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I’ve subscribed to them all. Depends what you are looking for. Tidal wins if you want:

Best curated playlists - well thought out, other services may have more but not the same quality.

Better interface than Apple, not sure why Apple can’t get this right. Search interface on tidal could use help.

Better sound - even the $10 tier on Tidal sounds better. The hifi tier with a moderately decent pair of headphones sounds way richer. It’s Nordstrom vs Walmart sound.

Open integration - As a consumer, I hate lockins like HomePod not supporting native integrations for other services. Amazon echo now supports native for Tidal. “Alexa play Rolling Stones” will play from tidal now (after setting default music service in Alexa app).

Deeper library and more compensation to artists are also pluses on Tidal.

You can set up Alexa to play from Apple Music now as well, in the same fashion as Tidal in your example.
 
In this aspect Tidal is no longer unique. Quobuz with HIFI streaming is now available in the U.S.:

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/discover

In addition Tidal uses MQA for "Hi-Res" streaming which is a lossy format with end to end licensing, requires special hardware and worst yet it is a placeholder for DRM in the future. Reason enough to vote with your wallet and chose Qobuz.
 
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Qobuz for me. Sound quality is much better than Tidal on my system. I am very happy Qobuz is now in the States. Cheers
 
But if you prefer Tidal I believe HomePod does not support tidal natively, or has that changed?

Good point, no HomePod only supports Apple Music or AirPlay from Tidal, which requires an iPhone or Mac host.

HomePod is a solution in search of a problem in my mind.
 
For those that use tidal, what kind of headphones do you use? Just curious. If you use AirPods or any Bluetooth headphones, you’re not getting any benefit.

In fact, FLAC doesn’t even really sound better in the first place. It’s all about archiving.
 
Both are inferior to Spotify.

Apple Music’s interface is shockingly bad. Really quite awful.

This... makes absolutely no sense.

Spotify and Apple have virtually identical UI, save that they have but 2 buttons less along the bottom - which actually makes navigation harder. Then functionally... they can’t shuffle music? They don’t have an option to decide to queue a song immediately after what you’re listening to, or at the end of a line of songs you’ve already selected?

Pretty sure you’re just here to troll...
 
Open integration - As a consumer, I hate lockins like HomePod not supporting native integrations for other services. Amazon echo now supports native for Tidal. “Alexa play Rolling Stones” will play from tidal now (after setting default music service in Alexa app).

So then add Apple Music as the default music player on your Echo... “Alexa, play Rolling Stones.” Alexa - Now playing The Rolling Stones, from Apple Music.
 
So then add Apple Music as the default music player on your Echo... “Alexa, play Rolling Stones.” Alexa - Now playing The Rolling Stones, from Apple Music.

I think they were talking about not being able to use HomePod with other services without using an AirPlay host like a Mac or iPhone.
 
For those that use tidal, what kind of headphones do you use? Just curious. If you use AirPods or any Bluetooth headphones, you’re not getting any benefit.

Even if high end headphones are used in a portable environment, people will not be able to hear the difference. The noise from cars, public transit, other people, etc. all mask lossy artifacts pretty well. Speakers in homes won't do it either. Sonos speakers, Bose speakers, even high end home theater systems. You really need to have trained ears, a dedicated amp, and either open back over-ear headphones or studio monitors. Even then you have to train your ears to hear the specifics of lossy artifacts. The vast majority of people, and that includes people making claims here, will fail volume-matched blind ABX tests comparing lossy files (even at bitrates lower than 320kbps/256kbps) to their source lossless versions.

Users at hydrogenaudio spent years trying to get others to understand this. The best thing anyone can do is conduct a volume-matched blind ABX test and hear for themselves.
 
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This... makes absolutely no sense.

Spotify and Apple have virtually identical UI, save that they have but 2 buttons less along the bottom - which actually makes navigation harder. Then functionally... they can’t shuffle music? They don’t have an option to decide to queue a song immediately after what you’re listening to, or at the end of a line of songs you’ve already selected?

Pretty sure you’re just here to troll...

We got a looney toon here folks! Lol. AM & Spotify UI are nothing alike and neither is browsing for new releases or playlists or even bringing up albums or your own music. Everything is more difficult and less intuitive with Apple Music IMO.
 
We got a looney toon here folks! Lol. AM & Spotify UI are nothing alike and neither is browsing for new releases or playlists or even bringing up albums or your own music. Everything is more difficult and less intuitive with Apple Music IMO.

Nothing alike? Do you have eyes? Have you ever used Apple Music? Spotify is a less functional AM thanks to recent changes, while trying to copy them because their original UI was the worst thing ever.

New Music:
AM -- Click Browse. Click New Music
Spot -- Click Search. Click New Releases.

Bringing up your albums and songs:
AM -- Click Library
Spot -- Click Library

Browsing playlists:
AM -- click For You for curated ones. Click Browse then Playlists for canned ones.
Spotify -- click Home for curated ones. Click Search then select a genre, then select a playlist for canned ones.

Now Playing Screen:
AM -- minimizes to a bar on the bottom, tap to pull up album art and contextual choices... click a Heart icon to like it.
Spot -- minimizes to a bar on the bottom, tap to pull up album art and contextual choices... click a Heart icon to like it.

uhhmmm...?????

Yeah... they're sooooo totaaaallllyyyyy different. You have to know what 2 whole different icons mean.
 
In addition Tidal uses MQA for "Hi-Res" streaming which is a lossy format with end to end licensing, requires special hardware and worst yet it is a placeholder for DRM in the future. Reason enough to vote with your wallet and chose Qobuz.
I’ve found the mqa masters on tidal hires to be quite nice. I use dragonfly for my dac and a pair of audeze cans. Listening bliss. Also you can get the tidal hifi tier for 5$ If you are a subscriber to third man records vault subscription. In total I pay 300 a year for 24/96 streaming, great vinyl box sets, and other perks.

https://thirdmanrecords.com/news/tidal-subscription-promotion-for-vault-members
 
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I signed up for Tidals free trial and listening to different tracks constantly switching between AM and Tidal I couldn’t hear any difference. Definitely not £10 a months difference. I imagine I’d notice if I was listening on a high end stereo but not with headphones.
 
It's Tidal HiFi FLAC/MQA hands-down for audio quality.
Apple Music comes in second most of the time.
Spotify Premium sounds so bad I can't listen to it.

Qobuz has amazing quality and HiRes purchase options but suffers on the interface front. I'm hoping it'll improve to become a real contender. I haven't tried Deezer yet.
 
I was using Spotify and I was not pleased with the sound quality. So I decided to check around and see what’s available I had used Apple Music before but for some reason they didn’t have a lot of the music that I wanted so I had to switch to Spotify and then I found Tidal. When I found out the Tidal had Hi-Fi I decided to try it out. I am still on my free trial. I am also back with Apple Music and trying both at the same time to try to hear a difference in the sound quality. I only listen to music in my car with either my iPhone XR or 11. I guess if I were to listen on a better system at home Tidal would sound a lot better, but in my car Apple Music sounds a lot better. I often find myself having to play around with my sound settings because often my music on Tidal sounds too loud and is distorted. Then there is the option of uploading your own music. I have a lot of CDs and that I ripped on my PC that I want to hear in my car. I also Have many concert DVDs that I extracted the audio from also to listen to in my car. Cannot do that with Tidal but I can with Apple Music, and with all the other services like Google Play Music and Spotify.
 
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I also Have many concert DVDs that I extracted the audio from also to listen to in my car. Cannot do that with Tidal but I can with Apple Music, and with all the other services like Google Play Mysic and Spotify.

Don't understand. Tidal for IOS allows downloads so you can play (via Tidal) in your car.
 
Don't understand. Tidal for IOS allows downloads so you can play (via Tidal) in your car.
I am not talking about downloading content from Tidal. I am talking about being able to upload my own music from a ripped CD or music extracted from a concert DVD so that I can add them to my library. It is possible with all the other services but not with Tidal. In order for me to be able to add this music to my library, I have to be able to upload it first to whatever service I am using, be it Apple Music, Google, Spotify, etc....
 
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You might want to look into Vox. Unlimited uploads of your music to their cloud without compression, supports HighRes formats, allows downloads.

 
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