back some of these FLAC recordings the the sound system in my large, concrete-floored shop is making new audiophiles out of many previously inexperienced listeners who happen in when it is on. Of course, we had to determine the acoustic transfer functions of the building and implement appropriate acoustic compensations where possible for the outrageous effects of the building on sound first. This has succeeded better than originally expected thanks mostly to electronic compensation. I will post updates and hope to hear of other positive Tidal experiences on this thread. Harve Waff, 17 miles from Eugene, Oregon.

[rodrigaj]

I have been having dropouts for the past 2 days with HIFI totally unusable. Starting last night all three modes of operation were dysfunctional. Tidal is completely down now.

 

I did submit a service report to Tidal and am awaiting their response.

 

Anyone else having problems in the USA?

[jhwalker]

I have been having dropouts for the past 2 days with HIFI totally unusable. Starting last night all three modes of operation were dysfunctional. Tidal is completely down now.

 

I did submit a service report to Tidal and am awaiting their response.

 

Anyone else having problems in the USA?

 

Working fine for me.

[boatheelmusic]

Fine here in Philly area.

[rodrigaj]

Thanks for the responses... no word from Tidal yet. Absolutely no audio, nothing not even dropouts anymore, on all three modes of play. I'm able to log in but that is all.

 

Any Wisconsin or Illinois or Minnesota people care to chime in?

[christopher3393]

I have been having dropouts for the past 2 days with HIFI totally unusable. Starting last night all three modes of operation were dysfunctional. Tidal is completely down now.

 

I did submit a service report to Tidal and am awaiting their response.

 

Anyone else having problems in the USA?

 

Fine here in Madison, WI area.

[waff]

When you log in to Tidal do you have a black empty screen? If so, try opening Chrome and typing in the Tidal URL. This worked for me recently. Service is still fine in Eugene, Oregon.

[rodrigaj]

I don't have a black screen. Also, I've tried the MacOS App, the Android App, the Windows 7 App. I tried the Chrome app in both Mac and Windows as well. I don't have an Mac iOS device so I wasn't able to try that.

 

Everthing loads as it should, but the tracks never play. All I get is the revolving icon as if it is loading. I left it running last night and this morning it was still just revolving on the first track I selected. No time evolved on the track...just sitting there.

[rodrigaj]

Since I got no response from Tidal, I replied to the original service ticket and explained (nicely) that I did not have any service.

 

I went to eat dinner, came back and everything is now functioning properly.

 

I never got an explanation about what caused the problem but it's working now. I don't know what to make of all this.

[boatheelmusic]

Since I got no response from Tidal, I replied to the original service ticket and explained (nicely) that I did not have any service.

 

I went to eat dinner, came back and everything is now functioning properly.

 

I never got an explanation about what caused the problem but it's working now. I don't know what to make of all this.

 

They recorded your account as paid!!!!!

[rodrigaj]

They recorded your account as paid!!!!!

 

Really...I'm old enough to remember operators on pay phones interrupting service asking for the next quarter. ("But I paid. Honestly!")

[boatheelmusic]

Really...I'm old enough to remember operators on pay phones interrupting service asking for the next quarter. ("But I paid. Honestly!")

 

LOL, just be glad your internet connection's not on a "party line". !!!!!

[rodrigaj]

I got a reply from Tidal this morning:

Thank you for contacting TIDAL customer support.We understand that poor performance is unacceptable for a streaming company like TIDAL. We would never recommend for you to try and stream at a lower quality. Our operations team has been made aware of these issues, and they are currently working very hard to get these issues resolved as soon as possible. We are sorry for this inconvenience, and I have provided you with a complimentary week that will be added to this months paid subscription.

So, they gave me a complimentary 1 week for my day and a half of blackout.

[Armin22]

What bothered me on Wimp ( Tidal) is, when I activated HiFi option, Wimp Program on my Macbook Pro shut down Audio. Playback is active.

Hm, I don't understand, what's going on.

[DanSmedra]

I've been using TIDAL for several weeks. Technical issues have been manageable. However, I'm suspicious that the service was launched without sufficient royalty agreements in place for artist/musicians. Why? Because I'm finding music/albums are being withdrawn from the music catalog. If I was a musician, I'd be pissed to discover TIDAL, or any streaming service, playing my works without compensation.

 

I'm also disappointed in the music curation. I'm non-Euro, over 50, have no ink or piercings, and thus much of the curation is of little-to-no value.

 

I've provided TIDAL with feedback. It seems as their revenue has increased, responsiveness has decreased. There's even a graph (somewhere on their website) showing the decline in responses).

 

I don't understand the technological/financial barriers to high-quality streaming, but I'm hoping competition will bring in some additional market discipline.

[yardbird4]

I think I am having every problem described in this thread. Drop outs, no start, site having bandwidth problems. The first month was good and now everyday the streaming gets worse. After my next monthly period expires I plan to quit until they fix the problem. I have 50/50 Mbps streaming so it is not on my end. Hi Fi streaming is worthless if play is interrupted.....even once.

[SoundQcar]

I've been using TIDAL for several weeks. Technical issues have been manageable. However, I'm suspicious that the service was launched without sufficient royalty agreements in place for artist/musicians. Why? Because I'm finding music/albums are being withdrawn from the music catalog. If I was a musician, I'd be pissed to discover TIDAL, or any streaming service, playing my works without compensation.

 

.

 

I hear ya. One of the labels that won't stream is ECM. They have a wealth of excellent albums in their catalog....all unavailable via TIDAL.

[rodrigaj]

You're all probably doing this, but just to make sure: All of the folks that are having problems should let Tidal know about them. Complain about each and every dropout, ask about album availability and in general be the squeaky wheel.

 

They won't improve if they think we are happy customers.

[waff]

Yardbird4, Sorry to hear of the breadth of your problems here. Are you familiar with the following site:

 

The Well-Tempered Computer

 

It is devoted to computer audio. It won't solve some of the issues you are experiencing but it illustrates the many ways modern home computers are typically problematic with streaming hi fi audio. It was educational and very helpful to me. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

[rodrigaj]

Yardbird4, Sorry to hear of the breadth of your problems here. Are you familiar with the following site:

 

The Well-Tempered Computer

 

It is devoted to computer audio. It won't solve some of the issues you are experiencing but it illustrates the many ways modern home computers are typically problematic with streaming hi fi audio. It was educational and very helpful to me. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

This is a very good site. However, many, if not all of the Tidal complaints have been Tidal problems. When I set up my AE / Airplay / iPad link to Tidal, I initially had problems that were on my end. Then I ran into problems with Tidal.

 

I found that network related problems (i.e..., my end) were very short hiccups of interruption. Those caused by Tidal servers were of longer duration and were visible on the app with a spinning wheel. This observation helped maintain my sanity.

[waff]

I don't remember having any of these sorts of problems with MOG for many years, even with slower internet service. It did take quite a while (for me at least) to bet enough of the large buffer full of data before a selection would start playing, a relatively small price to pay for great quality results.

[ckpiv]

This is a very good site. However, many, if not all of the Tidal complaints have been Tidal problems. When I set up my AE / Airplay / iPad link to Tidal, I initially had problems that were on my end. Then I ran into problems with Tidal.

 

I found that network related problems (i.e..., my end) were very short hiccups of interruption. Those caused by Tidal servers were of longer duration and were visible on the app with a spinning wheel. This observation helped maintain my sanity.

 

You are using the stand alone player I take it?

 

I have found the Chrome web player streaming much more reliable then the stand alone OS X app. When ever I try to use the OS X App I get a message about streaming issues with HIFI quality as well as the spinning wheel. The Chrome web player streams HIFI without issue 95+% of the time. It is my opinion that they need to update the Stand alone player in OS X (not sure about windows) so you can get the quality and consistency of the chrome web player. Over all I have found the service to be improving since their introduction here in the U.S.