So can anyone tell me why “HiFi” quality through Tidal sounds better than my CD collection ripped to 16-bit FLAC?

x

Also, keep it in the memory banks, if you still want to continue in may, we can share a family account for cheap. Moot is probably keen too.

There's a transfer option on one of the tidal website pages.

https://tidal.com/

(oh, bottom of main desktop site.)

Not all remasters are created equal.

And some albums, like those classics from 70s, may have had a new remaster for every new format.

When cds first dropped, they were terrible for quality a lot of the time. Then album anniversaries come along.

Some albums have specific issues. (miles Davis kind of blue was recorded too fast initially, so every CD version of album was a touch sharp until the reissue vinyl for 50th anniversary.)

Queen albums are a minefield. They've done remasters multiple times for individual album anniversaries and fro reissues of their whole collection. (you'll note 3 versions of their albums on tidal. 2012 remasters, regular, and others (that's not even necessarily including the different tidal versions.)

I can only speak on Queen stuff with some authority as I'm a big fan, and my best mate is a bigger fan and has actually tracked down all the different remasters.

There's different regional remasters and as far as cds goes with some queen stuff, you're looking for original cds from specific countries.

For example, there's original pressing (like vinyl) German remasters for some albums that are Waaaay better than the 2012 or 97 remasters. (I think 97 was the other big remaster year for Queen albums), others it's the 86 Japanese CD remaster that's the gold.

And as per moots thread about good sounding albums, it's largely down to bricking and dynamic range in the later remasters. See the pics of MJ's black and white.

As mentioned previously, the Queen albums haven't survived even the tidal master treatment. As my Mate says there hasn't been a remaster of news of the world that's got it right yet.

Yet albums either side of it have been done well.

I guess there's an element of subjectivity, but also a need for legit care and proper work to get remasters right.

Still, so far, it's that queen album that's been the onyl real disappointment for me on tidal.

So how are folks finding tidal after a week or so?

I'm 100% sold on sound quality.

Have sussed how to get albums to queue. (play next for first one, then add to queue.)

Weaknesses:

- no straight up all new releases section.

- no master quality only section.

I'm absolutely loving it and can definitely hear the clarity difference through my speaker so guessing through headphones it would be even more obvious.

It's not as user friendly as Spotify that's for sure and the front end is a bit messy but hoping the more I use the more personalised it might become.

I'll probably end up sticking with it after this initial 5 month trial although the Tidal family version with lossless is double the cost of Spotify Premium so it may depend on whether my wife notices the hike!

Only slight annoyance so far is the lack of PS4 app. Some of the chosen by artist playlists on there are fun. Also listened to The Game and Miranda Lambert's latest on it last week.

Facewon wrote:

Well, moot is in too, I'm pretty sure, so if you're the only one who needs a login, we're at 3 people.

Family split 3 ways will be less than spotty.

I'm happy to pay and then set up a PayPal.

I already do it with Netflix and Stan and google play with other mates.

Well that is a lovely gesture and I would more than happily chip in Face if no one else takes you up on it.

Big win on tidal yesterday. Felt like cranking everything everything's Arc.

Always found it a touch harsh to listen to.

Its quantised to fuck and very precise, and lead vocals are pretty up in mix, and also very precise.

Wave files on Google play must have looked like a latice fence.

Tidal version let's it breath. Still precise, and there's a bunch of stuff I'd not noticed, but it doesn't, frankly, give me a headache.

Win.

Hmm, looks like second mystery solved. It had paused downloading. Message wasn't obvious first time I looked.

Well, tidal support on twitter is quick to respond.

Of course their answer was to uninstall.

Handy thing though, it has good options for clearing or re-adding downloads.

Decided it was time for a clean out anyway.

Seems to have worked.

So anyway, Tidal. I did a little bit of side by side comparison with Spotify and yeah, there's a difference. But it's not night and day by any means. It's most apparent in percussion and drums, particularly high frequency stuff like hats and crashes. And I'd say the sound has more depth and clarity overall, but frankly I often had to strain to hear a difference. 

A few black marks against Tidal - firstly the interface is a bit balls. I don't like how they seem to jumble up downloaded and non downloaded stuff together. I see the downloaded stuff has it's own tab but really I prefer the way Spotify does it. Secondly, in spite of many albums and playlists, my home screen is still full of recommendations for hiphop, Beyonce, Billy Eilish, The Weekend and just all shit that I would never listen to in a million years. Spotify wouldn't dare show me any of that. 

And finally, probably the final straw against Tidal - it won't play nice with the audio settings on my Sony, so not even the equalizer has any effect on the sound in Tidal. From what I've read this is true for most Android phones and iPhone too. You're stuck with the sound it decides to give you so no bass or treble boosting or any kind of equalizing is possible. Which is frankly shit. I can't see myself ponying up extra money to lose features.

For the record, my Galaxy S10e and Sony NW-A105 both adjust sounds for Tidal.

Agreed on the offline mode though.

Defo agree on some of that. Re home screen, I basically ignore it.

Its actually better to look on the explore tab. That's where all the personalisation comes.

(and also, the genre sections are also much better than the home page.)

The mqa stuff is dodge as much because of that format as much as anything.

Think I posted some stuff in here while you were away. I've found master quality stuff to be awesome, but I'm not a/b testing it. (basically, I suspect a lot of it is awesome because especially the older albums getting the master treatment were classics and had pretty awesome production to begin with.)

(I've unofficially a/b tested because every so often stuff has been on my phone as Hifi instead of master and I haven't noticed.)

Its the broad strokes that matter for me. It broadly sounds better on quite good equipment. That's worth it.