Tidal sound quality

Hi Graham,

My observations are that some recordings sound a bit worse and with others I can't detect any differences spot on.

Fred

I have to say Graham my experience thus far has been completely the opposite. I had a throughly enjoyable listening session on Friday evening and found the SQ to be truly excellent, equally on par with CD. At times it actually felt (to my ears) better than CD quality although I know that it isn't. I was listening to broad range of music as well anything from Chillout, Rock, Indie, House and Motown. It was certainly room filling (volume at 50 on Qute 2 / Nap100) and surprisingly detailed to the point where I heard things on certain tracks that I hadn't previously. 

Naim have done a thoroughly good job of integrating this so much so, that I don't know whether my CD collection will be increasing in size anymore and if my experience continues to be this engaging and enjoyable I'll definitely continue with the monthly subscription 

I was just saying to my partner this morning that whilst Tidal was better than Spotify, both sound really dead on my 172/200 system. Tidal less so than Spotify. That was after comparing my rip to a version on both platforms. Don't know why, but the enjoyment was just not the same. So I'll stick with buying CDs I want to rip and use streaming occasionally to do a pre listen.

Graham, you are not imagining it. Some Tidal output sounds very good, but a lot of it is decidedly lacklustre. Whether it's anything to do with the FLAC/WAV differences I don't know, but I'm convinced that you don't hear anything like the potential from your system when feeding it Tidal. 

Good!  Glad to hear that you are enjoying it and this just proves the point of "your mileage may vary..."

Yep.  I hadn't expected compressed streaming to be anywhere near close to CD quality but I did have hopes that uncompressed 44.1/16 streaming would be a whole lot closer.  It *is* closer but unfortunately (fortunately given the system?) I can still hear a very noticeable difference.

That means that the main benefit for me is the chance to explore different music and check out albums before I buy them on CD.  I'm not sure the £20/month is really justified under such circumstances.

I am very satisfied with Tidal SQ on my NDX. I did not expect it will sound so good. Very positive surprice for me. I am sure I will continue to pay even after trial period.

The variable SQ & the fact that it doesn't match CD is no surprise, its better than Spotify but that isn't difficult.  

Its OK to check out whats worth buying, but that can be done with lower SQ in all honesty.

What I am disappointed with is the availability of jazz & classical,, its focused on a younger ear & that's only to be expected considering the owner(s)  .  

Having listened to other streaming services around others systems, the one to beat seems to be Deezer Elite on Sonos for song/album count & catalogue selections.  

Would be nice to listen on a Naim  ..........   

Spent some more time listening today. Some tracks rate as an "OK" but some are totally dire. 

For instance, have a listen to Enjoy The Silence by Hybrid from the album Classics. Does.  Not.  Sound.  Good.  

Then in you see that it is AAC, 44.1 but 96 Kbps!  

Admittedly not Naim's fault of course!

I would agree with that. A lot of the older stuff I have tried to listen to is coming through at supposedly AAC 96 and sounds poor and a lot of stuff I have tried just isnt available (perhaps just a case of "yet") In some cases there is a mixture of FLAC & AAC 96 on a single album or a track will come through as AAC 96 but, oddly, if I go back to it it then comes through as FLAC. Some stuff (eg Suzanne Vega) has sounded quite good but overall imo "CD quality" is over egging it a bit. However, Its early days and still 3 free months for Tidal to develop further

I am sure most of the sq differences with Tidal compared to local streamed media fall mainly to three areas.

1) Tidal lossless streams FLAC, locally I stream wav. These differences appear audible on Naim.

2) Seemingly many of the masters on Tidal are different to my CD masters, and often I prefer the balance of my CD master.. Though not always. If I find the same master on Tidal as CD then sonic differences largely are driven I suspect by 1)

3) Tidal does have AAC only files for some titles.. Clearly these are woefully short of lossless SQ

Also I suspect when Tidal throughput is on the edge, and the streamer is working harder to fetch the data from Tidal I feel SQ slightly suffers. In a steady state where Tidal throughput is fine, the network behaviour is the same as local UPnP streaming, and I feel sounds the best.

Simon

Of the dozen or so albums I've tried on Tidal 10 were equal to a cd, 1 was mediocre and 1 was dire and has sounded better on Spotify.

Will I continue when the free trial ends? not sure as I will have to upgrade my BT account to unlimited download to take advantage of the music service on offer, therefore extra cost over and above the £20 for Tidal.

Some classics are not really good on Tidal. Most of the other stuff sounds identical to red book some of them even better, I think because of different mastering.

Over all I think its worth the monthly fee.

Best regards

Jorg

Having used Tidal now for a bit and having compared some tracks/albums to ripped CD's, I suspect Simon has hit the nail on the head re explaining SQ differences we are all hearing - some worse, some the same and some bizarrely better with Tidal (presumably where Tidal are using a better (re)master than the one we have in our CD collection).

Whether one continues with a Tidal beyond the trial period might well depend on Tidal's catalogue of your preferred genres and the quality of the versions (mastering) of that catalogue compared to our own CDs/downloads. The breadth of the Tidal catalogue can be quickly evaluated but the quality of the masters within that catalogue will take all of the 90 days to evaluate.

I wasn't happy with the SQ of Tidal when I tried their free trial. 

Tidal music sounds less alive and Boomy in many recordings, Hope all these comments will be noted by Tidal and things will improve. As for Naim Intergration it is just superpe, Com on Naim give us Qobuz plz 

I have listened to Tidal for some days now on 272. The firmware update was easy – once I got a PC. My two Macs could not do the job 

The quality of Tidal seams almost equal to ripped CDs from my HDX/DAC, or worse. I did not expect otherwise, so I’m not disappointed.  I’ll be using for easy listening or listening for new music to buy . It can never be my primary music source, and the price tag through is rather high.

Given the choice for DSD’s on the 272, that’s more fun to look into.

I'm pleased to have found this thread because I wondered if it was just me. My experience with Tidal has been very disappointing. I'm seeing 44.1mHz but at times it sounds more like mp3. It's not about wav vs flac because flac served locally sounds amazing.

it can vary, classic is not good at Tidal at  all, at least what I heard, but sometimes other directions of music can be very good, specially if you have playlists with friends at dinner or party time

I don't listen to classical, but I haven't bought a single CD since signing up to Tidal some months ago after my 90 day trial via Meridian Sooloos. I'm perfectly happy with the quality, though I'm sure there are exceptions. I need only add 2 or 3 newly released albums per month into my library to get added value from my £20 so I have no complaints. It's great to have instant access to (mainly) CD quality albums instantly.

Maybe the SQ variations with Tidal are genre specific. It has been mentioned already above that Tidal is not great for classical - I couldn't comment as this is not my preferred genre.

Tonight I was listening to some (rather dated admittedly) Jazz/Jazz-funk stuff from the 80's and it sounded great via Tidal - George Duke, Dave Grusin, Bob James - there you go I have revealed my guilty pleasures to one and all!

It could be that the last time I heard this stuff it was on a rather (well very) crappy system but the memory cells work overtime when to hear old stuff anew and of course it sounds better. I do think however it is a bit more than bringing SQ of old stuff you have heard years (OK decades) ago up to date. I genuinely enjoyed this evening's listening session on Tidal and without it I would never have attempted to dig this stuff out on CD. It therefore has to be the sheer convenience of Tidal (or indeed any other available CD quality streaming service) and immediate availability of material, as well as ultimate sound quality, that must play a part in my final decision to continue with the subscription after the trial.

I must say however it is going to be difficult to switch off such a diverse and enjoyable source of music. The ability to relive your youth and discovering talent you have to date not appreciated in such a convenient and available way at all times is a tempting proposition and not an expensive one either.

I for one hope Tidal and the other protagonists survive the inevitale teething problems.

I've really enjoyed tidal since the integration into the Naim App. Generally I think SQ is pretty good - considering it is streaming off a myriad of servers that could be anywhere in the world, going through countless switches, hubs and cable to get to my living room. Considering how obsessive many of us are in terms of what drives we use to store music, what cable is used between storage and streamer, quality of switch what shelving both sit on etc, etc - I think it's a minor miracle it sounds as good as it does.

This evening I put a 2 album playlist together of Ben Webster albums. One a  24/196 Flac that I purchased from Qobuz and the other from Tidal. Have to say the sound quality of the tidal playback compared to the hi res files streamed locally from my NAS was not bad at all. My wife casually commented on how good the (Tidal) album sounded.

I'm very happy with it and think it very likely I will continue when the free trial is up as I've found it a great tool for discovering and enjoying new music. If I find something I really like then I'll buy in hi res (if it's available), but otherwise very happy to play through Tidal.

Having said the above, I listen to little classical music and perhaps the imperfections of what Tidal is pushing out are not so apparent on the type of music I use it for.

Well, what's the point of having a really good system and then feeding it with a sub-standard source?

Clearly it's not about the £20/month, it's about optimising the system's capabilities

Any idea why certain albums disapeared from the Tidal? ASIA Phoenix or Adrenaline Mob for example?