He means after listening to an album on tidal he decided not to buy the cd whereas he may have bought it otherwise
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That’s a cracking good idea!
I have always used Tidal, and only once gave Qobuz a trial.
But that was with a different set up where I had a different streaming box and hAd literally just bought the 555dr.
I really should try Qobuz again to see how the 20 bit files sound when streamed.
Of course that won’t tell me how they might sound via a Melco, but that’s a different story.
A RasPi is the cheapest option for legacy streamers needing to use Bubble to provide access to Qobuz Studio. And Tidal gets a lift too if you still retain the sub.
Thanks to the Tidal offer on at the moment I have both.
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Thank you seakayaker - as I subscribe to Qobuz and Apple Music (for the family) I’d not been too bothered looking at Tidal (though could have had a 90 day free trial after buying the Nova), but the UK £1.99 trial for 4 months rekindled my interest.
Might be hard to justify both in the long run but I think Tidal may well complement the Qobuz service and I could look at ditching Apple Music.
Like you I’ve auditioned many albums on Qobuz - some I’ve later bought as hi-res downloads or CDs if no hi-res available. I’ve also bought several LPs of new material complemented by the ability to stream digitally (not purchased digitally).
MQA seems a bit of a distraction to me unless you have suitable hardware, and then I guess I’d be keen on it - coming to think of it I need to check how well my Oppo UDP 205 can handle MQA as I recall a firmware update enabled something!
I think many non-audiophiles simply wouldn’t understand using a streaming service for auditioning material and then purchasing downloads/CDs of the new items you enjoyed after streaming.
As seakyaker mentions I think without streaming we’d have bought many items and later wished we hadn’t.
I find with certain new artists that I discover a very good album, but don’t really get excited by their other albums - before streaming I might have bough a couple of their albums ‘on reputation’ and been disappointed.
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But for that you need additional box , like a pc or nas, to run bubble upnp and stream Qobuz.
Yes, that’s fiddly.
Can you get Qobuz via your Melco?
I prefer buying individual tracks and sometimes albums, on Qobuz, Bandcamp, Hdtracks and Highrez audio.
The problem is that Qobuz is better for streaming vs Tidal, but I prefer the catalog of Tidal.
In any case, streaming locally, at least with the old streamers as mine or yours, is better than streaming online, clearly better vs Tidal and a bit better vs Qobuz ( for me of course).
So, in my case, something like Melco is the best solution for optimal sound and simplicity of use.
I buy around 5 or 6 albums per month. So it’s not an expensive solution. But if someone wanted to buy a lot more albums regularly, Qobuz would be perhaps the better choice.
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No typo’s. When I listen to albums on TIDAL I can decided if I like them or not and then make a purchase if I like and no purchase if I don’t like what I am hearing.
Back when I started buying music in the 60’s and the decades following I might buy an album from the looks of the cover or having listened to a single song on the radio. Then when playing the album at home finding out the album was not worth the cash outlay. With Tidal I listen to the whole album and then make a decision to add to my collection at home, or not.
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I wonder how many of us have bought albums for the cover alone - with vinyl for me anyway, and one of the reasons CDs never held much appeal.
Digital artwork quality is often very good - qobuz generally have 1400x1400 resolution artwork which can look sumptuous on screen, often much higher, though you’d probably not print that much larger than 4-5”.
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Guilty of this a few times, a bit like buying wine!!
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CD quality, or 16bit/44.1 has been the industry standard for decades. Some digital distributors require audio to be delivered as such, so…probably not worth kidding yourself.
Fiddling with cables this afternoon.
I am trying to try a few different ones in different places to assess pros/cons.
Now I thought I’d use Tidal via the Naim app - started Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams from the 2001 remaster and it sounds very harsh, especially cymbals early on in the song.
Playing via Audirvana is a different beast and it’s a lot more relaxed but now I see it’s an MQA title and now playing shows it as 24/96.
Audirvana has a little blue light - I need to find a manual!
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Audivarna will perform the first unfold like Roon on MQA content so that’s why it’s 96/24
Yes, thought so, but the other day it was a green ‘light’ not blue - what’s the difference?
Will have to limit to lossless to compare I think.
one colour is about someone signed off the studio master and t’other was spawned by a Russian bot, IIRC
Blue is MQA studio and green is just MQA
Most MQA titles on Tidal are also available in normal CD resolution. You can compare and decide which you like better, then favorite that one (or add it to your Roon library if you use Roon).
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Sorry for Hi-Jacking this thread… But when there are several versions of the same album in Tidal, how do you know which one is the best (44/16,96/24 etc.)? I can’t find it…
I’m using Naim app and NDX.