easola1 -
Don’t be impressed. I try to be thorough (and accurate) but my technical competency with these things is pretty limited. I had Spotify first. I got used to it. Liked the layout and really like the Browse/Discover function. That introduced me to a lot of new music. I’m sure Tidal has something similar. Spotify also has a high success rate for containing the music I’m looking for. Tidal’s SQ is definitely better (even apart from the MQA files) - I prefer it to that of Spotify but I’m regularly unable to find albums on Tidal that are found on Spotify. I also encounter buffering delays (in the middle of songs, sometimes) with Tidal - especially at night - but never with Spotify. When listening on the main system, Tidal is the "go to" but I use Spotify as backup if an album can’t be found on Tidal to if buffering problems strike.
I do think Spotify’s SQ has improved in the years since I first started subscribing thought I’m sure the experts will tell me that is not the case. Anyway, at $10 a month for the Spotify subscription ($0.33 a day?) it was worth keeping Spotify even after I finally got the Tidal HiFi subscription. With either subscription, a dropped artist license is fairly rare...but it does occasionally happen. Go to play something from the library and find it grayed out, "That track is no longer available" (or words to that effect). Rare and nothing I get too concerned about. Like I said, if a recording is that important to me, I’ll just buy it.
Apart from using the iTunes player, I have nothing to offer on alternatives for managing AAC metadata. Don’t know if Roon does AAC (don’t have it). That should be something easy to learn, however. Good luck in your explorations.
Don’t be impressed. I try to be thorough (and accurate) but my technical competency with these things is pretty limited. I had Spotify first. I got used to it. Liked the layout and really like the Browse/Discover function. That introduced me to a lot of new music. I’m sure Tidal has something similar. Spotify also has a high success rate for containing the music I’m looking for. Tidal’s SQ is definitely better (even apart from the MQA files) - I prefer it to that of Spotify but I’m regularly unable to find albums on Tidal that are found on Spotify. I also encounter buffering delays (in the middle of songs, sometimes) with Tidal - especially at night - but never with Spotify. When listening on the main system, Tidal is the "go to" but I use Spotify as backup if an album can’t be found on Tidal to if buffering problems strike.
I do think Spotify’s SQ has improved in the years since I first started subscribing thought I’m sure the experts will tell me that is not the case. Anyway, at $10 a month for the Spotify subscription ($0.33 a day?) it was worth keeping Spotify even after I finally got the Tidal HiFi subscription. With either subscription, a dropped artist license is fairly rare...but it does occasionally happen. Go to play something from the library and find it grayed out, "That track is no longer available" (or words to that effect). Rare and nothing I get too concerned about. Like I said, if a recording is that important to me, I’ll just buy it.
Apart from using the iTunes player, I have nothing to offer on alternatives for managing AAC metadata. Don’t know if Roon does AAC (don’t have it). That should be something easy to learn, however. Good luck in your explorations.