TIDAL and other SOTA streaming services

To Justin , bonzo and others.

How good is it sonically and otherwise (user interface, etc.)? Quality high on the list as well as ease of use.

Other services I should look at? Fine with $20 / month fee.

Looking to jump in within the next few months.

Very low on the computer savy food chain. Cost options? Will likely be using my Esoteric K01 as a DAC. Simple hardware connections a must.

Spoke with the owner of Magnum Dynalab this week. He tells me they will have a streaming product available within the next several months.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Gordon

Gordon Gray said:

Looking to jump in within the next few months.



Gordon

Click to expand...

Finally!! Welcome to 2005 Gordon

What are you looking at using to get the data to the Esoteric?

Gordon, I used to use Pandora and the Amazon streaming service. Beats as well before they got bought by Apple. Once I got Tidal I've not used anything else. As nice as it is to listen to on my phone and iPad, using it at home through the main system is revelatory. Sound quality is very noticeably better than the aforementioned services - it's very easy to hear the difference. If you try it I doubt you would look much further, at least as far as what is offered today. Nice library and an intuitive UI. If I were to have a wish list, it would be nice if they had they ability to create user playlists based on preferences, similar to what Pandora does. Maybe they do offer it, but I haven't discovered it yet. I have discovered a lot of new music on Tidal. Some I just continue to stream once I save it as a "Favorite", some I go to Acoustic Sounds, Linn or HD Tracks to download in a hi Rez version. I enjoy it very much.

So...... Tidal just became available in Canada, so I've started the trial. I currently use Rdio (320 kbps, good sound quality to my ears) to stream music. I'm limited to doing a comparison (in music quality) with my Audeze LCD2 headphones. Tomorrow I can use the M. Logans. I have already noticed that Tidal is missing a few of my favorite albums, though.

All music streaming services will miss something you want/like.

Instead one should focus on what they do have - literally ten of millions of tracks more than your existing collection.

TIDAL does sound very good - somehow different to ripped CDs played through JRiver which is curious but I suspect that is just down to coding differences (could be a bad guess, though - probably is. They should sound the same but I find they don't, which IS worrying). You can play Tidal through the JRiver engine but you may suffer from glitches.

I'm trying it out, with an open mind, believe it or not . I'm sure that the music I listen to is not considered to be very mainstream, and as such, may not arrive on some of the streaming services right away. If I hadn't had a bit of trouble with Spotify, I would have recommended them to you, Gordon. Try Tidal, but also try Rdio out, because it is ALSO very comprehensive, and sound quality is quite good. Also has very easy user interface.

I think I'll give TIDAL a try just to check it out. I have a problem with the $20 per month thing, tho. it seems expensive to me. $10 a month I think I would be OK with. Part of what's become my hobby is my digital music collection. Organizing, tagging, etc. is fun... and yes, i'm super anal. LOL. And my little USB drive has been all over the country as I've exchanged collections with friends half a dozen times, which is also fun.

amey01 said:

Finally!! Welcome to 2005 Gordon

What are you looking at using to get the data to the Esoteric?

Click to expand...

Thinking Apple TV box with wireless router with Ipad or Iphone for user interface.

Other possibility is Magnum Dynalab's new streaming tuner. To be available within the next six months.

Thank you all for the input.

2005? Not too bad for a dinosaur mate.

PS: Currently use XM with a Magnum tuner. Good selections but marginal quality. Good thing is that Magnum will actually give me a reasonable trade in on this unit.

Gordon, why not just go with USB out of your PC directly into the USB input of the K-01? Then you can also run CD rips and Hi Rez downloads via the same path.

Gordon Gray said:

Thinking Apple TV box with wireless router with Ipad or Iphone for user interface.

Other possibility is Magnum Dynalab's new streaming tuner. To be available within the next six months.

Thank you all for the input.

2005? Not too bad for a dinosaur mate.

PS: Currently use XM with a Magnum tuner. Good selections but marginal quality. Good thing is that Magnum will actually give me a reasonable trade in on this unit.

Click to expand...

The problem with the AppleTV is it expects your music to be homeshared from iTunes....which is..horrible to say the least. Marantz's new NA6005 has me thinking about dumping my Sonos Connect.