U guys know when amazon hd is getting expanded? Seems like the hd only is available in a fiew places…
My issue with Amazon Music is that my DAC doesn’t switch bit rates to match what’s playing - and this is whichever DAC I use. It stays at whatever I’ve set it to in Windows, so I’m always like… Is this what it’s supposed to sound like?
I use normal Tidal, not the hifi version, and I like it a lot. I’ve been thinking of stepping up, but I have no interest in MQA. Is it possible to do Tidal just for the FLAC?
Also, frankly I have zero interest in giving Amazon any more money than I already do. Yes, I have Prime and use it a ton, but still…I really think it’s important to do business with anyone other than GAFA.
AFAIK, yes. The Hifi tier does everything as 16/44.1 flac with the option of “Master” quality. However, I think you can go into settings and tell it to max out at 16/44.1.
Yes, this is basically what I do. You can set which tier you want Tidal to stream at, HiFi being 44.1/16 FLAC. If you keep it at this setting, even the ‘Master’ stuff will stay at this bit rate.
Hello,
You have to set up your pc to do whatever you want it to do, if it shows you 24/192, you can save it that way.
If Amazon Hd only shows 16/44.1 then it won’t work anymore and it will play like this.
More does not work than the source file can output. your pc does not scale it up to 24/192. why this is not displayed i have not found out yet. i know it’s annoying, because the provider can advertise with hires etc. it’s not even hires. it’s not even virgin cd quality if you like.
I have used Amazon unlimited long and Hd but since they have such a great payment system where I am asked to pay by credit card and don’t accept normal charges I have deleted my Amazon account.
I switched to Deezer and took my playlists with me and found out that Deezer is not even bad.
I also found that Deezer sounded much smoother and quieter than Amazon.
I also found that Amazon sounded smoother and quieter than Amazon, and I have the impression that Amazon amplifies their music before outputting it, so I understand the previous speaker that you shouldn’t put everything into Amazon’s throat because the service is quite subterranean, and the performance in Prime is just as good, but it’s annoying because I get the same songs played over and over again in the podcast and nothing new.
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Make sure you try to volume match before comparing sources, because louder = better most of the time.
Yes, although it’s really a distinction without a difference. MQA files on Tidal are just 24-bit FLAC files that have some extra inaudible data that tell an MQA decoder how to unfold.
MQA is only used on the Master tier (orange), and that gives you either 24bit/44.1 with bit rates around 1000 or 24/48 FLAC with bitrates around 2000, depending on the album. Those can be unfolded into MQA by software or hardware for some extra sound benefits at times, but they’re still just FLAC.
If you were to acquire some 24/48 MQA files straight from Tidal’s servers and play them in a program that doesn’t support MQA at all, those files just show up as FLAC, and they sound and play just like 24/48 FLAC would, because that’s what they are.
The HiFi tier (blue) on Tidal gives you straight-up CD-quality 16/44.1 FLAC with bit rates around 1000, no MQA involved.
If you like Tidal on Normal, you’re gonna like it more at higher qualities.
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Just a suggestion… Don’t forget about Qobuz.
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i’m still probably going with tidal if just because student discount makes it cheaper
take a look to deezer have a Student program to,Qobuz and Tidal was not mine.
That’s just a Spotify level Stream
Not hifi or lossless
Tidal (non MQA) was super weird sounding to me…something very unnatural. I couldn’t handle it and after 3 days switched to Qobuz.
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just wanted to mention, that as a happy TIDAL-user (non-MQA) for years, this thread and especially this video has me testing Qobuz now for the first time. So far, Yggi, Mr. Clear and me like what we’re hearing. And all of my favourite bands and albums are there, ‘check’
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Update: after years of usage, i’ve canceled my TIDAL subscription today. TIDAL not streaming true Hi-Res without MQA was the dealbreaker. Before that, i have tested Qobuz on PC, on iPhone and also as a plugin on piCorePlayer. Since everything works and sounds perfecty well, and all my current favourite albums are there, i’ve completely migrated to Qobuz. I’ve already uninstalled the TIDAL Apps für Windows an iOS. To make it absolutely clear: Yes, MQA has ruined TIDAL for me! Yes, TIDAL has lost me as a customer for incorporating a service with doubtful integrity and for disadvantaging customers, that are not willing to believe its dubious benefits or even pay money for devices with stupid lights on them, that don’t tell you anything. What a shitshow. I even wrote “MQA” in the questionnaire when asked for the reason i quit.
I feel much better now.
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I dropped Tidal because I didn’t want to spend extra money on hardware to support MQA, yes I know the software will unwrap it but to me if is not done locally then I don’t trust it (yeah I know trust issues), Amazon HD I like it (nice collection of music) but the one problem I have is that it doesn’t support true bit playback (doesn’t switch depending of the bit file is playing), I do like Qobuz (currently is what I use the most, usually through Audirvana), I like that Qobuz offers a digital booklet format for some of the albums, and also they offer some extra info about the Album, artist and song (Amazon doesn’t offer that), and is a true bit player (my dac switches bit rate depending of the bit rate of the file), also not sure how much truth is on this but I read Qobuz pays a little more to the artist when their music is played so I like that too. I keep Amazon just for those Albums that I can’t find on Qobuz (which is not that many).
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Hello,
I don’t think it makes a difference if you use Tidal or Qubozz with Audirvana.
Otherwise, yes, without Audirvana or Roon, there can be significant differences between the providers.
Nevertheless, the quality of the app under Windows is more than crappy with each provider when you look at it from a sound perspective.
Depending on the provider, the menu navigation is even more crappy.
Since you pay for Audirvana as well as Roon, I would go with the cheapest provider, the rest is done better by one of the two programmes anyway, so why pay more when the performance is the same with the streaming providers?
Mqa is just marketing anyway, maybe even more of a gimmick to pull money out of people’s pockets.
And to make them believe in bathing.
If it’s part of it okay but that’s why I don’t pay any more voluntarily anyway, if I had to I would feel forced to cancel.
At the end of the day, there’s so much on the net about streaming providers, how good and how bad they are.
There are some things that are really bad but also good.
It’s a shame that most providers refuse to help with software.
Even though the app is crap.
And that’s only because of the greed for profit.
Even if they cost money, they would easily make it back when you hear that something has been done. A lot more people would switch to digital and probably promote the audio industry a bit better and buy less of the typical throwaway products.
Logically everyone would think hey I have a streaming subscription so I want to enjoy this on a stereo hifi or headphones.
But unfortunately they don’t think that way, neither Spotify, nor Amazon.
It’s all about who has the most channels and the monopoly.
The problem with Tidal is the vast majority of their music is now swapped to the MQA format (it’s the same releases as PCM but it’s gone through the MQA conversion). So even if you’re not using an MQA DAC, you’re still listening to an MQA bastardized PCM file.
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Yeah I noticed that recently. A lot of albums that aren’t available in Hi-Res anywhere else, are all of the sudden available on Tidal as MQA. Dubious to say the least. It’s a shame because Tidal does have the best implemented local client for Windows it has a flawless implementation of WASAPI exclusive mode as it’s the only client that fives up exclusivity when it no longer has priority. Something Amazon would absolutely not do, and Qobuz struggles with as well. It’s also just a much more intuitive an interface.
I’ll probably wind up Moving over to Qobuz despite it all. MQA is just getting in its own now.
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I use Audirvana on my Mac (when using headphones)/Windows (when using speakers) client, on my iPad I use Qobuz with my external dac, it depends on the headphone I am using and if I just want the convenience of small setup depending of the day, time and mood.
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