Tidal HiFi Streaming?


Tidal just launched in October at $19.99/mo. They claim to ONLY steam at 44.1kHz/16 bit (1411kbs) so it is CD quality. Has anyone signed up for this? Is Tidal the way to go or Deezer? And, what would I need to start the service- I have WiFi or hardwire option, an iPad- would I need a laptop? External DAC? Sorry to ask so many questions but it's an exciting service, especially if I can save files to my hard drive. Rather than invest in an upgraded FM radio, this seems the way to go.
carja

Showing 1 response by yyzsantabarbara

I am using Tidal now for about 2 weeks. I listen about 8 to 10 hours at work. Occasional 1 second Tidal music pause when I switch browsers tasks. I have an extremely busy computer (software developer). However, music stream has never gone done.

At work I have an Emotiva DAC and Benchmard A2 speakers and a DELL XEON server. I was shocked at how much improvement I got with TIDAL and the DAC on those small speakers. I was assuming the A2's would not be able to deliver that much improvement over Beats, Spotify, Pandora. All which I used at work in the past.

This weekend I manually built up my Album and track lists on Tidal from my Beats account. No way I go back to Beats after Tidal. At home my home office system I have a Becnhmark DAC2 + KEF LS50 + Parasound A23 amp + DELL XEON server. I have zero interruptions in the music stream at home, my system is not as busy as at work. The quality of the sound is just phenomenal. I cannot see myself ever buying a CD again. Yes to some hi-res downloads but I see TIDAL being my source of new music.