Tidal VS Spotify on ND5 XS (or other Naim product that uses Naim app)

I have not tried Spotify, but they do offer free subscription accounts (with ads). They have also been sending emails for 3 months of their premium service for 99 cents.  I use Tidal Hifi and after my 90 day free trial I am signed up for the $19.99/mo subscription. I believe it is worth the money for all the music there is to explore and easy navigation.

seakayaker posted:

I have not tried Spotify, but they do offer free subscription accounts (with ads). They have also been sending emails for 3 months of their premium service for 99 cents.  I use Tidal Hifi and after my 90 day free trial I am signed up for the $19.99/mo subscription. I believe it is worth the money for all the music there is to explore and easy navigation.

Unfortunately, the 99 cent offer from Spotify is not available in my region. I might try it anyway, it is only 9.99$ per month. Not much to lose if I don't like it.

I agree about Tidal. I will also keep my Tidal subscription. I have only had it for 6 weeks, and I already wonder how I managed to live without it! 

Daniel H. posted:

I have been enjoying an ND5 XS for 6 weeks now. I subscribed to the 90 day Hifi tier trial of Tidal. I will stay subscribed with Tidal, because the sound quality is very good, and I love the way it integrates with the Naim app. 

For example. If I am playing an album by Chet Baker, the app shows me all of the Chet baker albums available on Tidal. It looks like the Tidal albums are in my collection. It is really easy to use, and well presented. 

I find Tidal has a lot of music, but It does lack some music. That is why I was thinking of joining Spotify as well. Sadly, Spotify is limited to 320kbps VS the 1411kbps CD quality of Tidal. My questions regarding Spotify are:

1. Is the sound quality at 320kbps decent, good? Comparable to Tidal Hifi?

2. Does Spotify integrate with the Naim app in the same way as Tidal? If not, is the integration good?

3. Does Spotify have 95% of the same albums as Tidal? Or is there more and different music to be found?

Do any people find it worthwhile to be subscribed to both?

I have both Tidal and Spotify.

Spotify as a wider selection for me in the form of Asian music. To me, I am quite confident of saying that Softify have a wider library for most listener.

I also like Spotify recommendation of tracks when I am playing a self created playlist. This allows me to build up my playlist rather quickily and it is a joy to use.

Sound wise, it is not as good as Tidal but it is still a joy to listen overall.

I also use Spotify on my mobile device when I go running as it is able to select the track with the right BPM when you run. This feature is almost the only reason alone to justify my spotify subscription.

Integration with Naim app is not as nice as Tidal as you need to open Spotify separately for track selection but for volume control, you need to switch back to Naim.

1. For me through a Nova or even Muso and Atom, Spotify is poor.

2. Spotify has native support through the Spotify app.

3. Not sure I thought Spotify had a larger catalogue, but also find Tidal very Yank focused.

I am subscribed to both and Deezer, only reason was Spotify integrates with Android Auto and Spotify were unique with the £15 a month family plan, but now Deezer offer that and lossless MQA.

I would say if you like Tidal and the catalogue then stay put.

When we say Spotify is limited to 320kbps versus the 1411kbps CD quality of Tidal are we comparing apples with apples?

The reason I ask is I rip CDs, using dbpoweramp, to either ALAC or FLAC VBR. The bitrate, in the metadata field, indicates a range of approx. 600-900kbps from track to track. How does this relate to Tidal's claimed 1411kbps.

I've no experience of listening to Tidal but can only say Spotify, while a little lower quality compared to CD, is never the less very acceptable. If I like a particular album then I'll buy the CD.

Dave

Spotify is good for listening to see if you like an album..and then buying it on another format

Tidal hifi is great for listening to an album and if it's not a "must have" in a different format...than you can add it to your favourites and hear it when ever you like in good quality

Whatever happened to the Spotify lossless cd quality rumours of last March, all gone very quiet?

Gazza posted:

Whatever happened to the Spotify lossless cd quality rumours of last March, all gone very quiet?

There probably looking very closely at how the competition in this market is fairing...and that doesn't seem all that well at the moment...

I'm giving Tidal another chance after initialy trying it for a month and not being very impressed with the user interface the first time around. Unfortunately there is still a lot of problems on the Android side of the Tidal integration with the Naim app. The Tidal stand alone app works much smoother, but doesn't support controlling Naim streamers. Spotify on the other hand works much better and you can control your Naim device right within the original app.