Does anyone use Tidal instead of Spotify? Specifically the premium version of the subscription where you can stream music @ FLAC quality?
Is it significantly better w/ the 3D ELS Sound System?

It's not 5.1 - but I figured FLAC is still better than HQ AAC.

 

I just tried both recently and I didn’t hear any improvement with the hi-fi tidal and Spotify....it’s unfortunate

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!


I also tried it out this weekend with a free trial subscription for the HiFi version. I think there is a slight improvement from Tidal on "HiFi" or "Master", but it's in no way worth the premium over Spotify. With Spotify you also get Hulu included, for $9.99.
20 bucks a month for Tidal is too much. Even if there really was an increase in sound quality, the quality is not worth an additional $10/month.

I guess it's back to finding a way to get 5.1 FLAC files for me!

 

I personally think Amazon music has superior sound quality over both of them. Spotify is somewhat disappointing.

 

Really? I'll try it out this weekend. Does Amazon Music come included w/ Prime Membership?

 

Yes, it is a stripped down version with fewer songs. They ran a .99 special a few months ago for Amazon Unlimited that I actually prefer to free, so I kept it. I download playlists, or albums via wifi and play offline, or stream some channels.

 

That would be expected since Tidal has select music that is MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) encoded and one would need an MQA player device to decode the hires portion of the stream. Otherwise it is at best CD quality. MQA is not without its many critics though. Wiki to find out more about it.

 

Spotify is just kinda meh. I've actually got about 1200 watts rms on tap with my current system and I still can't make it sound as good as the music on my thumb drive or Amazon music app even though its set to the highest quality...I may just cancel it and spring for Amazon unlimited.

 

Amazon Unlimited free for 3 months right now!! Bye bye Spotify.