Today I received a message from Tidal announcing the new HiFi Plus subscription. As can be seen here, HiFi is now regular CD quality, while HiFi Plus includes MQA, 360 Reality Audio, and Dolby Atmos Music.
HiFi Plus will also include direct-to-artist payments and fan-centered royalties. Some more info can be read here and here.
They advised that my Tidal HiFi subscription has been automatically upgraded to HiFi Plus (at $19.99 per month).
Tidal HiFi has now been reduced to $9.99 per month.
As indicated by posters above, the only extras with the Tidal HiFi Plus subscription are MQA, 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos.
My NDX2 is unable to decode MQA. I only do two channel listening.
I think it makes financial sense to downgrade my subscription to Tidal HiFi (at $9.99 per month). Would I be missing out on something like 360 Reality Audio? Not quite sure what that is.
360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos music are the latest generations of āspatialā music mixes - see also previous incarnations from quadrophonics to Multichannel SACD and DVD Audioā¦
Iām relatively new to streaming (having just purchased the NDX2 to go along with my SN3 last year) so please forgive the daft question: can my NDX2 take advantage of 360 Reality Audio?
All Iām really interested in is access to FLAC which I now have with the $9.99 Tidal HiFi plan.
Not really, no - weāre all about the music in good old stereo (or even mono, should you wish).
Spatial audio mostly for headphones in its current incarnation.
That new CD-quality Ā£9.99/$9.99 tier seems an obvious choice for most Naim users - though Hi-Fi Plus does promise the potential of more money reaching artists. With our Naim Records hat on, weāre looking into what that means in more detail.
Just read on the weekend a review on multiple streaming services in a German computer magazine. They focused a bit on the ā3D audioā, since itās the new kid on the block.
I think you can summarize their findings:
Itās really great,
IF the composer/mixer really knew what they were doing - they found handful (!) of mixes of modern/electronic music and some concert recordings they liked,
AND IF you have a proper 5.1.4 (or: 7.1.4) setup at home in a room suited for it. Ideally with the .4 at the ceiling itself.
Thereās some nice effects with headsets here and there, but only if your ears match the model they use when encoding/decoding the spatial audio and with mixed results based on playback device, recording, etc. pp.
Not really, my understanding is that folks on the HiFi service can ādowngradeā to their existing service, rather than opting for the new super duper one, at a 50% saving on the existing monthly HiFi subscription.
Bloody hell this is awful and dangerous, just had the same on a Dolly Parton track.
Do not listen to this stuff on Airpods or similar given a risk of sudden volume increase, and Iād suggest definitely not playing to a streamer unless your pre-amp volume is pretty low (ok the 360 track may not work with a streamer but if thereās a wider encoding or playback issueā¦). This could blow speakers and damage hearing if itās some kind of encoding bug or Tidal App volume issue.
This was from Country: 360 Reality Audio (a random choice of 360 stuff).
I think itās a reaction to Quobuz previously lowering prices. I pay Quobuz Ā£12.99 for streaming including proper 24/192 hi res which sounds a bit better to me than MQA (both via Roon so I did get the first MQA unfold).