AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => The Discless Circle => Topic started by: Charles Xavier on 28 Oct 2014, 07:42 pm
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Signed up and listening now and it sounds excellent :thumb:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2014/10/28/tidal-lossless-music-streaming-review-forget-spotify-get-cd-quality-music/
https://tidalhifi.com/us
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They have some bugs to work out. All I did was click 'Try Now' from the home page and...
Oops, an error occured
This exception has been logged with id 6k302c8j9.
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Is there some sort of voucher or discount code?
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Is there some sort of voucher or discount code?
Not that I know of . I signed up a few months ago to get early access and received my email to register this morning
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Think folks who signed up to be notified got a longer trial period. 30 days vs 7. IIRC.
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Think folks who signed up to be notified got a longer trial period. 30 days vs 7. IIRC.
Yes
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Ok, thanks. Playing my 7 day trial now.
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I signed up to be notified of Tidal's availability and logged into it today. I listened for about 5 minutes and then canceled my Beats subscription. I haven't critically listened yet, but it's quite good.
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Anyone experiencing drop outs? I am getting a lot of drop outs/hiccups at the beginning of each song. Seems to stop about 30 seconds into each track. I think my internet speed is fine at about 25mbps.
I am running through the latest version of JRiver 20 into an Ifi Micro DSD.
Tom
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What resolution downloads does it allow?
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Has Tidal actually installed servers in the US, or are they trying to stream their content from Europe? If it's the latter, then it wouldn't surprise me that users would be experiencing dropouts.
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I think the problem may be the Windows version of their software. I get no drop outs streaming to my IPhone and IPad. Or it could be the new JRiver WDM driver I Am using.
Tom
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No dropouts on my PC
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I think I have found the culprit causing the stuttering/ dropouts. I Think it's Fidelizer. I always run Fidelizer 6.0 before using J River. I restarted my computer without running Fidelizer and the problem seems to have gone away.
Tom
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Fidelizer has a 6.1 version now, and they "fixed" the drop problem in the program. Might be worth trying.
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Is there any way to stream Tidal from an Android tablet or phone to home audio system using wifi, not bluetooth (which would compromise the lossless quality)?
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Folks:
Would someone please check to see if Tidal has any ECM material for me? I'm trying out Qobuz and they have none whatsoever.
Thanks,
Mike
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Folks:
Would someone please check to see if Tidal has any ECM material for me? I'm trying out Qobuz and they have none whatsoever.
Thanks,
Mike
I checked Keith Jarrett for you and it is available
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I think ECM is a European label? Tidal is a European company so if I have my facts straight they should have a reasonable selection of ECM records and artists.
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I checked Keith Jarrett for you and it is available
Charles:
Would you please look again. I can get Qobuz to list ECM content but when you try to play it, it won't play…
Thanks,
Mike
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Thanks very much for sending this , CX; this is exactly what I've been waiting for.
Slightly off-topic, I googled Tidal and landed on the Tidal Audio site intead. Please see the Tidal Audio eye candy at the link below, scroll down to the section titled "Tidal Nautical Edition". Such a shame, I don't think that veneer would match the wood in my 47-meter yacht at all. (Who does that boat belong to... Batman?)
http://www.tidal-audio.de/english/news.htm
Cheers,
KP
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Charles:
Would you
please look again. I can get Qobuz to list ECM content but when you try to play it, it won't play…
Thanks,
Mike
Yes you are right. I just hit play on my phone and it says not available for streaming. I dont have a wifi sig right now but maybe it can be downloaded.
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Imean not available for playback so no download. I just tried
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$20 is too much to pay for a music service, IMO. The lossless/lossy quality is secondary to programming and reliability.
I own nearly 4000 CDs, all of them ripped to FLAC to be streamed to players around my home. These are CDs that, for the most part, I really love and have taken 25+ years to collect. This library will always make up the bulk of my dedicated listening time.
Now, I'm not one of those crusty buggers who says "there's no good music being produced today". Far from it. I think there's more than ever, to the point that it's difficult to discover what's out there. And that's where I feel streaming music services come in - those with good curated playlists or algorithms for playing related music are fantastic for discovering new music. But that listening is done exclusively in background mode, not comfy listening chair, lights down, fridge off, glass of wine, listening mode. Lossless or lossy makes zero difference to me.
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Charles:
Thanks,
Mike
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I will check this out for sure. I would pay more then $20 for CD quality and a library as large as Spotify. I tried out Qobuz and it sounded great. Unfortunately the music selection sucked unless you are into French smooth jazz and EDM.
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I've been using Tidal now for 2 days on their free trial. I can get to it from my computer, my iPhone, my iPad, etc.... The sound quality is excellent and streaming lossless (they call it HiFi) has not been a problem at all. The Tidal app is very good and seemingly bugfree. Their library of music seems quite vast and hopefully continuing to grow. It even allows me to download music so that I can listen to it when it can't be streamed (car, airplane, etc...) But no, I cannot copy those downloads as far as I can tell. Just part of the service.
So why am I reluctant to spend $20/month? Maybe it's just the dinosaur in me is roaring, but when it comes to music, I far prefer the ownership model than the service model. I easily spend $240 a year on music - probably a good bit more. But then I own it and/or gift it. So while $20/month isn't going to break the bank, I'm still hesitant. Am I afraid that I'll start ignoring my own coveted library - ouch, I've spent most of my life (62 yo) building that. Or am I just fighting inevitable change?
I've tried MOG, Spotify and various other serivces and apps. They are clearly getting better and better and based on the last 2 days, I'd say Tidal is the probably the best so far - certainly the best audio quality. So what would it take for me to get over my bad self and embrace this new way of listening to lossless music? Anybody else wrestling with this? :scratch:
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Oh, I am not wrestling with $20/month for lossless music at all. A Spotify with higher rez files? Yes please.
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Oh, I am not wrestling with $20/month for lossless music at all. A Spotify with higher rez files? Yes please.
Is it simply the price ($20/month vs $10/month) or is there something else about Spotify you prefer? I don't know how Spotify compares to Tidal with regard to the size of its music library. Spotify may, in fact, have a much bigger library. Of course, if Tidal is at all successful, I can easily imagine Spotify following with their own lossless streaming.
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Great service and badly needed for us audiophiles.
I have not used it yet but its price is a small coffee a day. Not at all unreasonable for me ... especially so when I have been complaining for years about the crappy sound of lossy services. As such, it is well worth supporting IMHO.
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I have tons of hirez already ripped and streaming in my home. But the files are too damn big to put on my portable devices, so that is where I see a service like Tidal being useful.
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I tried out Qobuz and it sounded great. Unfortunately the music selection sucked unless you are into French smooth jazz and EDM.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Don't know what you were looking for but my Qobuz playlist has no French smooth jazz or EDM in it :lol: I'm happy as a pig in mud, in fact. While I do have to use the "download to local FLAC storage" option because my network is too flaky, slow, or both, to stream at 16/44, that's OK, I just have to remember to keep queueing up albums. I don't know if Tidal will be better or not, I'm not sure where the bottleneck is, I guess I'll find out sooner or later.
To the person querying about ECM, that's the label making the restriction that they don't want their content streamed (losslessly). Channel Islands is another such label.
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I have tons of hirez already ripped and streaming in my home. But the files are too damn big to put on my portable devices, so that is where I see a service like Tidal being useful.
I may try one of the Filo players (X1, X3, X5 - http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-X1-FiiO/dp/B00NS3MRKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414769871&sr=8-1&keywords=fiio+x1), iBasso (I've heard this personally and it sounded good) or the new Sony Walkman at some point. I don't spent tons of time in the car so for now the iPod is fine. Yes the files are large. I guess if the Ipod no longer worked and I did not feel like using an old iPhone as an iPod, it would be good incentive to try one of the portable units.
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So I was using MOG to find new music and new artists. When I found stuff I liked, I would go buy the CD, and rip it.
Now that MOG is gone, I miss that. I had tried Spotify, but liked MOG better.
So I will probably try Spotify again, and was looking for other similar services. I also plan to try hoopla, but I need to go to my library and get a card. Hoopla is a service offered through some public libraries.
For some reason, $10/month is OK, but $20/mo seems too expensive to me. So I don't have qobuz either.
Randy
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I love it.
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One of the great things about MOG and now Google music is that they automatically organize playlists or albums alphabetically. I have a very large classical library on Google organized by era and often by geographical region. Each album name begins with a letter and sometimes a number, and then the composer name. So B for German Baroque, B1 For French Baroque, C For classical era, R for romantic, and T for 20th century (T.....T6). Their software then sorts by composer alphabetically. This is much too difficult to do manually.
Does Tidal sort alphabetically ? Thanks! John
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So I was using MOG to find new music and new artists. When I found stuff I liked, I would go buy the CD, and rip it.
Now that MOG is gone, I miss that. I had tried Spotify, but liked MOG better.
So I will probably try Spotify again, and was looking for other similar services. I also plan to try hoopla, but I need to go to my library and get a card. Hoopla is a service offered through some public libraries.
For some reason, $10/month is OK, but $20/mo seems too expensive to me. So I don't have qobuz either.
Randy
I've had the same experience and feel the same way. I really liked MOG and $20 just seems too much. $10 for this a month, $20 dollars for that a month. It all adds up.
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Been using Tidal for a couple of weeks and really, enjoy it. But like most $20/month seems on the high side. Still deciding. Sounds great. Wish there was a way to browse in a genre by artist.
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Deezer Elit offers 10 a month if you pay for 12 months in advance but it is only offered to Sonos customers. Tidal should follow suit. I think the interface will get better in time seeing they are taking advice from the Audiophile community
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Definitely an audible step up from Spotify quality. However it seems at least half (maybe 2/3?) of the songs in my playlists don't exist in TIDAL.
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Listening to Tidal now on my desktop system. Must say I'm impressed with the sq through my Audioengine 2+ with sub through a Dragonfly dac on my mac mini! Next I want to stream through my squeezebox touch on my big system which consists of Wyred 4 Sound mono amps and dac and Tekton Enzo speakers. I figure I will try it for the next month or so with holidays coming and I'll be home more often. $20 is a bit steep but we"ll see..
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Got my first charge on Friday. Can't believe 30 days flew by.
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Does anyone know if the Windows Tidal application has access to ASIO or WASAPI drivers?
I don't see the point in lossless streaming, if I am forced to still have to go through the windows mixer in order to get the sound out to my USB DAC.
I noticed a huge difference in SQ going from the Spotify application, to Fidelify, where I was able to send bit perfect audio to the DAC.
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Does anyone know if the Windows Tidal application has access to ASIO or WASAPI drivers?
You can use it with jriver
I don't see the point in lossless streaming, if I am forced to still have to go through the windows mixer in order to get the sound out to my USB DAC.
I noticed a huge difference in SQ going from the Spotify application, to Fidelify, where I was able to send bit perfect audio to the DAC.
You can use it with JRiver and set that in the settings
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How do you get the 30 day trial? I only have 7 days.
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How do you get the 30 day trial? I only have 7 days.
they were offering it a few months back as an early adopter they do not offer it anymore at this time
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My 30 days went by fast and, in the end, I cancelled my subscription. In fact, I really liked Tidal for the novelty of it. Sound quality was excellent. I loved being able to stream from my windows app or via my iThing. I even got it to work from my Squeezebox using the Ickstream app. And the ability to save albums offline so that I could listen when not online (e.g. car, airport, etc...) worked extremely well.
So why did I cancel my subscription? For this dinosaur, my own music collection is important and I use streaming services mostly to supplement listening and for exposure to new music. What Tidal (or any service) needs is to change how people think about music such that the service becomes the dominant if not sole way of listening. While I really appreciated the quality and functionality of Tidal, if I'm using it just to inform me of what new music I may want to purchase, then there are plenty of free ways to do that. I'd rather invest the $20/month in new music than toward a music service.
I do think Tidal is missing an opportunity by not offering an initial extended service at a far better price. I suspect it takes time for some of us to change our mindset about listening to music. 7 days or 30 days isn't enough. If, say, they had offered a nicely priced 12 months intro offer, I would have given it a shot. Would my dominant listening have then shifted to the Tidal service rather than my own music collection after 12 months? The trial didn't convince me. But then, us 60+ year-olds are probably not the target demographic anyway :lol:
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I also want to try Tidal but agree the 7 day trial is too meager. And with a music collection now over 35k tracks - many of which I've yet to listen to- $20 a month does seem to start to feel stiff for music discovery and convenience when I'm away from home.
If they did some kind of discount for a yearly subscription - like say TiVO - I'd be tempted and who knows, I might end up staying a subscriber. Under $200 would do it for me - and I think the decision would be even easier for those who haven't amassed a large music collection and care about sound quality.
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I just canceled a day early to be safe. But I can still stream until they cut it off. Sounds darn good right now.
I agree an intro price would be smart on their part like $10 for first 3 months or $15 for first 6 months.
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I had the 30 day trial and did not renew. I won't subscribe for more than $10/month at this point.
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I had the 30 day trial and did not renew. I won't subscribe for more than $10/month at this point.
+1
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I think you guys are crazy if you think $20 is too much. Its less then 2 HiRez downloads.
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I'm going to sign-up for this service after my big move in January. I currently spend $150 - $250 a month on new music purchases. I don't think $20 a month is too expensive.
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I had the 30-day subscription and now I just got billed for my first month I'll keep it a while longer and then decide at the end of the month
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I think you guys are crazy if you think $20 is too much. Its less then 2 HiRez downloads.
For me it's not necessarily the amount, but the relative pricing given the selection. I can't find at least half of the songs in my Spotify playlists so moving over I lose some favorites -- or I pay for both. I'm not knocking the concept and quality.
On a more philosophical side, this is YADS - "yet another data service" to pay for in this internet/data world: $50-100 for internet (way more than AOL used to be), $50-100 for phone/data + more to use as a personal wifi hot spot, additional $2, $5 here and there for other smart app services. It starts to add up: we're paying for "consumable temporary content" after which it is gone (ignoring "offline" modes, but you get the point).
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I also had the 30 day trial and didn't renew - great service but, based on 30 days of usage, I couldn't justify $20/month.
For me to jump back in I would need a lower monthly fee, or even a discounted 12 month fee, and the the ability to stream to Squeezebox devices.
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... and the the ability to stream to Squeezebox devices.
You can. There is a service called ickStream that works quite well to stream Tidal (and other services) through the Squeezebox/LMS infrastructure. They are in public beta.
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I also have issues with 'consumable temporary content'. Cable TV, internet, cell phones, netflix, etc.... It adds up quickly. And unlike other consumables, you're paying even when services don't get consumed. So, no, $20/month for high quality music streaming by itself is not bad, but it's just one more service fee on top of an already large and growing set of other service fees.
We've replaced "free" or cheap services such as TV and radio (and libraries!) with high-priced services that, for the most part, offer the same type of content or service. Has my rate of consumption increased? Nope. One could certainly argue that the quality has vastly improved... but at a high price when all added up.
But I digress... TIDAL is an excellent service and $20/month is not unreasonable. Dump your cable TV, HBO, netflix subscriptions and high-priced smartphones and listen to more music! (but keep your internet service - you're gonna need that ;-)
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Loving TIDAL. Crossing my fingers that more content is added since Google Play Music and Spotify have better selections. But damn, streaming lossless ANYWHERE with a WiFi or cellular data collection. And a great way to try before you buy (vinyl in my case). Oh yes. A bargain.
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I guess I don't tend to trust these companies after what Netflix pulled with their reworked pricing structure a while back. I actually cancelled for a year after that move (purely on principle--I could afford it). Not that they cared.
But unlike cable companies, these internet content companies don't seem to offer incentives to keep you as a customer: since their customer base is huge (potentially international), there will always be more customers.
I will succumb to TIDAL (or some lossless service) probably sooner than later. But other content providers would be smart to ramp up lossless offerings if their infrastructures could support it. A bit of competition is good.
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I guess I don't tend to trust these companies after what Netflix pulled with their reworked pricing structure a while back. I actually cancelled for a year after that move (purely on principle--I could afford it). Not that they cared.
Maybe I'm the only one who actually follows updates on Netflix but Netflix announced the rate increases were coming months in advance.
On the one hand I definitely agree with the 'temporary content' argument but on the other hand some people have entire walls filled with CDs and/or vinyl. A service like TIDAL definitely offers some convenience in a hobby that tends towards accumulation.
First world problems...
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Oh and trying out TIDAL right now. VERY impressed. Of course it's not going to replace my collection. And I wouldn't want it to. If 20/mo gets to be not worth it, well, just cancel. It's not like a Columbia House record club...
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First world problems...
True dat.
It's not like a Columbia House record club...
Woah, thanks for the memories. As a kid that it was rad getting so many albums for free (never mind the after effects).
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Ah Columbia House. First albums then CDs. When was the last year for them? I've been enjoying Tidal for discovery.
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Anyone know if Cambridge Audio players will be supported ?
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Ah Columbia House. [...] When was the last year for them? [...]
Interesting article: http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/129722-rise-and-fall-of-the-columbia-house-record-clu/ (http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/129722-rise-and-fall-of-the-columbia-house-record-clu/)
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Thought I'd revive this as I see there's another thread asking about it, and thought it'd be best to concentrate here.
So despite my reluctance about the $20 per month, I did sign up for this service and haven't cancelled yet. As I said before : if they did an ANNUAL subscription at a discounted rate, I think it would lock me - and many other music lover who want better sound. Mentioned this to a Tidal rep at CES though no immediate response.
Pros / Cons so far :
Pro's :
- Strong and wide selection
- The convenience - no file / IT management etc. This is really a BIG plus for me vs storing / managing my own files and IT gear (have a LOT of music / devices)
- Excellent sound quality noticeably better than Spotify / Pandora / etc.
- Strong value for the $ even @ $20 a month (compare vs buying even used cds / lps)
- Can work even on legacy systems : i.e. squeezebox. I even managed to get it to work on a NAS (WD MyCloud) as that has logitech media server and you can load ickstream, which in turn allows you to add Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, etc). Not super simple to install, but if you can read & follow directions carefully, it will work and quite well
- More and more devices support it : i.e Sonos, Bluesound, Auralic Aries, Aurrender (beta, but perhaps the best integration I've seen so far).
Con's :
- I find the interface on the web browser and iPad / iPhone could be better (Aurrender GUI despite being beta is very good)
- Search sometimes doesn't find things it should. E.g. when I search "Nils Lofgren" under artist, nothing comes up, but I can find his "Acoustic Live" album. Which doesn't make sense. Found a similar problem & solution w/ Alison Krauss.
- I've read that not all songs stream @ cd quality - some stream at lower quality. There isn't as far as I can see some ready and easy visual indicator if the specific stream is cd quality or not
- No payment plans other than monthly
Despite these criticisms, this to me is still the future. If I didn't already have a very large music collection and was just starting (or had a small music collection), TIDAL or similar cd quality streaming service would be a no-brainer. Considering what things cost these days - even a crappy lossy album from iTunes / Amazon etc at $5-$10 minimum - $20 or so a month is a bargain. Yes, I suppose you could be a real cheapskate and buy used CD's, rip em, and then, ahem, sell / trade em in. But at least for me honestly as a music discovery tool, and on the flip side not getting stuck with a lame purchased album, as well as having it all on demand on multiple devices without having to rip / store / manage etc, Tidal and whatever else comparably that may come out, is really the way to go.
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It will be interesting when Tidal starts streaming MQA this year.
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Signed up for the Tidal trial today--have been listening most of the afternoon on my headphones and it sounds great (streaming though a SONOS into my Bryston DAC).
Since i have a small music collection built mostly on ripped used CDs, and my musical tastes run to a fairly narrow spectrum of jazz and classical, Tidal is the way to go for me at this point...will be putting my late model 2012 Mac Mini with a fresh copy of Audirvana Plus on the market soon.....