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  #21  
Old 04-11-2018, 12:06 PM
nicoff nicoff is offline
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Default My Experience with Music Players and Music Servers... So far

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Originally Posted by bruno2009 View Post
... further I now added a test abo with (lossless?) Tidal. First there is no noticable difference between Apple Music and Tidal to me - sometimes I even prefer the Apple Music playback (which I find strange as from what I understand Apple Music has lower quality than Tidal?)… More important though - none came close to Vinyl. CD was also superior. Of course the quality of my hardware is way higher with my analoge setup - so its really not a fair or serious compare - just thought I‘d share my impressions though...

Do you pay Tidal $20/month for a premium subscription? If not, then you are not getting CD quality music from Tidal.

If you are a premium subscriber to Tidal, then make sure that in Settings, under Streaming you have selected the “Master” audio quality option.
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  #22  
Old 04-11-2018, 04:20 PM
PeterMusic PeterMusic is offline
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Originally Posted by bruno2009 View Post
... further I now added a test abo with (lossless?) Tidal. First there is no noticable difference between Apple Music and Tidal to me - sometimes I even prefer the Apple Music playback (which I find strange as from what I understand Apple Music has lower quality than Tidal?)… More important though - none came close to Vinyl. CD was also superior. Of course the quality of my hardware is way higher with my analoge setup - so its really not a fair or serious compare - just thought I‘d share my impressions though...
You haven't given us quite enough information to put your thoughts into context. When you say "Apple Music", I assume you mean compressed files. Unless you're at least using 16/44 files in a lossless format, such as AIFF if you're an Apple guy, you are never going to get decent sound. Also, what DAC are you using?
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  #23  
Old 04-11-2018, 07:57 PM
nicoff nicoff is offline
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Originally Posted by PeterMusic View Post
You haven't given us quite enough information to put your thoughts into context. When you say "Apple Music", I assume you mean compressed files. Unless you're at least using 16/44 files in a lossless format, such as AIFF if you're an Apple guy, you are never going to get decent sound. Also, what DAC are you using?

+1
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  #24  
Old 04-12-2018, 09:37 PM
Projectman Projectman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nicoff View Post
Do you pay Tidal $20/month for a premium subscription? If not, then you are not getting CD quality music from Tidal.

If you are a premium subscriber to Tidal, then make sure that in Settings, under Streaming you have selected the “Master” audio quality option.


FYI...you can get Tidal Premium for $11.99 a month if you are a veteran
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  #25  
Old 04-13-2018, 06:26 AM
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FYI...you can get Tidal Premium for $11.99 a month if you are a veteran
Assume that is a U.S. military veteran?
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  #26  
Old 04-15-2018, 09:23 AM
Projectman Projectman is offline
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I can’t speak for Tidal policies outside the US.
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  #27  
Old 05-16-2018, 03:31 AM
bruno2009 bruno2009 is offline
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... well, I`ve figured out my mistake. The MacBook throws the setting back to default each time it`s disconnected from the DAC - thus not allowing Tidal to control the output settings anymore and giving out an inferior signal. You have to go back into the Streaming Settings in the Tidal menu and reset each time you reconnect the MacBook to the DAC.

So I took some more listening time with Tidal settings at reset MQA Master and allowing Tidal to control the output signal - and yes, it is way more satisfying now and I actually even find myself enjoying some streaming sessions.

... so now I`m a little curious... will things get even better when changing from the MacBook to a decent pure audio bridge/streamer as an Aurender or Auralic f.e.? ... or are there no dramatic changes in audio quality between the different music servers and is it simply a question of comfort (I will continue using the DAC of my McIntosh C52 so basically we`re just talking a decent bridge) ? Is it worth listening into some "Bridges"?
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  #28  
Old 06-10-2018, 11:06 AM
bruno2009 bruno2009 is offline
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Default My Experience with Music Players and Music Servers... So far

... decided to give up on streaming. Went from A/V Receiver to MacBook with Audirvana to an Auralic Aries Femto and a Tidal HiFi Abo (through McIntosh C52 DAC)… while I could clearly tell the higher quality each step brought it never came even close to my analog playback and it is still far from the quality my CD-Transport brings… now I have heard numerous explanations for this - the most reasonable being that Tidal uses different masters (which would also explain why the gap in SQ differs from album to album - few actually came close).

Final verdict - too little to live with, too much to die for. Yes - it sounds better than Apple and it certainly is better than expected - but still a long way from being good enough for a decent nights listening session. Thus it will always be an interesting extra which is useful for mobile use (iPhone/car/vacation) and for listening into/getting to know new stuff. But for this a simple Apple Music Abo will do the job just fine. When the music is good enough to own - just buy it on physical media add it to a decent physical music collection and play the music in adequate quality.

No need to spend thousands on streaming devices and 20€/Month on streaming service... just imagine how much great music can be bought for this…
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Last edited by bruno2009; 06-10-2018 at 12:01 PM.
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  #29  
Old 06-12-2018, 11:39 PM
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I still think that you can try an UpTone ISORegen and a LPS1.2 (for USB) and a linear power supply for your MacMini [via an UpTone MacMini DC-Conversion / Linear Fan Controller Kit (MMK)] and you should be very satisfied with the results. Not just there yet but pretty close and definitely more analog sounding than now! Just my 2 cents!
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Last edited by johndoe21ro; 06-04-2019 at 03:50 AM.
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