Tidal launches HiFi Plus

Ok, so is apple-music that has problems with the Airplay in lossless format.
This is incredible.

Currently.

Is that one of mine? Probably not.

Is it a user to user post or a quote from a likely recent article. My comments pre-date Apple Music entirely.

I’m getting old - it was originally called AirTunes.

I just downgraded from Hi-Fi Plus ($29.99) to Hi-Fi ($14.99). I’ll spend the savings on a SACD !

Yup i too have just downgraded from HiFi Plus to HiFi.

The issue is that at this point Apple seems to have put some great work into the content, but not yet the delivery outside of their own ecosystem. You can stream Apple Music to all current Naim streaming products via AirPlay2, but Apple (not the Naim) currently restricts the full potential of the sound quality. You can enjoy higher quality but only via cables from Apple devices and then on into your Naim; it’s not a neat solution.
Let’s see if Apple start to offer more integration options to manufacturers (not holding breath at moment!)

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A price reduction normally generates new sales.

Thank you @Naim.Marketing

Can’t Naim being Tidal hardware partners ask them this question directly. You should be getting the answers at 1st hand.

I guess Tidal intend to provide highest res files via MQA they want to push and earn more money that way.

Thanks for all the info so far. I have decided to leave Spotify due to procrastination re its hifi tier, its issues with podcasting and finally its CEO’s investment in war mongery. So have taken up a £2 for 3 months intro to Tidal, to quickly learn that my Uniti Atom is unable to work with Master files. The best I am receiving is CD quality, but it still sounds great. My decision will be whether to remain with Tidal reducing to the HiFi tier or whether to trial Qobuz. Rebuilding album choices and playlists takes valuable time. Qobuz offers potentially the highest quality audio with my audio system. Will my Uniti Atom and Kef ls50s hear the difference? What examples of external DAC would be needed to unfold MQAs? I have trialled Roon previously and, although it is an amazing system, its costs add up. It’s all an evolving situation. Making things future proof as far as possible seems somehow naive. Any other issues I should bear in mind? Thanks again.

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Having subsribed to both TIDAL and QOBUZ my reflection is that there is little difference in sound quality. Yes, if you compare one to one, I prefer QOBUZ, even for plain CD quality. So don’t let the high resolution MQA marketing language get to you. Please be aware that there are some tools available to easily transfer your library and playlists from TIDAL to QOBUZ (and the other way around), which I recently did and that worked perfect for me.

It only matters whether you will be able to hear the difference of course. :wink:

2L has a set of different resolution audio files available that all come from the same master: 2L High Resolution Music .:. free TEST BENCH

As a first step, you could e.g. train your ears to hear the difference between a file in the original CD format and that same file in 24BIT/192kHz. If at this step you don’t hear a difference, you can skip the next step :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:, because CD quality sounds just fine.

The second step would be to have someone else randomly play one of those two files, with you marking down what you think it is. Repeat this until bored or convinced. Compare what you thought you heard with what was actually played. See if you score significantly better than guessing. If you don’t, you don’t need higher resolution audio.

Is this helpful?

Thanks for your thoughts and replies. I have now cancelled Spotify, continuing my trial with Tidal but have also started a 1 month trial with Qobuz. My initial impression is that I can hear little difference between the cd quality of Tidal and the hifi of Qobuz, but I can detact an improvement from Spotify with both Tidal and Qobuz. So i have a month to make my mind up. The user interface with Qobuz is crude but serviceable. It might make more sense to continue with Qobuz where hifi is obtainable through my Uniti Atom without need of an external DAC or Roon. I didnt rely on the new music recommended by Spotify, preferring to search myself, and can live without lyrics. I made the point earlier that all of these services appear to change frequently; it is all so impermanent and in 1 year it might all be very different.

1 issue is that occasionally the Chromecast stream drops out whilst listening to Qobuz through the Qobuz app, but works flawlessly through the NAIM app. I’ll explore poential reasons online; at least its not my internet which would drop on both apps.

Thanks again.

I just got an email (as a former Tidal subscriber) offering me 3 months of HiFi+ tier for £2.

As it includes non-MQA hires files, I will try it again to compare Tidal and Qobuz on SQ, as my system is very different to what it was last time I had Tidal.

Jim,
Thanks, I am still subscribed to Tidal’s highest res. But whenever I stream any Tidal track via my Naim NDX2 quality changes to Hifi. I will be happy to get any track name that you manager to stream form Tidal in your Naim gear at their highest resolution to try here. I guess others will be happy to get that info as well.

Waiting for your updates, Thanks

When using the Naim app, it is not using Chromecast. And Chromecast buffers are small, leading to dropouts especially with hi-res material. (When using the Naim app, it uses the 50 MB buffer in the Atom, so is more resilient). See this post:

Ah - so are you saying that despite the table in your post above, in reality you can find no non-MQA hires files (i.e. above 16/44)?

I’m not that bothered either way, as I’ll still be interested in comparing Tidal non-MQA to my existing Qobuz SQ, just in case Tidal sounds better.

Hires is extremely overrated - I doubt that I could reliably tell the difference in a blind test on my system.

So far compared Blue Doom. All versions I could see on Tidal are in 16/44, but Qobuz has it at 24/96.

The Qobuz sounds wonderful.

The Tidal sounds bloody good too, but if forced to choose I’d stay with Qobuz.

It’s hard to get my dislike of MQA and the knowledge that Tidal is lower res out of my head when the difference in SQ is so small (or non-existent).


I also compared Groovin High by Keith, both services in 16/44, and possibly the Qobuz had a tiny edge, but probably I could not tell them apart reliably in a blind test.

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