TIDAL/NDS review

Posted by: Mostly Drummer on 07 November 2015

I got TIDAL up and running on my new NDS tonight.

 

It trounces Spotify, but my CD rips (WAV) sound better than the TIDAL streams (FLAC). To my ears, the CD rips have more information, dimensionality and dynamic range. That said, the TIDAL streams are still very listenable, and I wouldn't describe them as "worse" across the board because there's something unique about them that I actually like...maybe a certain warmth that just emphasizes different things in the music than the CD rips?

 

The convenience of being able to stream music of this quality through my main stereo (vs. a laptop with headphones, etc., as I usually do with Spotify and would now do with TIDAL) is massive.

 

The biggest disappointment is that there is far less music available on TIDAL than I expected. Of the first ten things I tried to find for my comparison test, five weren't available.

 

Regarding the NDS, I feel like I've been whisked into another dimension. Being able to access all of my music via an iPad (once I get about 4k CDs ripped) instead of digging out CDs one at a time is truly a transformative way to experience music at a time in life when my time to listen (and find and file CDs) is limited. Wow. Oh, and it sounds pretty good, too...

Posted on: 08 November 2015 by Hook

Nice post Mostly.  I agree with your thoughts on the NDS.  Also agree that the lossless streaming services I've sampled through my NDS's digital inputs sound very good, if perhaps just a shade behind streaming from my local QNAP NAS running Asset.

 

Am going to upgrade to 4.4 later today (after the football matches are over), but have no plans to try Tidal until they address the gapless issue. Deever Elite running on my Sonos Connect does gapless perfectly, and continues to satisfy my need for exploring new music. Live concerts via Music Vault on Sonos Connect are also a lot of fun.

 

My hope is that Deezer Elite will someday become available world wide, and Naim will integrate it as well as they have with Tidal.  Time will tell I suppose...

 

ATB.

 

Hook

Posted on: 08 November 2015 by Goon525

Hook,

Although I've moaned a lot about the lack of gapless on Tidal, in practice it hasn't been the problem I expected. Been listening to the new Pappano Aida without noticing any gaps. So you might want to give it a free trial.

Posted on: 08 November 2015 by Hook

Just saw ChrisByrd's post and your reply in the other thread. This is encouraging!  Will give Tidal another listen. Thanks Goon!

 

ATB.

 

Hook