Tidal: 6 Months Left

[Darwin]

I use Tidal and generally like it, but, for four reasons, I still maintain a large collection of music on hard disks, mostly ripped from digital discs.

• First, I worry that Tidal et al. will switch to MQA (or some other proprietary format) and require users to use special hardware to get acceptable performance.
• Second, it seems possible that the lossless services could disappear.
• Third, the selection of classical music on Tidal is suboptimal.
• Fourth, HDTracks charges way too much for downloads. (And HDTracks' download interface is worse than appalling, but that's a different subject.) I'll maintain my library just to know that I won't have to repay for the same tracks all over again.Thus, I'm not losing sleep over the possibility of Tidal's disappearance, but I'll be sad if it goes.

Tidal isn't going to require proprietary hardware that would be ridiculous.
Tidal does the first unfold of MQA in software in the desktop app anyway and even files coded in MQA don't need to do any decode but can be listened to like anything else. Actually this is true of MQA from any source.
Isn't the selection of classical music on all streaming services sub-optimal? I'd love to be wrong about that as my significant other is very into classical and I'd like to get her a subscription to a streaming service. A lot of the classical on Tidal is in MQA format by the way. It sounds great especially if you use an MQA capable DAC to do the full unfold.

 

[amirm]

I adopted Roon for managing my library way before I got Tidal. So I will remain a customer of theirs even if Tidal goes away.

 

[dallasjustice]

Thanks. There are some amusing comments on that thread. Apparently, I’m not wearing my “big boy pants” if I stop using Roon. Btw, I paid for a lifetime membership. So it don’t matter to Roon whether I use it or not. I wonder what percentage of Roon customers are lifers.

There are several
https://community.roonlabs.com/c/roon/tidal

 

[dallasjustice]

Anyone running any growing business knows that money in the bank is one of the least important things for long-term success.

This comment from Roon’s COO makes me worried about Roon’s future.

Although I run a relatively small business, my experience is the complete opposite from the one expressed above.

 

[amirm]

Someone made a good point there on MQA and Tidal being the only major brand supporting it. In that sense the damage to MQA will be quite large.

 

[RayDunzl]

In this month's Stereophile, in the back pages (p127-129), Jim Austin is doing a little more digging into MQA.

This month's shovelful looks at the impulse response, and promises more to come.

---

I see it is posted now:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-tested-part-1

 

[amirm]

In this month's Stereophile, in the back pages (p127-129), Jim Austin is doing a little more digging into MQA.

This month's shovelful looks at the impulse response, and promises more to come.

---

I see it is posted now:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-tested-part-1

Thanks for posting it. It is a pretty incomplete analysis. Wonder why they were in so much hurry to put it out.

 

[NorthSky]

The Tidal founders they can try gettings some needed funds...Bitcoin.
Ask the Russians?
Or sell to Apple for bitcoins.
They could join forces with Amazon's top CEO.
They could contact Elon, or Bill.
Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo?

There are so many music opportunities today; it is just raining all over our hearts content.

 

[RayDunzl]

There are so many music opportunities today; it is just raining all over our hearts content.

Got a reference to this in the email today:

https://www.royaltyexchange.com/royalty-ipo/royalty-flow

https://www.royaltyexchange.com/royalty-ipo/royalty-flow-investment-thesis

"We believe that the music industry is on the cusp of a major bull market, led by the impressive growth of on-demand streaming."

 

[amirm]

No existing music service would acquire them. They already have the same technology. The play will be from someone who wants to get into that business like a mobile career.

 

[Sal1950]

In this month's Stereophile, in the back pages (p127-129), Jim Austin is doing a little more digging into MQA.

This month's shovelful looks at the impulse response, and promises more to come.

---

I see it is posted now:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-tested-part-1

Thanks for posting it. It is a pretty incomplete analysis. Wonder why they were in so much hurry to put it out.

After reading Atkinsons leading editorial for this months Stereophool,
https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-some-claims-examined
And then Austins piece, it appears pretty clear to me that the magazine is setting up a full scale assault on the anti-MQA voices, with articles to be published over the next few months.
We knew they had totally sold out to the Meridian juggernaut for quite a while, now it looks like they want to attempt to discredit any of the opposition in the eyes of subjective audiophool land.
Very sad IMHO

 

[Blumlein 88]

Thanks for posting it. It is a pretty incomplete analysis. Wonder why they were in so much hurry to put it out.

Actually it seems rather too deliberate to me. It is very incomplete, but with promises of more to come. A way to keep it in the news for 4 months at least. Keep it a topic of discussion. And like Sal, I think they intend to 'squash' naysayers. The analysis has been done with the outcome clearly in sight.

 

[Wombat]

One only reads Stereophile to keep up with subjective trends, right??? A bit like buying Playboy for the guest writers pieces or cartoons.

 

[Blumlein 88]

One only reads Stereophile to keep up with subjective trends, right??? A bit like buying Playboy for the guest writers pieces or cartoons.

I mainly read the measurements section of gear they review. They do a good service providing those. I often don't read the rest of a review unless a product has unusual inputs, outputs or ways of being used.

Articles like the MQA stuff, just to see what is being said by an influential publication.

 

[oivavoi]

Thanks for posting it. It is a pretty incomplete analysis. Wonder why they were in so much hurry to put it out.

Can anybody with more knowledge than me comment on what Austin writes on impulses etc? Is it correct? I struggle to understand it, and my experience is that lack of clarity in writing reflects lack of clarity in thinking.

 

[Dialectic]

Tidal isn't going to require proprietary hardware that would be ridiculous.
Tidal does the first unfold of MQA in software in the desktop app anyway and even files coded in MQA don't need to do any decode but can be listened to like anything else. Actually this is true of MQA from any source.
Isn't the selection of classical music on all streaming services sub-optimal? I'd love to be wrong about that as my significant other is very into classical and I'd like to get her a subscription to a streaming service. A lot of the classical on Tidal is in MQA format by the way. It sounds great especially if you use an MQA capable DAC to do the full unfold.

I should have been more clear: I'm worried that the stuff at the "Lossless" Tidal tier may disappear, with MQA stuff replacing it. Just as HDCDs were sonically compromised when played back through a non-HDCD player, I strongly suspect that MQA is compromised when not fully "unfolded."

Qobuz has more classical, but you are correct that no service has enough.

 

[Cosmik]

Can anybody with more knowledge than me comment on what Austin writes on impulses etc? Is it correct? I struggle to understand it, and my experience is that lack of clarity in writing reflects lack of clarity in thinking.

Absolutely. Maybe those articles deserve their own thread. The first one is dripping with constructive ambiguity and unwarranted assertions woven into its fabric in the hope that they will slip under the radar without explicitly having to state them and defend them.

 

[Wombat]

Absolutely. Maybe those articles deserve their own thread. The first one is dripping with constructive ambiguity and unwarranted assertions woven into its fabric in the hope that they will slip under the radar without explicitly having to state them and defend them.

Slippery?

 

[Cosmik]

...And straw men.

They know the whole scheme is built on rickety foundations that are only as secure as vague claims about the 'time domain' dressed up with marketing razzamatazz. They hope to quell some of the inevitable negative reaction to their articles by branding criticism as "nastiness", but really, the writer has an unenviable job. He can foresee the reaction to everything he is about to write, and is working hard to keep it vague while appearing to produce cold, hard, objective facts - that don't address the central issues.

 

[Sal1950]

One only reads Stereophile to keep up with subjective trends, right??? A bit like buying Playboy for the guest writers pieces or cartoons.

Got to know what their up to if your to be fully informed.
My motto has always been,
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.