Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[jandl100]

You'll be ripping all your CDs via JRiver next. Try downloading that today in the absence of unlimited and rip a CD or two in lossless FLAC. Then compare the SQ to TIDAL and Qobuz for the same CD.

Nah - I'm not interested in all that shenanigans.

If I like what Tidal does then fine. I am sure I can get the vast majority of my CD collection's music from it.
If I don't like the sq or the interface then I stay with CDs until someone offers a streaming product I do like.

I've always said that I'll wait for CD-quality live streaming from the cloud before I go computerised with my music, and that's what Tidal seems to offer.

[User211]

Well just rip a few CDs using JRiver. Once you see how easy things become you'll love it. It is easy to do.

[jandl100]

I've got 3000 CDs. Nope, I'm just not interested if I can't get them from live streaming from the cloud.

[User211]

Er um I see your point. Well JRiver will rip and play at the same time. That's how I built my database up I still haven't ripped everything by any means.

Anyway, one step at a time

[jandl100]

How Gillian puts up with you I will never know!

[Macca]

Jerry moving to streaming is like the ravens leaving the Tower...

[jandl100]

Jerry moving to streaming is like the ravens leaving the Tower...

Let's just say I'm going to give it a serious try now that live-streaming from a seriously large music database in the cloud at CD quality is claimed to be obtainable.
The alternative is to be forever-nagged by Justin.

[Macca]

The alternative is to be forever-nagged by Justin.

That's enough to convince even the most die-hard luddite....

The main thing that puts me off is that a computer is involved and experience tells me that it will never work first time out of the gate and that means embarking on some time-consuming and soul-destroying 'fiddling' with the settings in an attempt to get it to do what a CD player already does just by switching it on and inserting a disc.

[Audio Advent]

Hmmm - tempted then. I've received 3 emails now from Tidal prompting me to finish the sign-up process - I baulked at the credit card bit.

You can always "lose" your credit card and get another with a new number at any time... Sometimes accidents like that have positive outcomes especially if, like me, you're terrible at remembering to cancel things on time!

[Audio Advent]

To throw a kitten amongst the ravens (kind of the scale of my point - not sure which will get eaten by whom), if you're looking for new music and you discover some you like on Tidal then what happens if Tidal changes hands, changes contracts with labels and those albums are then taken off and made exclusive content for "BRILL STREAM!" a then new service? Move to another one, get two subscriptions? What if Tidal gets bought out, asset stripped and business model changed etc etc etc?

How long do websites last for and how long do you want to be able to access a piece of music, 2 years, 5, 10, 20? A particular performance by such and such is removed because the label only wants to promote a new performance which you don't like so much or the label is taken over and all the old works sold to a second company who doesn't have a contract with Tidal?

In my mind, physical (or a download not limited to a particular device/account AND with a solid back-up encompasing new tech as it comes out so is not rendered practically unusable in 10 years time..) is the only way to go if you want to listen to music freely, whenever you want and for the rest of your life.

I guess you can just use streaming for discovering stuff and then go out and buy the album (but if that's the case, then where's the harm in free youtube or illegal downloads if you're going to buy it anyway?).