Tidal Hi-Fi or Hi-Fi Plus? It's an EASY choice

*CORRECTION* The Tidal Hifi and Hifi Plus pricing mentioned in this video isn't German 🇩🇪. It's Portuguese 🇵🇹.

I tried Tidal along with Qobuz, Spotify and Amazon music along with Apple Music. I Chose Qobuz. It had the best combination of sound quality, selection, price and ease of use IMO. Thanks for the video. Peace, love and music!

You hit the nail on the head. I find that it's the master they use that makes much more noticeable difference to the quality of reproduction. When there is the opportunity to stream the original 16bit or the hi-res "remaster," a lot of the time I find the 16bit version to be miuch more dynamic which is what I much prefer. I am glad I bought my CD's years ago before all this remastering, brick wall limiting and compression took place. This is where, in my opinion, streaming services fall down. You can in most cases, only stream the version that is currently allowed by the record label. Whilst they can claim to remaster in hi-res, there is nothing hi-res about a recording that has been butchered for the sake of making it as loud as can be. Another thing that has been highlighted by "Wings Of Pegasus" channel on YouTube, they are now taking it upon themselves to autotune the vocals when they remaster, which is a total tragedy. So you're not even hearing the singers natural voice anymore. When will this madness end?

Tidal has been the best for me at discovering new music. Spotify feels like I'm paying to be bombarded with ads of whatever music has released and has paid Spotify.

For some people having surround systems at home, there's also Dolby Atmos, which you get in the Plus tier. Yes, I know. Lossy. But trust me, a lot of people new in the hobby who have Atmos systems at home whose stereo resolve isn't the most convincing, will get a thrill out of those Armos tracks. In my view, that counts for something.

This video seems to be about selling Tidal, not about which streaming platform offers the best sound quality for your system. That SQ depends on many things (and everyone should mainly trust their own ears...). I stopped using Tidal last year because Qobuz's sound quality is better IMO. Who wants to use Tidal Connect at home or outside when you have Roon and Roon ARC? Roon radio also does well with Qobuz and Qobuz offers 100 million songs in 100% CD quality. They even have 240,000 albums in high resolution. For some gaps in their catalog I use Spotify or my CD collection.

It’s even an easier choice now …. Come April 10, in the US at least, Tidal Hifi Plus will be $10.99 … tidal cd quality and hi res will be combined into one price / tier 😂 Spotify HIFI no more

I’d like to point out, at least in UK the Tidal app on Fire TV, Android TV and the Samsung TV app are NOT restricted to videos only. All your audio and video stuff is there under My Collection and the audio only content is also available either by search or by scrolling further down the Home Screen. As a long time Tidal user and Roon user I have to say I’m now using Tidal connect 90% of the time. It is just so convenient. Auto scrolling lyrics on your iOS device while Tidal connect plays via your hifi is a neat feature. Finally I’ll add that Tidal does eventually learn your listening preferences and the resulting custom mixes and recommendations are now great.

I compared Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz in my treated room with my all Benchmark Media system and Paradigm signature speakers. Qobuz was so much better, no matter what resolution. Tidal was just all over the place, horrible clipping and distortion. Spotify sounded the radio in my car. I couldn't care less about what apps they offer if a service sounds bad.

Really really good stuff , expertly presented ..What Darko a star you are 👍🥂

I tried a couple of times to switch back to Spotify, but my ears advised me to come back to Tidal. Believe it or not, it's like night and day. Obviously it depends on the quality of your gears also.

Thanks John, a very helpful video; I've decided to step down to HiFi after seeing this. A saving almost as large as my annual Roon subscription.

Tidal hifi plus is great! It has most music in HI-RES. I’ve been using Tidal almost since its very beginning. It uses full sized flac files now on connect but also retains the MQA Which there are a lot of haters, I however am not . I like the MQA’s and in some cases even more than the HI-RES flac . Despite the uncalled for hate MQA is the only format that considers the time domain throughout the entire delivery. I used to have Spotify as well but have long since cancelled it as there was no point paying for something I didn’t use anymore.

Thanks so much John. I was on the Plus plan and I can't stream Hi Res material anyway! Just saved me a bundle! 👍

I'm an audiophile, apart from DJ and music producer and I've been using Tidal HiFi Plus for almost 4 years, definitely recommend it

For me Tidal Hi-Fi is all I need. I use it to try out new (to me) music, and if I like it I buy it on CD. Problem with any streaming service, is that they often only have the latest re-mastered albums on there. In a lot of cases Remastered = Louder and Harsher, so I prefer the original mastered versions on CD. Also, if some artist has a row with the record company or streaming service, my music collection isn't going to disappear overnight.

Excellent breakdown. I am looking forward to the playlist. Those alone are worth joining the Patreon. Thanks

I changed last month from spotify to Qobuz...AMAZING!!! I was not sure, what to choose...Tidal/Qobuz. After some reviews I choose Qobuz, because it gots all I need and it got a clear communication in a each song, if I hear "CD" or "HiRes" quality.

Great video thanks Darko!

Darko, you recommended Tidal years ago and I love it. I use hifi because my system isn’t resolving enough and it works well with Volumio.