TIDAL

[tokenbrit]

Linn have introduced support for TIDAL with Davaar 23. You need to use Kazoo control point - it is not available via Kinsky. There's a 60-day free trial to see / hear what you think...

Posts on the Linn forum appear favourable, with sound quality reportedly better than Spotify Premium (CD quality lossless vs. 320k mp3) I couldn't find the lossless format on the tidal website, but it is reportedly FLAC*

I will try it this weekend, and over the holidays. It's currently $19.99/month for access to an extensive library. I'll be interested to listen to how it compares to local NAS since some are looking forward to a life without little silver disks. I might even have read some questioning the need for a music server at home...

If it's as convenient as Internet radio, it could well be worth it for the huge virtual library, then fire up the NAS with optimised rips in ALAC for critical listening. Expect to keep the NAS for Studio Masters and bootlegs that aren't available / won't be streamed in high def.

* I was disappointed to find that it wasn't WAV :)

[Lego]

Linn have introduced support for TIDAL with Davaar 23. You need to use Kazoo control point - it is not available via Kinsky. There's a 60-day free trial to see / hear what you think...

Posts on the Linn forum appear favourable, with sound quality reportedly better than Spotify Premium (CD quality lossless vs. 320k mp3) I couldn't find the lossless format on the tidal website, but it is reportedly FLAC*

I will try it this weekend, and over the holidays. It's currently $19.99/month for access to an extensive library. I'll be interested to listen to how it compares to local NAS since some are looking forward to a life without little silver disks. I might even have read some questioning the need for a music server at home...

If it's as convenient as Internet radio, it could well be worth it for the huge virtual library, then fire up the NAS with optimised rips in ALAC for critical listening. Expect to keep the NAS for Studio Masters and bootlegs that aren't available / won't be streamed in high def.

* I was disappointed to find that it wasn't WAV :)

Although I don't have linn ds thingies through my phone Tidal sounds really good ..I found it a lot better than qobuz. ..when I go to lp12 I think 'that's sounds way better than Tidal'...when I go back to Tidal I think that sounds brilliant. .It doesn't seem to leave you wanting ..maybe it's the fact I have 3000 lps and 5 cds that is clouding my judgement ..and $20 a month is a bargain !!.13.50GBP

[Lego]

Linn have introduced support for TIDAL with Davaar 23. You need to use Kazoo control point - it is not available via Kinsky. There's a 60-day free trial to see / hear what you think...

Posts on the Linn forum appear favourable, with sound quality reportedly better than Spotify Premium (CD quality lossless vs. 320k mp3) I couldn't find the lossless format on the tidal website, but it is reportedly FLAC*

I will try it this weekend, and over the holidays. It's currently $19.99/month for access to an extensive library. I'll be interested to listen to how it compares to local NAS since some are looking forward to a life without little silver disks. I might even have read some questioning the need for a music server at home...

If it's as convenient as Internet radio, it could well be worth it for the huge virtual library, then fire up the NAS with optimised rips in ALAC for critical listening. Expect to keep the NAS for Studio Masters and bootlegs that aren't available / won't be streamed in high def.

* I was disappointed to find that it wasn't WAV :)

Although I don't have linn ds thingies through my phone Tidal sounds really good ..I found it a lot better than qobuz. ..when I go to lp12 I think 'that's sounds way better than Tidal'...when I go back to Tidal I think that sounds brilliant. .It doesn't seem to leave you wanting ..maybe it's the fact I have 3000 lps and 5 cds that is clouding my judgement ..and $20 a month is a bargain !!.13.50GBP ..to get lossless flac on browser tokenbrit you need to use chronr

[SaltyDog]

I'm loving it.

Works flawlessly.

[tokenbrit]

I'm loving it.

Works flawlessly.

Hi Salty, how does Davaar 23 compare with previous firmware versions for the DS?

[SaltyDog]

To be honest I have not played a thing from the NAS since I started using Tidal.

To say It's like having a whole new record collection is an understatement.

As almost everything is new to me I have not found the fatigue issue that accompanies some firmware.

I give it a full endorsement.

[rowlandhills]

I'm very impressed by the quality, selection and ease of use.

[christian]

Hi All!

I have also tried Tidal Streaming. I found the installation very strait forward and have had no technical issues at all. Kazoo works nicely and since I run in on a rather slow laptop I am pleased to see that the application runs quite quickly. I previously tried Spotify and Wimp clients and they were so slow that it became almost impossible to use on the laptop. So this was a really nice addition and you now have lots of music to choose from.

Sound quality is good, better than Spotify or Wimp using Songcast. But there is still a huge difference to my own flac files played from my LS Nas. If I will keep the Tidal service I suspect that I will only use it to seek out new music and if I find something that I suspect I will like, I will, as always, buy the CD and rip it.

One thing that troubles me is that I also felt that the overall performance went down when I installed the new software for the DS. I have tried this a few times back and forth and feel that the old software 4.12.357 is better that the new one (4.23.1042). I have not decided what to do about this. I really liked the Tidal Service, and my children loved it, but if my own files will lose some of their magic I am not so sure.

[Vimtokid]

Linn have introduced support for TIDAL with Davaar 23. You need to use Kazoo control point - it is not available via Kinsky. There's a 60-day free trial to see / hear what you think...

Posts on the Linn forum appear favourable, with sound quality reportedly better than Spotify Premium (CD quality lossless vs. 320k mp3) I couldn't find the lossless format on the tidal website, but it is reportedly FLAC*

I will try it this weekend, and over the holidays. It's currently $19.99/month for access to an extensive library. I'll be interested to listen to how it compares to local NAS since some are looking forward to a life without little silver disks. I might even have read some questioning the need for a music server at home...

If it's as convenient as Internet radio, it could well be worth it for the huge virtual library, then fire up the NAS with optimised rips in ALAC for critical listening. Expect to keep the NAS for Studio Masters and bootlegs that aren't available / won't be streamed in high def.

* I was disappointed to find that it wasn't WAV :)

Although I don't have linn ds thingies through my phone Tidal sounds really good ..I found it a lot better than qobuz. ..when I go to lp12 I think 'that's sounds way better than Tidal'...when I go back to Tidal I think that sounds brilliant. .It doesn't seem to leave you wanting ..maybe it's the fact I have 3000 lps and 5 cds that is clouding my judgement ..and $20 a month is a bargain !!.13.50GBP

Lego, according to the Tidal site its £19.99. Apparently "There are different pricing models for the different countries, so its not simply a case of exchange rates. If you compare TIDAL with other major music or video streaming services, you will notice the same US/UK pricing difference. Pricing is set in cooperation with the labels according to their local market standards."

Its a shame, cos if it was £13.50 you'd be right, it would be a bargain.

[MisterH]

Hi All!

I have also tried Tidal Streaming. I found the installation very strait forward and have had no technical issues at all. Kazoo works nicely and since I run in on a rather slow laptop I am pleased to see that the application runs quite quickly. I previously tried Spotify and Wimp clients and they were so slow that it became almost impossible to use on the laptop. So this was a really nice addition and you now have lots of music to choose from.

Sound quality is good, better than Spotify or Wimp using Songcast. But there is still a huge difference to my own flac files played from my LS Nas. If I will keep the Tidal service I suspect that I will only use it to seek out new music and if I find something that I suspect I will like, I will, as always, buy the CD and rip it.

One thing that troubles me is that I also felt that the overall performance went down when I installed the new software for the DS. I have tried this a few times back and forth and feel that the old software 4.12.357 is better that the new one (4.23.1042). I have not decided what to do about this. I really liked the Tidal Service, and my children loved it, but if my own files will lose some of their magic I am not so sure.

Having signed up and tried Tidal yesterday I would agree with most of the above sentiments, but in my case I much prefer Davarr 4.14 so I have gone back to that and am using Tidal app on IPad and airplay to DS, just as good if not better than using 4.23.

I found that there was only a small difference to locally stored music, but a noticeable difference all the same.

I too would use it to try before buying, I might even use it on a regular basis but not at £20 per month.

[MisterH]

I listened for quite a while to Tidal today, it works perfectly and would re-iterate my previous comment, it sounds better via iPad and airplay on 4.14 than it does native on 4.23

It also prompted me to order 3 CDs, 2 I've considered before and 1 I'd not heard, so that's this months £20

[tmilligan]

To be honest I have not played a thing from the NAS since I started using Tidal.

To say It's like having a whole new record collection is an understatement.

As almost everything is new to me I have not found the fatigue issue that accompanies some firmware.

I give it a full endorsement.

Ditto. I've been playing with tidal for the last couple of days and so far am rather impressed. Lots of music on there which I either didn't know or which I've been listening on spotify (rather than having the cd and therefore my own flac file) and can now appreciate in lossless.

I've not had any issues with 23 although to be frank I've never been able to pick out the minutiae between different builds and for now having a whole new lossless library is too exciting.

The only irritation right now is the woeful state of my "super fast" broadband smack in central London. I get around 100mbps on the Isle of Wight and we've only just got roundabouts there!

[stefan]

Hi All!

I have also tried Tidal Streaming. I found the installation very strait forward and have had no technical issues at all. Kazoo works nicely and since I run in on a rather slow laptop I am pleased to see that the application runs quite quickly. I previously tried Spotify and Wimp clients and they were so slow that it became almost impossible to use on the laptop. So this was a really nice addition and you now have lots of music to choose from.

Sound quality is good, better than Spotify or Wimp using Songcast. But there is still a huge difference to my own flac files played from my LS Nas. If I will keep the Tidal service I suspect that I will only use it to seek out new music and if I find something that I suspect I will like, I will, as always, buy the CD and rip it.

One thing that troubles me is that I also felt that the overall performance went down when I installed the new software for the DS. I have tried this a few times back and forth and feel that the old software 4.12.357 is better that the new one (4.23.1042). I have not decided what to do about this. I really liked the Tidal Service, and my children loved it, but if my own files will lose some of their magic I am not so sure.

Like everybody else I was gonna try Tidal. Installed Davaar 24 some weeks ago as first step. Got registration problems and contacted Linn to sort it out. It's sortet now but I haven't got to try and register again. But I had a growing feeling it didn't sound as good as before. That the FW was to blaim didn't really cross my mind until I read the Davaar thread at Linns forum yesterday. Reverted to Davaar 14 (which I've been happy with for quite some time) and voila, the music came back! Big musical difference really. Decided to skip Tidal for the time being, it's not worth it if you want your own music to perform at its best. We'll see if Linn can come up with a Tidal FW that performs well.

[MisterH]

Hi All!

I have also tried Tidal Streaming. I found the installation very strait forward and have had no technical issues at all. Kazoo works nicely and since I run in on a rather slow laptop I am pleased to see that the application runs quite quickly. I previously tried Spotify and Wimp clients and they were so slow that it became almost impossible to use on the laptop. So this was a really nice addition and you now have lots of music to choose from.

Sound quality is good, better than Spotify or Wimp using Songcast. But there is still a huge difference to my own flac files played from my LS Nas. If I will keep the Tidal service I suspect that I will only use it to seek out new music and if I find something that I suspect I will like, I will, as always, buy the CD and rip it.

One thing that troubles me is that I also felt that the overall performance went down when I installed the new software for the DS. I have tried this a few times back and forth and feel that the old software 4.12.357 is better that the new one (4.23.1042). I have not decided what to do about this. I really liked the Tidal Service, and my children loved it, but if my own files will lose some of their magic I am not so sure.

Like everybody else I was gonna try Tidal. Installed Davaar 24 some weeks ago as first step. Got registration problems and contacted Linn to sort it out. It's sortet now but I haven't got to try and register again. But I had a growing feeling it didn't sound as good as before. That the FW was to blaim didn't really cross my mind until I read the Davaar thread at Linns forum yesterday. Reverted to Davaar 14 (which I've been happy with for quite some time) and voila, the music came back! Big musical difference really. Decided to skip Tidal for the time being, it's not worth it if you want your own music to perform at its best. We'll see if Linn can come up with a Tidal FW that performs well.

I too prefer Davaar 14, so I have reverted to that, and during the trial period of Tidal I either airplay from iPad or songcast from laptop

[tmilligan]

I see Jay-Z has just bought Aspiro which is the Swedish company behind Wimp and Tidal

[Lego]

I see Jay-Z has just bought Aspiro which is the Swedish company behind Wimp and Tidal

Oh no !!

[Teemu]

Hi All!

I have also tried Tidal Streaming. I found the installation very strait forward and have had no technical issues at all. Kazoo works nicely and since I run in on a rather slow laptop I am pleased to see that the application runs quite quickly. I previously tried Spotify and Wimp clients and they were so slow that it became almost impossible to use on the laptop. So this was a really nice addition and you now have lots of music to choose from.

Sound quality is good, better than Spotify or Wimp using Songcast. But there is still a huge difference to my own flac files played from my LS Nas. If I will keep the Tidal service I suspect that I will only use it to seek out new music and if I find something that I suspect I will like, I will, as always, buy the CD and rip it.

One thing that troubles me is that I also felt that the overall performance went down when I installed the new software for the DS. I have tried this a few times back and forth and feel that the old software 4.12.357 is better that the new one (4.23.1042). I have not decided what to do about this. I really liked the Tidal Service, and my children loved it, but if my own files will lose some of their magic I am not so sure.

Like everybody else I was gonna try Tidal. Installed Davaar 24 some weeks ago as first step. Got registration problems and contacted Linn to sort it out. It's sortet now but I haven't got to try and register again. But I had a growing feeling it didn't sound as good as before. That the FW was to blaim didn't really cross my mind until I read the Davaar thread at Linns forum yesterday. Reverted to Davaar 14 (which I've been happy with for quite some time) and voila, the music came back! Big musical difference really. Decided to skip Tidal for the time being, it's not worth it if you want your own music to perform at its best. We'll see if Linn can come up with a Tidal FW that performs well.

Today tried to reverse Davaar 14 (Klimax dsm) and nothing to prefer it over newest davaar 24. Btw do you know that Tidal integration works normally with Bubble ds next when Davaar 14 is installed, i don't know why, but it actually works :) However, i decided to go back newest Davaar 24.

[stefan]

...
Today tried to reverse Davaar 14 (Klimax dsm) and nothing to prefer it over newest davaar 24.

I use ADS/1 so I can only comment on that, but according to the thread at Linns forum it's not just me.

...
Btw do you know that Tidal integration works normally with Bubble ds next when Davaar 14 is installed, i don't know why, but it actually works :) ...

No surprise as Bubble DS can do a lot of tricks like streaming from cloud services like Dropbox/Google Drive as well as from the Androids internal storage. But with Davaar 14 you don't have Tidal implemented in the DS so the stream will have to go from router to Android, back to router (over wifi) and then to DS. The same way as if you use airplay on Apple. The point with Tidal in DS is that the stream will go directly from router to DS in the first place.

[Ron The Mon]

Am I the only person here who has actually compared Tidal in a proper direct A/B comparison to Spotify, let alone a rip of a CD?

I must be as I am the only one on this or the Linn Forum who thinks it sounds like complete garbage and is evil as it does a grave disservice to the hi-fi industry using the buzzword "lossless" to promote a tuneless source.

I have lost respect for Linn in this regard too because if you use the TUNE METHOD to listen and compare, Tidal is a musical abomination. Linn used to say, "If it sounds better, it is better.".

Now, the selling point is: "...the integration of CD-quality streaming,...is such a game-changer,...Tidal finally gives music lovers a higher quality streaming alternative to the mainstream, mp3 quality streaming services previously available,... of Tidal’s new lossless music streaming service into Linn DS players."

When Linn say "lossless", do they actually mean the original copy is available to you "without loss"? Or do they mean low quality music is sent "losslessly" to you? I believe "Lossless" is the new "Perfect Sound Forever". If you compare a ripped CD on your NAS to the identical version on Tidal, there is much loss.

Personally, I think Tidal (and Linn) is taking advantage of those who are computer illiterate and don't know how to set up an NAS or know how to properly run Spotify for best results. Tidal inside a DS is pretty idiot-proof.

The bottom line is; if you actually compare Spotify (or your rips) in a direct A/B comparison to Tidal and like Tidal better and consider it a value, then more power to you. It blows my mind when I read "Tidal is a no-brainer" when no comparison was done at all. Use your brain: If it sounds better, it is better!

Ron The Mon
Needle-Freak

[Music Lover]

Do consider Tidal better or worse then Spotify?
Not compared myself.

[David Neel]

I've not compared Tidal to Spotify, never tried Spotify but I did take a trial of Tidal. I cancelled my subscription.

Why? Because the SQ was noticeably inferior to CD rips on my LS-NAS. And less musical.

[Music Lover]

As (sadly) expected

[lejonklou]

I have not yet listened to Tidal, but have compared Spotify with Wimp a couple of times. Wimp has been clearly better, but one finding is that the quality varies between songs - sometimes it's quite good, other times disappointing.

Well ripped tracks on an LS-NAS is without doubt on a higher quality level.

[David Neel]

And mine aren't even well-ripped!

[ThomasOK]

Fredrik, I thought I'd mention that Tidal is WiMP. When they entered the US and UK markets they decided to use a different name. Considering the meaning of wimp in the US (and probably in the UK but I'm not sure) this was a good idea. But I believe the streaming is the same so your findings should be equally valid.