Audirvana + gets Tidal integration

New versions of Audirvana and A+ remote installed, Tidal up and running and sounding superb from the off.  Next week will be testing Qobuz and Tidal back to back to see which we prefer but first album up Tidal sounds better.  A nice benefit is that there is a three month free trial of Tidal for Audirvana licence holders

Not just Tidal & Qobuz, but also Highresaudio Virtualvault  -  AUdirvana is rapidly adding to its flexibility: all it needs now is internet radio and its online streaming for those that want it will match its leading SQ.

I've been using Audirvana for a while now but was looking forward to Tidal integration as it is (so far) the only higher res streaming service available in Canada. It worked perfectly from the start and the 3 month free trial is a nice bonus. The sound quality is superb and the streaming has been rock-solid.

Agreed, rock solid and SQ that is better than Qobuz and on par with local files, however, I can't see my Tidal playlists in the remote app at the moment.

Ok, I can now see playlists but still can't add files to them from the remote app.  SQ is superb 

Tidal sound quality better than Qobuz? I'll have to get on that 3 month trial! 

In my view it's much better.  I liked Qobuz, thought it was a step up on Spotify but not as good as my local files, but in my honest opinion Tidal has a better interface and sound quality that is on par with my local files - indeed I'm not sure I could tell them apart in a blind test, and I'm very sure I could with Qobuz.  I intended spending next week comparing the two, after two days there is no need for me to do so - Qobuz will be cancelled and I will be keeping Tidal

My experience is similar.  I've compared some original CD's and  local high-res downloads I own to the Tidal stream through  Audirvana and they are extremely close. 16 bit/44.1khz audio can really sound great when its done well.

I'm sure everyone already knows this but on the Tidal site there is a link to a site that allows playlists from one streaming supply to be converted to another.  For someone who has had Spotify since it was only free with playlists I have had for years this has been a real boon and I've moved these across to Tidal now, but I could just as easily have moved them to Qobuz etc etc.  Very useful and impressive.

Can someone explain what a playlist is, and what use it is? I just think 'what music do I fancy today', and go straight to it in my collection, or browse through until something catches my eye, and never think in terms of a list of things to play. (But I have no interest in subscription/pnline streaming, so perhaps that's why it is meaningless to me?

I do the same thing too most of the time but occasionally I feel the need for a lot of a certain type of music and playlists allow me to access that without having to go into my collection, or they allow me to listen to a lot of different artists playing a certain type of music..  I have a 'Rock' playlist, a 'holiday music' playlist, a 'chilled tunes' music etc etc.   you could just as easily select genre I guess and play random but you'll get songs you dislike too.  Can also be used to collate all your favourite songs by a particular artist, I guess, so tht you can listen to all of the thin Lizzy songs you like and non if those you don't.  Great for lazy listening or mood listening, and brilliant for parties etc etc.  Have a play, you may be surprised 

Innocent Bystander posted:

Can someone explain what a playlist is, and what use it is? 

It's the modern equivalent of the mixtape. Without the worry of precisely timing release of the record-pause button after dropping the needle into the groove. And without the ability of marvelling at your handiwork when you get it right.

We used to make them for each other, with handwritten tracklists on the cassette box. Now you just send a link to your playlist. Sigh.

... and thanks dayjay for pointing out the Tidal integration. I really like it and I think Tidal playback through A+ is several notches up from Apple's core audio, on the scale of musical engagement. Eliades Ochoa was huge fun tonight.

Has anyone managed to get the trial to work 'on top' of their current TIDAL subscription?? I'm finding that the Audi 'get trial' path makes you sign in as a new subscriber?? Didn't have this problem when I had a trial period with my OPPO Blu-ray player?

Agreed Audi integration is a joy with the new added streaming

Nope. The solution is to cancel the existing subscription and sign up as a different subscriber.

dayjay posted:

.  Can also be used to collate all your favourite songs by a particular artist, I guess, so tht you can listen to all of the thin Lizzy songs you like and non if those you don't.  

Surely some mistake?

SJB

Little off topic but have any of you Audirvana users tried Dirac?

I haven't

Mr THX posted:

Little off topic but have any of you Audirvana users tried Dirac?

I tried it, shortly after converting to Audirvana, and shortly after a major room layout change. In fact Dirac has a plug-in that enables It to work with Audiv in its optimised mode (NB I think it was new at the time, and I to request it)

Whilst I could get it to flatten out the room response somewhat, it killed the souund, and was quite unlistenable. However, what Dirac showed me was what my ears were telling me, that my new listening position was seriously compromised. That was the  reason for trying Dirac, but I think there was just too much compensation to do.

i then rearranged the room again, with a better sound at the new listening position though only by moving Furniture between different room uses. I am now making assessments of acoustic room correction, which with a view to tacking that way, which I think will be better given my room. Advice generally is to get the room as right as you can, and use the likes of Dirac only for minor tweaking - it can't, for example, do anything with cancellation nodes.

I use an external speaker management system (DBX DriveRack PA2) for room correction because I use multiple sources other than my Mac. Its works extremely well with speakers that have constant directivity such as my Klein & Hummel O410 which use waveguides.  With conventional speakers the results are more variable and not always for the better.

I had forgotten - I started a thread on this Following my exoerience with Dirac : https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...-optimum-positioning

I'm interested in comments about Tidal SQ being better than Qobuz as I've found very little difference.  In fact the Paul Lewis Pictures at an Exhibition sounded slightly better in Qobuz.  I'm using A+ via a MacBook's optical out to my SU.

Tidal remains a frustrating experience for classical music though.  Many albums give no indication of which work a track belongs to, making it impossible to select a particular sonata, etc.

It may be system dependant but I can't reliably tell the difference between local files and Tidal and could happily live with just Tidal - for Qobuz I'd have used it for music discovery but did not feel it was as good as local files and I felt that the music sounded a little bloated at times in the same way that an mp3 can sound.  I'm using the latest version of Audirvana without ITunes from a Mac Mini into a Hugo with gizmos at either end of the USB connection.   I have just cancelled my Qobuz subscription and will be staying with Tidal which I am very very happy with.  I don't, however, listen to much classical music.

I realised the optical out on the Mac might not give the best SQ even with A+ so tried streaming Tidal and Qobuz using BubbleUPnP Server and the Lumin app on my iPad.  The display on the SU shows both Tidal and Qobuz delivering 44.1 FLAC, and I can still detect no real difference between either.  Both are close to streaming CD quality via MinimServer, though none sound as good as 96/24 bit files.  A lot of people think Tidal sounds better though, so I guess there must be something in it.

Once the trials of both end, I'll probably stick with Qobuz for its better selection of classical music (though Tidal's selection is very good), better metadata, CD booklets and lower classical only subscription.  Let's hope both survive.

Agreed, the more options there are the better, and some will suit others more, it's all good