New Tidal Pricing Tiers

Hi there,

Here in Australia, Tidal has just announced new pricing tiers.

There are now three tiers:

Premium (Good)
A$11.99 per month
Standard sound quality
320 KBPS

HiFi (Better)
A$17.99 per month
HiFi sound quality
1411 KBPS

HiFi Plus (Best)
A$23.99 per month
Master sound quality
2304-9216 KBPS

The most obvious change is that Tidal Masters (MQA) content has been moved to a new ‘Hifi Plus’ tier.

As Naim doesn’t support MQA. Does this now mean for us Naim streamer users that the HiFi is the only solution required? The top tier MQA is a waste of money for us.

I’m not sure if these pricing structures are rolled out everywhere yet:

Things are certainly hotting up in the streaming space, with Spotify HiFi imminent and Apple Music HiFi also rumoured to be coming very soon. The good news is we get to save a few bucks :slight_smile:

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It’s all starting to get a little too confusing if you ask me. For most getting into streaming it’ll scare them off. All these different streaming services, different formats, different prices, different tier, different this, different that. It’s ridiculous.

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Once spotify hi-fi is here, that’s the only service I will require

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Ah! If AppleMusic does Hi-Fi it’s game over. I’ll be thrilled. Nothing works as well as it does.

Looks to me like all they’ve done is added Mp3 at thr bottom, because I think CD quslity (16/44) and MQA are what they offered before.

So no undoctored straight hi res as some were speculating. Ditto unfolded MQA (!)

As now you can do a first unfold in, for example, Roon or Audirvana feeding a Naim device. However MQA is questionable value for money anyway, given that it is not bit-perfect hi res as offered by the likes of Qobuz and Hiresaudio.

In Germany at least, they always had mp3 and “Hifi” tiers, with Hifi including CD and MQA. From my perspective, it looks like they split Hifi into CD-only and CD+MQA

My poor memory or misunderstanding then (I am not a subscriber and it is several years since I looked at the service)

Yep, they always had an mp3 offering and a CD+MQA.

Now they have mp3 tier, CD tier, and CD+MQA tier.

Having a Naim streamer (even with Room) I don’t see any good reason to keep to the CD+MQA plan.

Theoretically, Qobuz should sound better because Naim supports their non-mqa hi-res. With Tidal and Naim, be it the (Naim app or Roon) you never really got the full MQA hi-res.

I think Spotify HiFi is really going to test these players (Tidal, QiBuz and Roon) and as a product, it just works so well. As much as certain parts of Roon is impressive, it such a frustrating piece of software to use daily.

I have some Roon frustrations, but it is to me way less frustrating that anything else. Even the simplest thing in streamer service apps drives me mad: my liking of music is not a binary favorite yes/no.
If Spotify won and Tidal/Qobuz died, it would be a nightmare because Spotify in Roon will probably never be an option

While I use Spotify everyday on non Naim gear and like it, I am not a big fan of how it integrates with Naim app. Tidal works ok for me on Naim. I guess long term for me perfect combo might be Qobuz because of Hi Res, and then Spotify HiFi due to their wide music catalogue.

Yes I use it all the time for casual listening, however its only mp3 quality.

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