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Tidal: Am I out of touch?

Chaps

I have about 800 LPs and a similar amount of CDs and they both sound good on a Garrard 401 and a CDS3 on a Naim system. I bought a pair of KEF LSX wireless speakers to stream music via Spotify when staying in Spain .

The sound of these little speakers is damn good for the money but audiophile standard they are not. However I bought them as a better quality TV sound bar and for that they are very good. They do sound better than the Naim Muso which at the end of the day just sounds like a single source upmarket radio. The KEFs at least sound like two speaker stereo so I recommend them.

A big advantage of buying music today is that you can buy decent CDs for pennies and thus you can listen to an array of music via Spotify and if something really floats your boat you can buy the CD version for tuppence.

I have gotten into classical and soft Jazz music via Spotify in Spain and have bought a horde of CDs of the really good stuff in the UK where I do the more serious listening. You can now stream several versions of the same piece of music and buy a CD of the one you like the best.

Life is good for the music loving chap at the moment.

Regards and good wishes

Mick
 
I did ask about Amazon HD, I have tried basic amazon music via CCA and gave up interface ok but sound quality was poor very compressed and lifeless put me off streaming as comparing CD to the CCA it was night and day
 
PhilDick said:
Funny how Amazon HD get ignored a lot. It's only £9.99 (£7.99 if you have Prime). You get the same quality as Qobuz and it has a massive library of music. It does work over Chromecast but not in lossless format. It works in cd quality over Alexacast if your device supports it. Hires on devices like the Node etc.
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Its not that funny, amazon want you tied into their ecosystem much like apple, which means massively less choice for streaming options.
 
say it as it is said:
I did ask about Amazon HD, I have tried basic amazon music via CCA and gave up interface ok but sound quality was poor very compressed and lifeless put me off streaming as comparing CD to the CCA it was night and day
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Amazon HD should be as good as any other lossless service on your Node streamer.
 
PhilDick said:
Amazon HD should be as good as any other lossless service on your Node streamer.
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It is and I much preferred the interface to Quobuz.

Amazing value if you're a Prime member too.

Incompatibility with Chromecast killed it for me though.
 
RoA said:
Crap AI/interface good SQ. More drop outs/buffering than Tidal on mobile app whilst out and about.
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I use the offline library with Qobuz for when out and about. Download stuff at home, then Bluetooth it to the car or headphones when about and about. I’ll bet the other main suppliers also offer this option, but I’ve not looked at that as Qobuz does what I need.
 
Hi, it seams to me that the streaming fraternity, are never quite satisfied with streaming, changing and chopping, hardware , and suppliers, so to justify it, they come out with, the same old line, it saves me space, i get to listen to more new music, and its only 36p a day, cobblers, do you live in a tent and don't have the space, put any dab radio on and you will hear new music, and why not say its only 1.5p an hour, sounds even cheaper, and what's more, it doesn't matter if you have access to every song in the world ever, you will not access more than 10% of it, unless you like funk acid jazz, Peruvian nose flutes, and German unpaper, because like it or not you like what you like and disregard the rest, i like rock and similar music, so i have planet rock on the kitchen radio, i don't listen to classical, or reggae, and many more because i have absolutely no interest in them, so having every track ever made is pointless, not just to me but also to everyone else, also i have never been bowled over by the sound quality, If you like it that's fine, but increasingly members on this site have some sort of agenda pushing to get everyone streaming, to i think justify their own decision, No thanks,
 
RoA said:
It is and I much preferred the interface to Quobuz.

Amazing value if you're a Prime member too.

Incompatibility with Chromecast killed it for me though.
Click to expand...

Grab a used Arcam Rplay for under £150 and you can use Alexacast (same as Chromecast except its lossless, 16 bit max). The Rplay also works as a DNLA server so you can use BubbleUPnP or MConnect for Tidal, Qobuz, local files, etc.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...H_TitleDesc=0&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
graystoke4 said:
Hi, it seams to me that the streaming fraternity, are never quite satisfied with streaming, changing and chopping, hardware , and suppliers, so to justify it, they come out with, the same old line, it saves me space, i get to listen to more new music, and its only 36p a day, cobblers, do you live in a tent and don't have the space, put any dab radio on and you will hear new music, and why not say its only 1.5p an hour, sounds even cheaper, and what's more, it doesn't matter if you have access to every song in the world ever, you will not access more than 10% of it, unless you like funk acid jazz, Peruvian nose flutes, and German unpaper, because like it or not you like what you like and disregard the rest, i like rock and similar music, so i have planet rock on the kitchen radio, i don't listen to classical, or reggae, and many more because i have absolutely no interest in them, so having every track ever made is pointless, not just to me but also to everyone else, also i have never been bowled over by the sound quality, If you like it that's fine, but increasingly members on this site have some sort of agenda pushing to get everyone streaming, to i justify their own decision, No thanks,
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graystoke

I use vinyl, CD and streaming. The most sensible play of playing music that you really like is to stream a dozen versions of a piece that takes your fancy and then buy a CD or record of the one you like the best. That way you can collect a horde of CDs that you really like at a very low cost.

Guys like us have never had it so good both in terms of choice and cost. I agree with you that LPs and CDs knock the spots off streaming but today we don't have to pay the high prices for them that we had to pay a few years ago.
 
Yes i agree, if i hear anything i like, dab at home, dab at work, car etc, i go to u-tube, then ebay to buy it if i like it, cheep as chips,
 
graystoke4 said:
Hi, it seams to me that the streaming fraternity, are never quite satisfied with streaming, changing and chopping, hardware , and suppliers, so to justify it, they come out with, the same old line, it saves me space, i get to listen to more new music, and its only 36p a day, cobblers, do you live in a tent and don't have the space, put any dab radio on and you will hear new music, and why not say its only 1.5p an hour, sounds even cheaper, and what's more, it doesn't matter if you have access to every song in the world ever, you will not access more than 10% of it, unless you like funk acid jazz, Peruvian nose flutes, and German unpaper, because like it or not you like what you like and disregard the rest, i like rock and similar music, so i have planet rock on the kitchen radio, i don't listen to classical, or reggae, and many more because i have absolutely no interest in them, so having every track ever made is pointless, not just to me but also to everyone else, also i have never been bowled over by the sound quality, If you like it that's fine, but increasingly members on this site have some sort of agenda pushing to get everyone streaming, to i think justify their own decision, No thanks,
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Ok settle down there, go clean your records or something.
 
For £20 a month either service is great value and has saved me a fortune by being able to demo records before I buy the vinyl. I also visit Spain every couple of months and the download option is also invaluable when I'm there especially now that post BREXIT roaming charges of £2 per day are returning in January.
 
People objecting to the cost of streaming services might keep in mind, as gustav mentions, that the artists get a pittance for their work. Whether that’s because the platforms are profiteering and exploiting the talent, or because the business model isn’t yet developed enough to fairly redistribute the proceeds, I can’t say (but have my suspicions). But it’s certainly having an effect on the market. The cost of live gigs has gone up, as this is now one of a performer’s biggest potential sources of revenue (it used to be that touring was to promote sales of recordings, now that’s changed). And the availability of hard copy formats isn’t what it used to be, and the retail market has declined accordingly.

If the platforms recompensed performers appropriately, and their algorithms didn’t favour the big names/labels, I suspect they’d probably have to charge more. Perhaps ask whether you’re contributing to the problem?
 
After years of paying over £10 for a CD I have no compunction about now paying £3 for a new CD.

Everyone choses their work based on job satisfaction, interest and remuneration and if one of them does not meet your expectations, move on and get another job. The music industry is just the same as the others.

All I can say is that we, the customers, have never had it so good and I give credit to the young generation for that who made sure that most services provided online were done so without charge.

If you can listen to music dirt cheap, it is reasonable to expect to pay a wallop if you want to visit a concert or gig. However it is your choice and there is nothing wrong with that.

The market and technology is changing for the better.

Regards

Mick
 
That’s a very naive, short-sighted and self-centred way of looking at it, Mick, if I may say so. Have you asked yourself who actually pays for all this free stuff? The answer is probably still you and me, but in ways we don’t expect and don’t see. An there are lots of people in jobs which offer no satisfaction, no interest, no security and little remuneration, but they have little choice due to their own circumstances. Which are, as often as not, not their own fault either. To proclaim otherwise is just pompous and confirms that you’re still as out of touch as ever.
 
If it matters to you, I believe that Qobuz is one of the highest remunerators in the streaming business, paying more on average per stream than Tidal or Apple.

The problem with statements like this, of course, is that the services have very different demographics. Tidal is big on pop music, especially American R&B/HipHop, while Qobuz is unmatched for orchestral music and jazz. (Apple is an oddball, as so many of its “paid” customers never chose to pay for it at all, and many don’t even use it). The demographic matters because the revenue doesn’t go to the artists, but to the labels, and it is usually divvied up on a “percentage of day’s traffic” basis, rather than a simple “per play”.

Basically, the heavy pop bias of Tidal and Spotify penalises artists in other genres. If you’re listening to obscure folk artists on Tidal, they’re probably getting a lot less than they would on Qobuz, because the target demographics of those services mean they’re likely to have a bigger share of daily plays on Qobuz. Against that, Qobuz’s huge selection of music by artists who are dead creates another challenge for the new, small guy.

But really, if you know you’re listening to someone who does not sell a lot of albums, check if they have a direct store on something like Bandcamp (or their own website), and buy there: you get a lossless file download, and the act gets 85%+ of your money - it’s the best deal for any act when it comes to recorded sales revenues.
 
Nice touch using the term pompous. We are all "pompous" by virtue of the fact that most of us buy second hand Hifi because it is cheaper than the new stuff. Good for us and very very very bad for the Hifi industry. Do we feel bad about it -nope.

Do you feel bad when you buy something online from Amazon, I very much doubt you worry about the empty shops as you walk past them.

Do you worry about slave labour when you buy cheap products from a supermarket. I saw a pair of jeans up for sale at just £8.00 in Asda a couple of months ago. How much did the workers get paid for that and what conditions did they work in.

Times change and the music industry is just another industry.
 
I think your understanding of what ‘pompous’ means must be rather different to mine.

The rest is merely deflection, or projection, or some other irrelevance and not worth replying to.
 
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