Called ‘Tidal Masters’, these music files are encoded using MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology, which the company says allows for more efficient packing of the hi-res data, though it has its detractors. It also includes tracks mixed in immersive sound formats ( Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Audio recordings).īut hi-res and CD-quality streams aren’t the be-all and end-all of Tidal’s offering. Besides CD-quality streams, ‘Tidal HiFi Plus’ affords its subscribers access to millions of hi-res audio tracks that are typically 24-bit/96kHz but do go up to 24-bit/192kHz. However, there are still some perks that are reserved for Tidal’s top tier. Subscribers to the newly rebranded ‘Tidal HiFi’ plan get interruption-free access to audio at up to CD quality. Tidal has long been at the forefront of high-quality streaming, but the service has recently made several changes to its pricing structure that sees it becoming more accessible with the inclusion of lossless 16-bit 44.1kHz audio streams in its standard plan. Now, you can sign up starting at just £10 /$10 / AU$12. Best free music apps: free music on Android and iPhone.Hi-res music streaming services compared: which should you sign up for?.So if you're looking to try something new, which is the best music streaming service for you? Read on to find out. After all, when your playlists are set up and your listening habits are learned by a certain service, it's harder to decide to switch. But you don't have to sacrifice quality Tidal, Apple, Amazon and Qobuz all have subscription tiers that allow you to access CD-quality and even hi-res streams.Īs paid-for access to music takes over from outright ownership, users are likely to be signed up to one service or another for decades to come, so it makes sense to fully investigate what's out there before blindly committing to a rolling subscription for the rest of your life. Those concerned less by the outright quality and more with getting bang for your buck can listen to compressed streams at 320kbps from the likes of Spotify. The audio quality of these streams varies between services. There are also discounts to be had for students, as well as savings if you share your account with another person or your household. Tidal for choice of some US centric music.Once you decide to pay, it's usually by way of a set monthly subscription fee, though some services, such as Qobuz, offer a reduction if you sign up for a full year. Qobuz is good for European content including EPs and the edge on classical, but main advantage is overall SQ it offers PCM (lossless) SQ performance options upto 192/24 and increasingly new content at baseline definition of 44.1/24 and 48/24. Tidal is good for their playlists, US urban type media and Jazz, and if you have limited and baseline/legacy lossless PCM requirements (they only offer 44.1/16), or you want MQA processed media. I did provide feedback to Tidal questioning their lack of lossless hidef or new basic resolution formats such as lossless 44.1/24 and 48/24 and whether they had plans to make it available… I never even got a reply… so I assumed they are not that interested in customers who want full SQ performance, so I closed the account. I ran both side by side for a while, and curated through Roon… and it was Tidal that I ceased because of some limited content that I wanted but mainly because of limited SQ performance options… even with a DAC that could do full decode of MQA processed media. However on baseline PCM (44.1/16) for the same master I concur Qobuz and Tidal sound the same … funnily enough no doubt because you are receiving the same media from both… From my perspective Tidal has the best playlists, but the gaps in the Tidal European catalogue compared to Qobuz was irritating but not a show stopper, and indeed there were gaps the other way round too, but less fir me, but the major lack of true hidef on Tidal holds back its overall SQ, even new releases on 44.1/24 or 48/24 were decimated down to 44.1/16 on Tidal… really disappointing for the music recording lover.
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