Tidal Black Friday Offer (4 Months £0.99 Prem or £1.99 HiFi)

[b00merang69]

To me Amazon HD sounds better and not sure how to see what bitrate it is playing at on PC but its set to highest with exactly the same album.

Will try mobile phone later.


https://tidal.com/offers/blackfriday

 

[jpaul]

I had renewed a latent contract with this deal. hopefully, with competition they will start reducing regular price from £20p/m

not sure how to see what bitrate it is playing at on PC

On PC I 'set' the dac to 96/24 if I am playing Master tracks, as opposed to 44.1/16;
I don't have MQA capability so can't try the 192/24, and, thus, also, disable MQA pass through, in the streaming settings.

On a mobile/android, obviously you need a playback path that avoids the standard 48Khz desktop mixer.

 

[b00merang69]

I got rid of my Sony's XM3's so it will be 24/48 Aptx HD not 32/96 LDAC on mobile but again there is no way to tell with Tidal what it is playing at unlike Amazon.

Amazon on mobile wired still is 24/48 due to the issue/limit you mentioned above but I can get 24/192 using USBPlayer with my own music (I think that is its name) even without using its own Hi-Res bypass driver.

I wonder how LDAC bypasses this limit Android sets without any issue on my mobile and NV Shield.

On PC Bluetooth output is stuck at either SBC or AptX as that is as high as Windows 10 support but wired I get 24/192 without any issues on a SoundBlaster ZxR as Amazon tells me what it is.

I read Tital is simply Flac at CD master quality so that is lower than Amazon Ultra HD 24/192 but I am new to Tital and doubt I will keep it as I have no real need for any of the streaming services.

 

[agw_01]

Thanks @b00merang69, my Amazon Music HD trial is coming to an end so it'll be interesting to see how Tidal compares.

 

[b00merang69]

Sound normal to me, nothing special and no way at their end to see the quality currently playing.

Amazon's Enya album (in Tidal screen above) @ 24/96 sounds as good or a bit better than the Flac 16/44.1 version of the same said album I own, the 24/192 albums sound good if modern not remastered Bob Marley for obvious reasons.

Jean-Michel Jarre albums sound amazing on Amazon

 

[agw_01]

What equipment are you listening on?

 

[b00merang69]

I was using SONY WH-1000XM3 so LDAC 32/96 on Mobile with Amazon till last week (got rid of them) so 24/96 but now AptX HD so 24/48 which is also the limit Android locks outside special players that can bypass this.

I own a Moto Z2 Force and can get 24/192 without any issue using the above mentioned special player even without using its own special driver (wired headphones).

I primarily use PowerAmp but it only has Hi-Res for now for the Bluetooth section (Experiential) not Wired/Aux section.

On PC I said above a SoundBlaster ZxR, so its 24/192 in Stereo Direct or Wired Headphones.

Comparing like for like (same Albums) I like Amazon's sound better and by my reading on web many other say the same and I think officially there Ultra HD is higher than Tidal etc.

 

[sHo0sH]

Very bizarre to get rid of such a great pair of cans. What did you change to out of interest?

 

[b00merang69]

They are not great IMO and that would be a long type up to go into fully but do not believe the hype or some of the reviews you can read see esp when the reviewer is wearing a hat and glasses testing the NC outside in the street.

They are classed as the best BT NC headphones you can get not the best sounding headphones you can get, they shape the music and not to my taste (If i need to shape music I will use the EQ in my player).

I have no cans now only in-ear wired and Bluetooth sets and TBH I am not really into headphones but for out and about on my mobile phone so in ears does me.

 

[jpaul]

you only get 192 on tidal if you have an hardware mqa enabled dac, I don't

( earlier discussion here

An MQA encoded file can be played back in four ways; with no decoding, software decoding, hardware decoding, and a combined software/hardware decode.

If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file using iTunes through a regular DAC (i.e. a non-MQA DAC), you will get a 24/48 file.

If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file through an MQA software decoder like Tidal HiFi, Audirvana, or (soon) Roon, and you are using a regular DAC (i.e. a non-MQA DAC), you will get a 24/96 file. A software decoder does not offer the ability to 'unfold' the original file to resolutions higher than 24/96 (or 24/88.2).

If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file through an MQA-enabled DAC, you will get a 24-bit/192kHz file. If you are also using a software decoder like Tidal HiFi, Audirvana, or (soon) Roon, you can have the software decoder perform the first 'unfold'.

- no longer true ?)

reading through steve hoffman thread .. they suggest amazon music pc desktop doesn't yet have an exclusive mode, which is revelatory/obligatory on tidal


post from there hadn't realised you can get free playlist transfer versus soundiz i use.

Spotify to Amazon Music - Transfer playlists and favorites with Soundiiz

STAMP - Move from Spotify to Amazon Music for free

I haven't used these sites but , I think they accept playlists from Spotify to Amazon up to a certain amount and then you have to pay.

They other site I used is

Transfer Playlists Between Music Services! 100% free | Tune My Music it worked very well for me.

 

[b00merang69]

Either way no way to tell what Tidal is playing it at AFAICS and a nice Enya Album @ 24/96 (exactly the same album) sound better on Amazon on my PC and Mobile (24/48 on mobile now as no LDAC headphones and wired Android limits is in these Apps).

 

[jpaul]

quick (process explorer) experiment tidal hifi playback 1MB/10s = 800Kb/s, Master 2MB/10s = 1600Kb/s ... (hotel california Master)
HIFI is flac CD so seems about right .. and we know master is lossy in comparison .. so how does the data rate on Amazon compare ?
they must be using similar codecs and SQ ~ bitrate ... irrespective of sample rate and bit depth.
if amazon uhd music is, say 3200Kb/s it 'should' be better. ... someone must have done this on reddit.

 

[jpaul]

maybe i'll give amazon a try if this is true ... 3730Kb/s thats 2x tidal, and lossless too.

Amazon's Music Unlimited HD gives Amazon customers the chance to stream their favorite songs in higher definition than they would be able to on other services. Currently, Amazon Music HD offers lossless audio on two quality ranges, HD and Ultra HD.

HD tracks are 16-bit audio with a sample rate of 44.1kHz, or CD-quality, and an average bit rate of 850 kilobits per second. Ultra HD tracks 24-bit audio with a sample rate of up to 192kHz, and an average bit rate of 3730 kilobits per second. As Amazon points out, most streaming services only offer standard definition quality music, which reduces some of the detail in order to save on file size.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...know-about-lossless-amazon-music-unlimited-hd

 

[b00merang69]

You may have missed the 3 months free trial on Amazon, cannot mind if it was the start of Nov or Dec for deadline.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/best-tech-deals/a29086449/amazon-music-hd-streaming-free-trial/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/unlimited/hd