Time To Dump Tidal? Bluesound / BlueOS Now Has Deezer HiFi

[Samuel T Cogley]

Many don't remember, but gapless didn't come to iPods until iTunes 7 / iPod Gen 5.

 

I don't understand the technical reasons why it's so hard.  I know Fiio DAPs achieve what I call "almost gapless" (there is still a perceptible, but low millisecond pause between tracks).

 

Perhaps there are some patents in the mix which requires "creative" (i.e., expensive) developers to achieve true gapless.  For me, gapless playback is the demarcation between the real players and the poseurs.

 

 

[Samuel T Cogley]

23 minutes ago, TubeMan said:

why is gapless so important,,,,,

 

In my experience, it's all about listening to albums vs. listening to singles.  Lack of gapless support can destroy the immersive experience with some albums.

[Samuel T Cogley]

While I was really excited about the ECM catalog coming to Tidal, the UMG audible watermarking debacle pretty much ruins it.

 

Will audiophiles have second thoughts about lossless streaming with the apparently proliferation of audible watermarking?  In my experience so far, it's very noticeable with violin.  I call it a "picket fence" effect.  And since I'm listening to a lot of classical on Tidal, Deutsche Grammophon content is unavoidable.  Apparently, DG content (and Decca, and many others) is distributed by UMG in the U.S., which means some significant amount (all?) of it is audibly watermarked.

 

I'm concerned that audible watermarking pretty much nixes any audible benefit from streaming lossless.