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Re: Streaming services
Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:51 pm
by Shevans
Just to add all Bluesound devices support Tidal Masters.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:02 pm
by CN211276
I cancelled my subscription with Tidal and am now with Qobuz sublime+. I am impressed by the 24 Bit quality and the number of classic albums available on 24 Bit. It is really bringing out the best in my system and also headphones as I have been spending a lot of time in the back garden with the nice weather.
I think Qobuz has a better business plan than Tidal as they seem to be targeting people with decent replay equipment and taking a long term view. Tidal appear to be trying to compete with Spotify and Apple. The extra annual cost of the sublime+ subscription is less than an audiophile fuse and there is a very noticeable improvement on 24 Bit streams.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:27 pm
by Fretless
Hmm. Sounds good - is there a free trial period for the 24bit service?
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:48 pm
by CN211276
Fretless wrote: ↑Thu May 24, 2018 4:27 pm
Hmm. Sounds good - is there a free trial period for the 24bit service?
Unfortunately not, only 16 Bit. I took out the 16 Bit free trial before committing myself to sublime+. I wanted to see how the 16Bit compared to Tidal and could not detect a difference.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:53 pm
by Fretless
What I wonder is : are the 24bit tracks sourced from HQ masters? If they are taken from CD-standard 16bit then there wouldn't be much point.
Nit-picking, I know.....
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:58 pm
by Shevans
Just a word of warning...
Canclling Tidal is not always that easy, sometimes it mysteriously resubscribes. Happened to me twice in the last two months, each time told that I had logged in and resubscribed when I had not.
Had to get them to remove my payment details, I was then told my payment had failed but if you used Paypal you can disable the preauthorised payments (or whatever its called)
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 5:09 pm
by CN211276
I don't know what the 24 Bit albums are sourced from but there is a noticeable improvement, on some albums more than others. I was particularly impressed by Aqualung and Thick as a brick, both Steven Wilson remixes. My Tidal payments were taken from my credit card, will have to keep an eye on things.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 5:48 pm
by Classicrock
CN211276 wrote: ↑Thu May 24, 2018 5:09 pm
I don't know what the 24 Bit albums are sourced from but there is a noticeable improvement, on some albums more than others. I was particularly impressed by Aqualung and Thick as a brick, both Steven Wilson remixes. My Tidal payments were taken from my credit card, will have to keep an eye on things.
Call me a Sceptic but for the Tull remixes you could have the physical product for near the 'fuse cost' It all depends how many really worthwhile and better sounding hi-res titles you can access. As pointed out there is wide complaints that the hi res files from such as HD tracks (provided by the labels I presume) are often found to be upsampled 16 bit sources. Some have gone as far as to analyse the waveforms (Hoffman forum) to show this.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 6:42 pm
by CN211276
Nearly all of the 24 Bit albums are showing 96 sample rates on my DAC. 88.2 and 176.4 have occasionally registered. 24 Bit includes the whole catalogues of Rush, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden. The best albums of other major acts such as Bowie are also included.
Re: Streaming services
Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 5:24 pm
by Hemmo1969
CN211276 wrote: ↑Thu May 24, 2018 4:02 pm
I cancelled my subscription with Tidal and am now with Qobuz sublime+. I am impressed by the 24 Bit quality and the number of classic albums available on 24 Bit. It is really bringing out the best in my system and also headphones as I have been spending a lot of time in the back garden with the nice weather.
I think Qobuz has a better business plan than Tidal as they seem to be targeting people with decent replay equipment and taking a long term view. Tidal appear to be trying to compete with Spotify and Apple. The extra annual cost of the sublime+ subscription is less than an audiophile fuse and there is a very noticeable improvement on 24 Bit streams.
I don’t really understand ‘better business model’ part fella? Or how Sublime+ is better, Tidal Masters stream in 24bit too so there’s no quality benefit.
Is it the album selection you prefer?