[mr_bill]

Maybe I'm in the minority or the demographic minority as I'm not a teen or in my 20's, but Tidal bugs me.  I do like the service and quality, but they really have an emphasis on rap and hip hop.

You open the app and that's all you see.....

[gregcss]

I'm not into that stuff either. I plan to sign up for a trial version of Tidal since I am tired of my existing library that I ripped from CD. $20 is somewhat steep, but trying to buy a bunch of CDs every month is not either.

I like Pandora for the playlists that are catered to my liking. I am hoping Tidal has a similar feature rather than just one generic play list for everyone that features hip-hop, pop, and rap or annoying alternative/rock songs they play on the radio on repeat for that matter.

[Mike-48]

Maybe I'm in the minority or the demographic minority as I'm not a teen or in my 20's, but Tidal bugs me.  I do like the service and quality, but they really have an emphasis on rap and hip hop.

You open the app and that's all you see.....

It is bizarre that you can't customize Tidal by telling it what kind of music you want to hear about. The entire Tidal service, in my opinion, exhibits lack of knowledge of, or interest in, music except as an object of commerce. The classical music listings in particular lack key information -- in some cases, you can't even find the composer of a particular track. Similar for jazz -- one "artist" per track doesn't tell you much about who's playing. It is pathetic that such a large library has had so little attention paid to useful cataloging.

[jpm]

... they really have an emphasis on rap and hip hop.

Agree - it would be great to be able to dial that way down.

[mresseguie]

I've used Tidal premium for over one and a half years and it's mostly been great to have. I can use it everywhere I've traveled without a hitch. However, just as you have mentioned, I'm tired of seeing all the rap, hip hop, etc. that they over-emphasize. [My son listens to a lot of this though.]

Perhaps it's time for the old fogies to band together with a request and/or complaint about not being able to customize the interface. What do you think?

Michael

[JohnR]

Just add artists to your favorites and then use that tab.

[MttBsh]

I wonder how many who listen primarily to rap and hip-hop have $20/month disposable funds and an appreciation for lossless resolution? Seems a bit counter-intuitive.

[Mike-48]

Perhaps it's time for the old fogies to band together with a request and/or complaint about not being able to customize the interface. What do you think?

I think they don't listen to their customers.

Still, it can be a lot of fun. We've had quite a few evenings of listening to oldies: car crash songs and such. I suppose if we would do that more often, it would be worth the $20 per month.

[dB Cooper]

I like Tidal but you can add me to the list of those who couldn't care less about the rap/hip hop artists they push. In turn, like MttBsh, I seriously doubt that that audience gives a rat's ass about lossless SQ.

If Apple starts lossless, it's 'game over' for at least some of the services. A possible complicating factor here, though: Apple stubbornly refuses to support the popular and nearly ubiquitous FLAC format and would probably push their own ALAC format instead. They made this an open format a few years ago but FLAC is much more popular.

Lately I've been listening to Tidal Lossless about 60% of the time rather than listening to music in my collection that I've heard 100 times.

[Rusty Jefferson]

I recently got a demo of Tidal in a high quality system and was disappointed by the SQ. Two dimensional as opposed to 3 dimensional. Both cds and cds ripped to the server were noticeably better than the same cd selected in Tidal. Sounded good, just not great. Fine for casual listening, but not critical imo.  Selection was reasonable, and the user interface was good.

[RoadTripper]

I listen to Tidal in preference to my own server's ripped CDs (FLAC) exclusively. I hear no difference between the two. But, you have to question the whole premise involved in Tidal serving up FLAC files to your computer. If you select a FLAC file (one that's on your server) and try to "open" it with your OS default software for FLAC files, what happens?

In my case, it, by default, will try to open the file in a format converter so that it can play the file. Which means it tries to convert the FLAC file to MP3.

What do you think happens with the FLAC file served up by Tidal? My contention is that something has to convert the Tidal FLAC file to a playable format (MP3) in software most likely on your computer's sound card. The MP3 bits are then fed to your offboard DAC (presumably). This is not the case with JRiver, for example. JRiver takes the FLAC bits and sends them straight to your offboard DAC where it does what it does (way better than your sound card can).

So, unless you intervene, Tidal's wonderful FLAC files don't make it to your DAC unconverted. Your expensive DAC is actually just processing MP3 files. At least, that's my contention.  And that's also what my ears told me. I, too, was disappointed with Tidal's SQ. I then found that I needed an interface that allows Tidal's FLAC files to make it untouched over to my offboard DAC so it could work its magic. The interface that I bought, that accomplishes that, is Amarra.

As for Tidal's "Rap-Centric" approach, I don't care. What they offer me with the kind of music I like is beyond my wildest dreams.

[roscoe65]

Tidal's "Rap-centric" approach may be an artifact of its owner Jay Z and a number of other artists/owners.  It is also likely a smart marketing strategy; the number of actual audiophiles who will pay for lossless streaming is far smaller than the number who prefer to stream for free or for a lower tier price.  High end audio remains the territory of older men.  The majority of popular music fans simply listen on whatever crappy reproduction system they own.

[MttBsh]

Tidal's "Rap-centric" approach may be an artifact of its owner Jay Z and a number of other artists/owners.  It is also likely a smart marketing strategy; the number of actual audiophiles who will pay for lossless streaming is far smaller than the number who prefer to stream for free or for a lower tier price.  High end audio remains the territory of older men.  The majority of popular music fans simply listen on whatever crappy reproduction system they own.

... which is funny because old men (I'm not getting any younger) typically begin losing hearing acuity and thus may not be able to fully appreciate the highest resolutions. On the other hand, maybe they need the highest resolution so that they can afford to give some of it up due to hearing loss.

[roscoe65]

... which is funny because old men (I'm not getting any younger) typically begin losing hearing acuity and thus may not be able to fully appreciate the highest resolutions. On the other hand, maybe they need the highest resolution so that they can afford to give some of it up due to hearing loss.

It takes men half their lives to earn enough money to afford the toys they they could only use to their fullest when they were young.  Older guys (I'm in that group) buy great sound systems, Porsche's, and $8,000 racing bicycles.  Young guys with hearing acuity, reflexes and athletic ability are still paying off student loans.

[Rusty Jefferson]

......In my case, it, by default, will try to open the file in a format converter so that it can play the file. Which means it tries to convert the FLAC file to MP3.

What do you think happens with the FLAC file served up by Tidal? My contention is that something has to convert the Tidal FLAC file to a playable format (MP3) in software most likely on your computer's sound card. The MP3 bits are then fed to your offboard DAC (presumably). ......

Many people are using native formats (wav, uncompressed FLAC, hi-rez varieties) and not converting, or using sound cards. Computer audio has come a long way in the past few years. I'm not suggesting Tidal sounds bad, it's just not as good as the best digital sources.....yet.  Perhaps Tidal is down a notch because it's converting "on the fly"?

......As for Tidal's "Rap-Centric" approach, I don't care. What they offer me with the kind of music I like is beyond my wildest dreams.

That's great. I'd just like it to sound as good as the cd source. That is what they advertise. 

[mav52]

Not having an issue finding rock and blues music to listen to. Been paying Dire Straits all day and Yes.  My service Hi-Fi/Masters

[RoadTripper]

Rusty, so you're positive that in the demo you heard uncompressed music was going through the DAC in use? All I know is what I heard. And hear, which was a significant change in the SQ such that my wife, who was the first one to speak up about Tidal's poor SQ, pronounced my Amarra solution to have done the job.

[genjamon]

I pull Tidal tracks in DLNA mode through network to my Sonore MicroRendu, which is a micro-computer designed for optimal conversion and USB output to DAC.  I use the same approach to pull my CD rips from my NAS on the home network.

In my system, Tidal is superior sound quality to my CD rips. 

But I've invested a lot in optimizing my home network in terms of isolation and power supplies - I use fiber media converters to isolate the audio system from the rest of the network - and not a single wall wart/SMPS on any of the devices (modem, router, NAS, FMC network switches), and half the items powered by Uptone LPS-1 isolating supercapacitor power supplies.  The sound quality between Tidal and my NAS was back and forth until I completed all of these power/isolation upgrades.

[Slam]

I subscribed a couple of months ago and have been enjoying Tidal very much. I tried to use the Gifu service but my network is too slow so I downgraded. I like to listen to world music and have been happy with the selection.

[gregcss]

I listen to Tidal in preference to my own server's ripped CDs (FLAC) exclusively. I hear no difference between the two. But, you have to question the whole premise involved in Tidal serving up FLAC files to your computer. If you select a FLAC file (one that's on your server) and try to "open" it with your OS default software for FLAC files, what happens?

In my case, it, by default, will try to open the file in a format converter so that it can play the file. Which means it tries to convert the FLAC file to MP3.

What do you think happens with the FLAC file served up by Tidal? My contention is that something has to convert the Tidal FLAC file to a playable format (MP3) in software most likely on your computer's sound card. The MP3 bits are then fed to your offboard DAC (presumably). This is not the case with JRiver, for example. JRiver takes the FLAC bits and sends them straight to your offboard DAC where it does what it does (way better than your sound card can).

So, unless you intervene, Tidal's wonderful FLAC files don't make it to your DAC unconverted. Your expensive DAC is actually just processing MP3 files. At least, that's my contention.  And that's also what my ears told me. I, too, was disappointed with Tidal's SQ. I then found that I needed an interface that allows Tidal's FLAC files to make it untouched over to my offboard DAC so it could work its magic. The interface that I bought, that accomplishes that, is Amarra.

As for Tidal's "Rap-Centric" approach, I don't care. What they offer me with the kind of music I like is beyond my wildest dreams.

So what you're saying is any audio, be it ripped FLAC, WAV, etc. or an audio CD in the CD-ROM will be converted to .mp3 so that it can be processed by the computer? I dont buy it.

Windows Media Player, i believe, is the default player on a fresh installed OS. Windows does not come with a preinstalled FLAC to mp3 converter. WMP plays FLAC and WAV, and MP3 for that matter. Why would the PC use cycles to compress a stream before it plays it? FLAC and wav are playable formats. They are not some raw data format/machine code that cant be read until converted. How did computers play WAV or CDs before mp3 was created?

On the same token does my Squeezebox Touch (a computer) convert the FLAC to mp3 before sending via digital coax to my DAC?

Just trying to understand what you're saying here.