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[entremet]

It's twice the price of Spotify, Rdio and others but the first to offer CD quality bitrates via FLAC.

They even have a bitrate test so you can test your best cans or speakers.

http://test.tidalhifi.com

Great for fans of lossless formats but it comes at a premium price of 20 bucks per month.

Here's a review:
http://toolsandtoys.net/reviews/tidal-high-fidelity-music-streaming/

Excerpt:

I mostly used a pair of Ultimate Ear 11 Pro custom in-ear monitors to listen to music with. But I also tried Tidal with a pair of $100 (open back) Grado SR 80e headphones, a pair of $200 earbuds from Normal, and of course, I used a pair of white Apple EarPods just to see a difference. (Spoiler, the white EarPods don’t provide a quality listening experience.)

For the most part, I struggled to tell a difference between 320 kbps and 1141 kbps while using the Normals and the SR 80e headphones. There were definitely moments where the difference was obvious, but switching between the two qualities wasn’t like unlocking two different doors. Both headphones have wonderful sound, but both bitrates were more than sufficient for quality sound. Using the $1,000+ in-ear monitors that were custom molded to my ears, however, was a different story. I could definitely tell a difference, and felt like I was hearing little bits of music I had only previously heard while being in a recording studio.

 

[UltraGunner]

I love this idea, but it will kill my data plan =/

 

[kulapik]

4 out of 5, but in most of them I didn't even notice a difference. I'll keep with Google Play Music.

 

[entremet]

I love this idea, but it will kill my data plan =/

I can't tell the difference in my setup. But a have a budget setup

 

[smuf]

I can barely tell the difference on my AKG K550s, not sure if it's the headphones or my ears.

 

[amnesiac]

Hmm can't tell a difference at all. :/

 

[NealMcCauley]

1141? I thought cd stereo flac files would be in the 600-800kbps range from what I see in my foobar info tab. Heck you might as well use the full 1411kbps wav file.

 

[Razorback]

Hmm, I don't know if it makes business sense to let people do that test.

I can't tell the difference at all. I appreciate the transparency on their part though.

 

[OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather]

4/5 correct, but when I put my email in and click "Get Tidal" nothing happens.

EDIT: Took the test again and it worked this time.

 

[Meier]

Does it allow last.fm scrobbling? Non starter without it IMO. The FAQ only indicates they get music info from last.fm and Discogs.com, but I didn't see any other instance of it mentioned.

 

[mackattk]

I got 4/5, some songs I can barely tell a difference while critical listening, and without listening to them side by side I would never know.

I am just using a Fiio dac and AiAiAi TMA-1 headphones.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Hmm, I don't know if it makes business sense to let people do that test.

I can't tell the difference at all. I appreciate the transparency on their part though.

I think it's good...for consumers and the company. It should increase customer satisfaction among those who subscribe, as they know they're buying into a difference that they can hear, no debates or discussions. They won't have customers that aren't sure, because those people would have been filtered out already. And that would increase their overall retention rates, I would think.

Hell, it might even convince a few people to upgrade their setups to find out exactly what they're missing.

 

[Ville Pukema]

Got 2 out of 5, tried to listen differences in what instruments I could hear and how good things sounded, but not in single on I could tell for sure which was which version. Quess work 100% from me, will try tomorrow again with more volume. Soundsystem is HDMI from latop to Denon x4000 and Tannoy mercury F2 speakers. I think It should be possible to tell difference with this setup. THOUGH I have to admit I had broken tweeter on one of my speakers and I dont even know how long it has been broken, might be something wrong with my ears.

 

[Ember Spirit]

got 4/5 but I could barely notice the difference

I have cheap headphones though

 

[MercuryLS]

3/5, meh. I'm still looking for a subscription service for like $5 a month. Hopefully Apple makes that happen in 2015.

 

[mackattk]

Got 2 out of 5, tried to listen differences in what instruments I could hear and how good things sounded, but not in single on I could tell for sure which was which version. Quess work 100% from me, will try tomorrow again with more volume. Soundsystem is HDMI from latop to Denon x4000 and Tannoy mercury F2 speakers. I think It should be possible to tell difference with this setup. THOUGH I have to admit I had broken tweeter on one of my speakers and I dont even know how long it has been broken, might be something wrong with my ears.

The highs are the only thing I can tell a difference on. It sounded a little bit fuller, especially on the last track. But like I said in a previous post, if I wasn't A-B comparing them and listening closely I would never know what I was missing.

 

[Google]

Got 4/5 and signed up for a trial. I like their app - it looks and feels a bit like a music magazine/website in the vein of Pitchfork.

So good so far.

 

[Enco]

4/5

I have Sennheiser HD518 headphones. Some I feel the difference was clear in. Especially the first one.

That being said, no way I'm paying £20 a month. These guys are crazy.

 

[Google]

3/5, meh. I'm still looking for a subscription service for like $5 a month. Hopefully Apple makes that happen in 2015.

You want apple to be the cheapest streaming service on the market?

OK THEN.

 

[daycru]

3/5, meh. I'm still looking for a subscription service for like $5 a month. Hopefully Apple makes that happen in 2015.

Spotify has a 3 months for $1 (as in .33 a month) deal going. https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/

 

[CzarTim]

Was able to get 5/5 on the test. Will definately use the free trial, but there is zero way I am paying $20 a month, no matter how good it is. Spotify works just fine at half the price.

 

[Junior Mint]

You want apple to be the cheapest streaming service on the market?

OK THEN.

Pretty sure Verge and a bunch of Mac rumor sites already reported that Apple is trying hard to push down the cost of their upcoming streaming service to $5 a month.

 

[MercuryLS]

You want apple to be the cheapest streaming service on the market?

OK THEN.

There was a rumour that Apple was pushing for $5 monthly streaming and pitching it to labels saying they'll make up the revenue drop off in volume. Lets see if that happens, I don't care who does it but I would like to pay less than $10 a month for music streaming (as I prefer to buy albums for the most part).

 

[CzarTim]

Does it allow last.fm scrobbling? Non starter without it IMO. The FAQ only indicates they get music info from last.fm and Discogs.com, but I didn't see any other instance of it mentioned.

It does, in preferences like Spotify.

 

[Phoenix]

It's twice the price of Spotify, Rdio and ...

Lost me right there.

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

Sennheiser HD 380 Pros. I feel like I could hear a difference, and I got 4/5 correct, but it's so marginal with my headphones that it isn't worth the price upgrade in my opinion. There's just barely more range, and the higher fidelity tickled my inner ear a little more.

 

[Sini]

Oh wow, I got 5 out of 5. Three of them were total guesses.

 

[bloodforge]

4/5 with my Audio Technica ATH-M50x through my Onkyo receiver.

$20 a month is too much though.

 

[Prototype-03]

Oh wow, I got 5 out of 5. Three of them were total guesses.

So what you're saying is that you couldn't tell the difference.

 

[Jzero]

I have a decent set up and only got 2/5 lol.
Oh well that's what happens when you're nearly deaf in one ear.

 

[threetri333]

Does anyone know of a good software to play music?

I just got my Sennheisser HD 600 and O2/ODAC.

 

[Sini]

So what you're saying is that you couldn't tell the difference.

I couldn't hear any differences in those three clips, yes.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I can't get on board with this until Taylor Swift tells me what to do.

 

[kiun]

Thanks. Signed up for a 2 weeks trial, not sure if I will keep this since I'm already paying for Spotify Sonos support .

 

[Fezan]

inst this what basically sony unlimited does ? High quality music streaming

 

[justjustin]

1/5. I just picked A for everything because I couldn't hear a bit of difference on my DT 880s. I just use my PC's motherboard as my sound device. Maybe it actually matters with a high-quality sound card and a receiver or something.

 

[Mesoian]

I love this idea, but it will kill my data plan =/

Totally. The average US data plan simply can't handle this.

4/5. Dixie Chicks faked me out with banjo twang reverb

 

[jts]

You want apple to be the cheapest streaming service on the market?

OK THEN.

Calm down, Google.

 

[robotrock]

4/5

fuck the dixies

 

[Stumpokapow]

Probability you'll get x/5 right by blind guessing in an A/B test:
5/5: 3%
4/5: 15%
3/5: 31%
2/5: 31%
1/5: 15%
0/5: 3%

Probability you'll get at least 3 right by blind guessing in an A/B test: 50%
Probability you'll get between 2 and 4 right by blind guessing: 77%

What you actually want is a test of 10 samples, and it'll be significant at p<0.05 if you get 8, 9, or 10 right.

 

[Aprico]

3/5, meh. I'm still looking for a subscription service for like $5 a month. Hopefully Apple makes that happen in 2015.

I pay $5 for Spotify with a student discount. All you really need to get it is a student email, iirc I didn't have to verify anything.

 

[SteveWinwood]

yes i do have shitty headphones on right now thanks for noticing tidal

Probability you'll get x/5 right by blind guessing in an A/B test:
5/5: 3%
4/5: 15%
3/5: 31%
2/5: 31%
1/5: 15%
0/5: 3%

Probability you'll get at least 3 right by blind guessing in an A/B test: 50%
Probability you'll get between 2 and 4 right by blind guessing: 77%

What you actually want is a test of 10 samples, and it'll be significant at p<0.05 if you get 8, 9, or 10 right.

im sure the tidal people are writing up their scientific proposals as we speak for this study

 

[terrene]

This is awesome. There are many instances of bad encodes on Google Play and Spotify both. Off the top of my head, the Deluxe version of Nirvana's Nevermind on Google Play sounds terrible and watery. With lossless audio files being quite streamable -- about the cost of a low-def YouTube video of the same length -- there's no reason to have such lossy encoding at all. Plus at $20 a month, musician payouts will be significantly better.

Must investigate more, it COULD lose on the features -- if there's no social functionality, no cloud storage for your uploads, and a crappy library, then it's probably a bit early.

I already pay $20 a month in music service fees since I have both Google Music All Access and Spotify.

 

[dhlt25]

got 3/5 using my office computer crappy built in sound card with my old ultimate ears super fi 5. Pretty sure I can make out the difference if I use my home set-up. however it's really miniscule tho, not worth the double price

 

[rtcn63]

Unless Spotify's bitrate was so low that it degraded the sound quality (don't use it, no idea), you likely won't notice a difference even with discerning equipment. At least not enough to take the hit in price/bandwidth.

If Tidal uses better masters than Spotify, than maybe. I'm guessing not though.

 

[ReplacementPelican]

I got 4/5, though I must admit that the difference isn't massive.

I'm using some Sennheiser over-ears by the way, budget model.

 

[jwk94]

There's a market for this at $20 a month?

 

[Josh7289]

If 44.1 KHz 16-bit FLAC converted from source (not ripped from CD) ever becomes the digital music store standard, I would be pleased.

 

[old]

I've got some nice cans and unlimited mobile data, so I'm interested. How's the library selection?

 

[Google]

I've got some nice cans and unlimited mobile data, so I'm interested. How's the library selection?

Seems fine. Had some underground early 00's English punk/rock that is always my barrier for catalogues.

Do a trial and see.