Tidal SQ and your music collection.

Jan 2018 in MoneyWatch

The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) this weekend approved a 43.8 percent increase in streaming royalties paid to songwriters and their publishers over the next five years, the largest gain the CRB has ever approved. Moreover, the overall percentage of the streaming services' revenue paid to songwriters will increase from 10.5 percent to 15.1 percent. Those companies are also now subject to late fees, which may "dramatically alter" how digital music is licensed, according to the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

And in digital music https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/01/16/streaming-music-services-pay-2018/
 
Rick and I did a comparison of CD vs HDD (CD rip) vs Tidal. I would score the results this way:

CD = 10/10
HDD = 9/10
Tidal = 7/10

There was a noticeable degradation of sound from Tidal. The CD vs HDD (CD rip) was a lot closer and only very minor differences.

MQA titles streamed via Tidal through a monkey wrench in these results, sounding better than the CD (probably different masters), so therefore cannot be included in the more generic testing.
 
It appears as if everyone is mainly concerned with CD quality. To me, this is bare minimal. I beleive there is a huge difference when you consider high resolution downloads, which I very much prefer. I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the bandwidth requirements forebode Tidal from competing on this ground. Granted, from what you all report, MQA may assist, some, in streaming high res, but it does not put it on the same level (DSD anyone).

The reason I prefer CD rips to playing the original CD is that I can now send it through my digital front end, Roon, HQPlayer, up sampled, using my DAC instead of the one built into the spinner, etc. This is the first time, in my experience, that most any CD actually sounds like true high resolution to me (Eye In The Sky was an amazing improvement versus playing the CD directly is a perfect example).

I guess I should make a disclaimer here. I am not throwing extreme high end in this mix since it is something I will never be able to experience at home. I assume the results will probably vary if a $20,000 spinner was in the mix, for example. :)
 
Indeed. With HD downloads, all bets are off. MQA and DSD/SACD throw another monkey wrench in things. Add in Qubuz’s high res streaming and its a great time for digital.


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I am on the edge of buying a PS Audio memory player. With the ability to feed the DSD content direct to the DS this is a great option for someone with many SACDs in their collection. This does take some of the convenience of having just music streaming or rips but I have heard what the DS sounds like feeding the i2S input and it is great! I will need to go through many boxes of discs packed away to find those said SACD. The joys of audiophilia!!!

Randy Myers said:
It appears as if everyone is mainly concerned with CD quality. To me, this is bare minimal. I beleive there is a huge difference when you consider high resolution downloads, which I very much prefer. I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the bandwidth requirements forebode Tidal from competing on this ground. Granted, from what you all report, MQA may assist, some, in streaming high res, but it does not put it on the same level (DSD anyone).

The reason I prefer CD rips to playing the original CD is that I can now send it through my digital front end, Roon, HQPlayer, up sampled, using my DAC instead of the one built into the spinner, etc. This is the first time, in my experience, that most any CD actually sounds like true high resolution to me (Eye In The Sky was an amazing improvement versus playing the CD directly is a perfect example).

I guess I should make a disclaimer here. I am not throwing extreme high end in this mix since it is something I will never be able to experience at home. I assume the results will probably vary if a $20,000 spinner was in the mix, for example. :)
Click to expand...
 
I'm going to circle around and repeat myself. In all digital circumstances you need to be very aware of all components. The power from the wall. The Ethernet cables and how they are run. USB or I2S cables. How is your gear designed and do accessory items such as switches or USB regenerators help or hurt playback. Digital even at base CD quality can be amazing. However one kink in the hose can constrict a lot of quality. I have been playing at this for a few years and finding kinks I did not anticipate. It's getting so much better every time I unravel a unknown limitation.
 
I suspect you might be overstating the magnitude of each change, by just a bit. Your system would sound much better than live music by now if you weren’t, or else it started at the level of a ‘60’s portable radio ;)
 
attachment.php
Find find this album on tidal sorry how large it looks
if anyone thinks we need hi res over red book cd try this play
top hat first. What has been done and continues to be done happens at the recording session
mapleshade shows us just how good a typical red book cd can be.
The cd that own and ripped is even better. But still play it and listen for your amp clipping lol.



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My only issue with Tidal (and it could well apply to other music services) is that from time to time a track that was once available for some unknown reason becomes unavailable. It is particularly noticeable when one builds a playlist and all of the sudden the affected track is skipped.
 
LOL, you are absolutely right. I was listening to a greatest hits album and a track I wanted to hear wouldn't play, I got a message something about, not having the rights or something. The odd thing, I went to the album where the track originated and it played.

Then the other day I was just playing Tidal from my phone and at the gym, playing from the top tracks feature of a band and a certain track wouldn't play, no message this time, just wouldn't play when clicked, went to the next track and it played fine. strange.

nicoff said:
My only issue with Tidal (and it could well apply to other music services) is that from time to time a track that was once available for some unknown reason becomes unavailable. It is particularly noticeable when one builds a playlist and all of the sudden the affected track is skipped.
Click to expand...
 
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