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What is you TIDAL setup?

A lot of audiophiles are waxing lyrical about this new HD streaming technology, proclaiming that this may be the best thing that happened to audio since the dawn of CDs. Positive reviews abound everywhere online. I succumbed and ordered a subscription. I'm glad I did, because TIDAL is freaking awesome! For a meager 20 clams a month, you suddenly have a 25 million CD collection at your fingertips! That alone is mind boggling and unthinkable a decade or so ago. I have been a SPOTIFY subscriber for a long time and can confidently say that TIDAL's streaming service is significantly better sounding and worth the extra subscription fee. I still kept SPOTIFY because, simply put, it has more selections. If SPOTIFY will offer HD streaming in the future, I will be in sonic nirvana! Pardon me for burying the leade. How did you incorporate TIDAL into your system? Here's my setup:

My system is composed of:

Shelter 7000
Well Tempered Amadeus
OPPO 103D - Transport and Blu ray Player
MAC MINI - upgraded SSD w/ 16GB RAM. Loaded with Amarra software
Auralic VEGA
Hovland HP100MC
Symphonic Line RG7 MK4
ISOCLEAN 80A3
Gemme Audio Tanto Karbon V3
iPAD Gen 2 with Retina Display
Wireworld Silver Eclipse Cables

I did not want to go through the hassle of moving my tricked-out MAC MINi from the computer nook to the listening room so I figured out a way to use my iPAD as the source. You cannot plug your iPAD directly into the VEGA. You need an interface. This is where the OPPO comes in where it also serves as a CD and Blu Ray discs transport. You have to buy an iPAD HDMI adapter. Plug in the iPAD using the adapter to the back of the OPPO and you're in business. Did I mention that the OPPO can also play whatever music file you throw at it?! Be it AIFF, FLAC, DSD, etc.. For the price, it's one amazing technologically-packed piece of gadgetry. Let's move on. Ensure you have the TIDAL app downloaded to the iPAD. Connect OPPO to the VEGA via toslink or COAX and Vega to the preamp, receiver or amp and you're ready to play!

In my setup, I plugged the VEGA straight to the amp using ENDLER attenuators. I found the resultant sound much more transparent and dynamic than going through a preamp. For additional info, using the VEGA's built in volume control is not as sonically satisfying. I found the frequency extremes truncated and the overall sound dynamically constricted. This is especially true at lower listening levels.

So there! In the end, I believe I was able to save some money by buying the OPPO vice the Auralic Aries. Plus I now have a very capable transport that can also play my old CD and Blu Ray collections. I'm immensely enjoying TIDAL. I haven't touched my turntable or played any CDs for almost a month. Well..., gotta go! I still have 24,999,824 CDs to listen to.
aisip
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,271 posts
 
I didn't mention my setup in an earlier post... I stream from my wifi to an iphone docked on a wadia 170i (upgraded welborne power supply), peachtree nova pre / 220 amp, monitor audio gx50's, signal canble silver resolution cables, pangea power cords.

I'm really surprised that a year or two ago I could not tell the difference between spotify and cd's but I heard the difference between spotify and tidal right away. Many songs that I know well sounded so different with all the underlying details / micro details that I thought they were remixes only to realize that they were the same songs. I've never had such a huge "hearing things for the first time" revelation.

Now that I've picked up on these nuances in the music, it would be hard to go back. Its like thinkjng your car doesn't have any dents, then one day you see a dent (that has probably always been there) and now you can't not notice it.

On a side note, I much prefer Spotify's user interface and music selection compared to Tidal. Tidal can be downright frustrating for me while searching. You have to spell the artists name perfectly or it wont pull it up. I can't figure out how to erase tracks that I've saved in folders created by me. Discovering new music is much easier and more intuitive on spotify also. I don't know which is easier; trying to convince spotify to up thier quality or convinve Tidal to increase thier music selection and improve thier interface.

One other thing I'd like to add is that these songs that sounded so much better on Tidal vs. Spotify didn't even have the "hifi" logo lit up on Tidal, so in conclusion, Tidals lower fidelity still blew away Spotify!!
the_kid's avatar
the_kid
465 posts
 
Macbook Pro or iOS device -> via Bluetooth -> AudioEngine B-1 -> via Toslink -> Genesis Digital Lens -> SPDIF -> Electrocompaniet ECD-1 -> Unison Unico SE

Cheers,

-Chris
daverz
487 posts
 
I'm using ickStream, iPeng, a Squeezebox Touch, and an Auralic Vega DAC.

There's a big downside to this in that the Tidal library is not at all browsable using ickStream. There's no ability to "drill down" beyond the 100 items listed for a genre (and "Classical" is an extremely broad categorization, as are some of the other genres). You have to know what you are looking for and then find the search string that will locate it.

Search just gives you a limited listing of the results. Search on "haydn", for example, and you only get a list of 100 items, most of them crap. If you search on "haydn creation", you do get a good selection of recordings of that work.

I've only been evaluating Tidal for a few days. Some problems I've run into:

* Some dropouts a few days ago. Streaming has been smooth since.
* A few times, the stream spontaneously skipped to the next track.
* Tracks from the label MDG won't play.

The primitive search engine and lack of browsability are the most troublesome issues, though.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
I am using ickstream plug-in to Logitech Media Server, a Modwright Squeezebox Transporter player/DAC, analog out to my Doshi Alaap.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Oh, and I agree, the search functionality pretty much...what's the word I'm looking for??? Oh, yeah, SUCKS!!!
If you keep having drop-outs, make sure you don't have too many other processes running. I was having trouble w that at first.
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