Does anyone use OFFLINE mode in either Tidal or Qobuz?

[wklie]

Couldn’t I just use Tidal Offline from a Macintosh or Windows computer hooked up via usb to my DAC ?

I have not checked this myself, but I believe this feature is specifically limited only to smartphone app.

 

[wklie]

I was unaware that you can record music that is streamed from Tidal or Qobuz - surely it's totally illegal as the artists get paid (next to nothing) for their streamed music each time it's streamed. If we just recorded it and never stramed it subsequently, the artists would get next to nothing. If we download (from the download providers) we pay per track and it's a significant sum, some of which goes to the artist in the same way they get paid from CD sales. Amazon in UK charge 99p per track or £5-7 per album for low res downloads I believe - never used it though.

How can we record music from these providers both technically and legally? When I go to Europe and cruise the inland waterways (away from wi-fi and with limited mobile data) I take an MP3 copy of my own ripped CDs - but nothing obtained from streaming services.

Can anyone clarify please? Peter

The simple, legal way is use the official smartphone streaming apps built-in offline playback function. The downloaded content is protected and you cannot play it after your subscription expires.

Another simple, legal way is to purchase music from the providers (distinct from streaming subscription, although Qobuz Sublime+ subscription offers a discount towards purchases).

Any unauthorized way to rip the stream is likely not legal. The streaming service terms should also prohibit it.

 

[wklie]

A couple of friends and I were passing around an article stating that you were not really experiencing streaming properly until you enabled and used offline mode.

I agree to a point and it’s like streaming from a NAS, storage device or computer.

The article was light on facts.

I’ve never directly compared the streams but I thought even my online streaming sounds really good.

Thoughts?

I've not read the article, but the only way I see that is practical for using offline mode with an audiophile DAC is this: use an iPhone running Tidal (or Qobuz) app and connect it to the USB DAC via the authentic Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter USD39.

If it works for a USB DAC without requiring an Apple charger to be plugged into it, then the source is purely battery driven and avoids AC. Some people prefer the SQ this way.

As for saying offline mode is better, I suspect it is similar to the common claim that streaming sounds worse. I believe network isolation may help (via fiber isolation using a pair of FMC, or native SFP port of Lumin X1, or something like GigaFOIL). Some people also reported changing the router and switches to use LPS helped.

 

[Alkyogre]

I've not read the article, but the only way I see that is practical for using offline mode with an audiophile DAC is this: use an iPhone running Tidal (or Qobuz) app and connect it to the USB DAC via the authentic Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter USD39.

If it works for a USB DAC without requiring an Apple charger to be plugged into it, then the source is purely battery driven and avoids AC. Some people prefer the SQ this way.

As for saying offline mode is better, I suspect it is similar to the common claim that streaming sounds worse. I believe network isolation may help (via fiber isolation using a pair of FMC, or native SFP port of Lumin X1, or something like GigaFOIL). Some people also reported changing the router and switches to use LPS helped.

This will definitely work and is totally legal. In addition: Android does have the required cables too for USB Dac connection, made by different companies.

 

[wklie]

Android does, but since every Android phone is different, and it's not clear to me the apps can always bypass the OS mixer for all different OS updates for all Android phones, I specifically mentioned iPhone because it was proven to do bit perfect transfer including MQA Core (otherwise you cannot get MQA Renderer DAC to function in the best manner).

When I researched an audio company that closed business and cheated customers who placed order for its Android-based audio product without actually shipping them products or refunding them in 2020, I found a Darko review that mentioned its inability to bypass the OS mixer, causing all digital data to be resampled to 48kHz - this is completely useless for a digital transport / streamer.