Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[VesaLato]

Aha! - yes, well spotted ....

You got to have one

Vesa

[jandl100]

As some of you may recall, I've been using Spotify Premium (320kbs) as my main source for a year or more now.
Every now and then I get a little niggle and wonder if "near CD quality" really is suitable, and start pondering afresh about the lossless sources such as Tidal.

In fact a month or so back I tried Qobuz, but was immediately disenchanted by the paucity of its classical music catalogue. It was back to Spotify with relief.

But yesterday I invested 20 squid in a month's Tidal membership, once again - I've had quite a few months of Tidal membership before, in fact I started my streaming adventure with Tidal. But then an audio chum convinced me into having a go with Spotify Premium, and I've been happy with that ever since and let the Tidal sub lapse.
.
My system has come a fair way in the last year so I just thought I'd try lossless again.

Hmm. I do hear a difference against Spot Premium, although direct A/B comparisons show it to be fairly subtle on most material I have tried so far. Sorry, it's been all classical!

Yes, it is just audibly higher rez.
But it also puts a bit of an 'edge' on the sound that becomes a bit insistent and relentless after a while.
It actually gave me a headache after a few hours.

It was great fun on Fazil Say's exuberantly eastern and superbly recorded Mesopotamia symphony, where the extra razzle dazzle came across well. Definitely just that bit more impressive and enjoyable. But for string quartets and piano and ordinary symphonic sounds I went back to Spotify with more than a bit of relief!

I'd also forgotten what a struggle the Tidal search facilities can be to use on classical music. Spotify's is much superior.
And whilst Tidal does have some classical material that Spotify lacks, Spotify easily wins overall for the breadth of its catalogue.

Anyway, back to the sq ---- Maybe my system has been fine tuned to suit the subtlely softer sound of Spotify 320kbs as it has been my main source for over a year?

I've got the month of Tidal subscription to play around, it'll be interesting to see if I decide to keep both Tidal and Spotify. I may well try playing around with cables and such like goofery to see if I can tune in a better presentation from Tidal.

[User211]

Interesting. I would 100% use Spotify IF I could listen to it!!! I can't, and found myself still buying CDs when using it.

I really did find Spotify SQ annoyingly compromised.

Can't think of a reason for your TIDAL SQ dilemma.

[User211]

Ask the obvious but is the HiFi text at the bottom right of the S/W always "lit" i.e. not dimmed?

[struth]

Only been using Spotify for a week or so, but certainly on headphones i find it pretty good on the hishest extreme level direct from a chromecast. If i connect the caster to the system then i would say its not quite cd quality, but i could probably live with it. Its much better on cans though to me

[jandl100]

Yep, the Tidal HIFI icon is lit.

I honestly think that a lot of the tales of Spotify not being good enough is due to expectation bias.
I was round at Jake lordmortlock's place recently and he said he just couldn't understand how I could use Spotify.
We settled down with a cuppa and were streaming music and the item we next wanted wasn't on Tidal so we swapped over to Spotify.
We were soon thoroughly engrossed in the music, one of our mutual favourite tracks, and had quite forgotten the source.
.... both groovin' along saying how great it sounded (and it did) .... I then asked "so what, exactly, is wrong with Spotify?"
He looked blank, then shocked, then gave a big grin and a laugh.

Spotify really is just fine, imho.

[Macca]

It is at least as good as cassette tape...

[jandl100]

It is at least as good as cassette tape...

That's true.

So is the highest end source you can imagine.

[User211]

I think you need to be careful.

Some recordings can actually sound better compressed. Not the majority, but I know of some stuff I find sounds better compressed. Throwing away HF can do the trick and make some recordings sound better, which compression will do.

But after spending years using both, I completely think you are wrong. TIDAL is better and quite noticeably so over a wide range of material.

Could be that DAC, Jerry. Maybe it is a bit brightly lit, and giving it a full range signal screws the balance the wrong way. That said, if you are honestly telling me you can't tell that Spotify sounds worse than playing a CD over a wide range of recordings (on average) then I am flummoxed unless somehow my suggestion of the DAC being to blame is the truth of the matter.

[jandl100]

That's fine, Justin. I'm happy to report on different experiences to you, mostly listening to quite different music.

If I have the choice to use A or B, and I prefer B ---- guess which one I will use.
I am not without experience is listening to hifi gear, and imho my system with Spotify sounds very special and provides me with a huge amount of enjoyment.

I agree that it is possible that my DAC (and the rest of my system) is a good synergistic match with Spotify but not Tidal. That's fine - it's the sound of the music that comes out that matters. No components are perfect, and the synergy of the system is all important.