[Closed] Tidal vs Spotify - more bass?

Are you listening to Spotify on the highest quality mode (only available with a paid sub)? If so you should be getting 320kb MP3s which for most people are indistinguishable from non-compressed files and can happily be played through big PAs and whatnot.

Some nerds will disagree though.

If you're getting lower kB than this you might experience less bass due to the compression algorithm.

Tidal does sell itself on quality though and even at the same kB/s whathifi recomons tidal streams sound better

https://www.whathifi.com/features/tidal-vs-spotify-which-is-better

Tidal have a hifi sub with some uncompressed files also but it's £25 a month.

Are you listening to Spotify on the highest quality mode?

Probably not, I'll try that as a comparison

If you’re getting lower kB than this you might experience less bass due to the compression algorithm

It's not so much less bass on Spotify that's the issue, it's more that the bass in Tidal sounds a bit pronounced, but  only on some tracks.  I'm listening on HiFi mode which is still processed I think.

Came in looking for a sea fishing thread. Is disappoint.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tidal are slightly EQing their tracks as more bass = better quality to the layman, and their whole angle is "highest quality listening" or something, right.

Seems its confirmed here (or, at least confirmation you're not alone thinking they bass boost):

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1075816-why-does-tidal-sound-worse-than-flac-testing-to-see-if-they-add-dsp/

Also, a lot of people have often accused tidal of "bass boosting" or adding DSP to their music to create a false illusion of increased clarity.

Something about TIDAL's "Exclusive Mode" implementation causes audio to be altered. This would explain why a lot of people accuse TIDAL of adding DSP to their music. They aren't, their player is just awful and alters the music because its bad.

I play spotify via wifi to my hifi.  If you play it via bluetooth the volume and quality is lower

Came in looking for a sea fishing thread. Is disappoint.

Is amused

@plyphon - thanks for that, it's clearly not just me then and I'm hearing exactly what was mentioned in that article.  At first it seems that everything is clearer but after a while it feels like things are a bit unbalanced, but only on some songs.  I find that weird though as I'm using their web player as well as the app and I would expect the webplayer to use a native player and not be able to add it's own dsp

Jury still out then but I'm happy it isn't just me

@tjagain - thanks but it isn't that.  I'm playing through a variety of methods including external USB Dac into amp as well as headphones and using various players.  It feels the same in every case.

In Spotify ensure the automatic volume levelling ("Normalizing" )is switched off.

Apple music does Hi Res Lossless and you can get 5 months free trial - I started mine this week and its night and day compared to Deezer

Apple music does Hi Res Lossless and you can get 5 months free trial

I might try that as well then.  I'm trying to find a streaming system that pays more to artists and Apple are quite good as well I believe so worth a shot

In Spotify ensure the automatic volume levelling (“Normalizing” )is switched off.

Does this change the sound quality?

I play spotify via wifi to my hifi.

you are Dr Seuss and I claim my five pounds

most folk assume more pronounced bass to have a better sound overal. Take the Dr Dre Beats headphones for instance, bass heavy and folk think they're amazing.
I would imagine Tidal have EQ things to play on

I would imagine Tidal have EQ things to play on

Not that I've found yet 🙁

I play spotify via wifi to my hifi.

you are Dr Seuss and I claim my five pounds

Bravo! 😀

Listening to the same track on Spotify or TIdal HiFi - the Tidal stream does sound clearer and more detailed for me. (though I'm sure some of you won't believe that 😜)
If you are going sea fishing and listening on the phone you'd prob want to listen in normal quality and save your data

Tidal's HiFi sub is supposed to deliver same as CD quality, which is quite a bit more data than Spotify (who have been talking HiFi quality rumors for ever but no date)
As I understand it the quality of Tidal is dependent on the kit you're playing on being able to cope with the data rate. So running it direct to a HiFi from a DAC through the PC player or Phone app should do that, as should streaming over Wifi to a Chromecast or other streamer.
I am not sure that playing it over Bluetooth allows sufficient data to deliver that CD quality. Certainly Apple music don't give you lossless quality over bluetooth.

Can't find any EQ in the the Tidal player, but there is a loudness normalization switch that you could try on or off (similar to Spotify's volume normalization)

The HiFi Plus account requires you to have a DAC that is equipped with a fancy algorithm that can decode the files. A mate has one and HiFi Plus sounds pretty damn good, but haven't compared HiFi side by side with HiFi plus.

scruff

Does this change the sound quality?

Yes I believe it at the higher settings it enables compression (as in the audio dynamic range reducing technique not the data one).

If you dig through the settings there is a warning about it somewhere

The HiFi Plus account requires you to have a DAC that is equipped with a fancy algorithm that can decode the files. A mate has one and HiFi Plus sounds pretty damn good, but haven’t compared HiFi side by side with HiFi plus.

thats the MQA unfolding. i downgraded my subscription as i found the master quality was indiscernible from HiFi quality and this was listening through an audioquest dragonfly red/Beyerdynamic headphones or a NAIM unitiqute2/ Leema xero speakers.

if you are using a computer dac, the dac in your phone or the dac in the tiny apple headphone adapter then ic certainly wouldn’t bother with HiFi plus subscription

@MrSmith - as a Tidal user are you finding the the bass more pronounced?  I don't think this is an equipment issue as I notice it on my phone (through headphones) as well as through external DAC on computer at HiFi settings.  Generally I am liking listening to Tidal so will probably stick with it but I'm curious if it does actually do something to the sound.  I'm not talking the MQA stuff here, just their regular HiFi

Used Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz with both low and high end setups inc MQA DAC.

Tidal seems to have a little more authority, can’t tell if this is loudness or they are doing something when mastering / playing back to make it more Hip Hop friendly but, there is definitely difference in comparison to Spotify. You can EQ Spotify in settings to add bass, in addition to turning up volume and you get close.

Qobuz has a much more pronounced difference for me. It sounds clearer and more direct than both. Especially at high bitrate on a well recorded album. Also doesn’t require a MQA DAC. No EQ and sounds worse than both with small speakers.

as a Tidal user are you finding the the bass more pronounced?

well its ages since i had apple music and that was through a beresford dac into a pre/power.
and a long time since i listened with earbuds and phone, the beyer DT880 i have now are pretty flat and a world away from crappy beats with the forced presentation.
i didn’t think the bass was OTT the few times i listened with Shure SE215’s/dragonly red/iphone.

i will say that Tidal is way better overall for sound than apple music, and is far more engaging musically if you use decent hi-fi equipment.

i didn’t think the bass was OTT the few times i listened with Shure SE215’s/dragonly red/iphone

Thanks for that.  Next time I find a track where it sounds a bit off I'll try comparing it to the others.  It might be I'm just a bit too used to listening to it on Spotify

Would love to go Qobuz but they are a wee bit pricey for the whole family

Take the Dr Dre Beats headphones for instance, bass heavy and folk think they’re amazing.

They’re much better now, since Apple took them over they’ve changed the EQ and improved them a lot.

well its ages since i had apple music and that was through a beresford dac into a pre/power.

i will say that Tidal is way better overall for sound than apple music, and is far more engaging musically if you use decent hi-fi equipment.

How can you possibly tell, considering that “well its ages since i had apple music”, and nobody can retain the information regarding what is basically a subjective matter, like how music sounds when played through different items of equipment.

People found music to be engaging and indistinguishable from a live performance when listening to wax cylinders! And that is recorded fact, I simply cannot believe that anyone can make a value judgment on whether one service sound better than another if the comparisons are months apart, the human brain just cannot do that.

FWIW, I use Apple EarPods, Edifier NeoBuds (which are small BT units), MeeAudio Pinnacle IEMS and Taotronics headphones, both wired and BT, the cable being a 3.5mm to Lightning, and the Pinnacles, of which I have two pairs, one with a MeeAudio BT adapter, which is a cable joining the earphones with battery one side, remote the other, and the others with a Pinion Lightning to MMCX connection, which is my preference.
I don’t stream, I download from Apple Music, and I also have a lot of music that I had ripped into iTunes then uploaded to the Cloud, so I have direct comparisons between 320Kb files and those downloaded from Apple, and they’re indistinguishable from each other, I have no idea which I’m listening to and I’m certain that nobody else could either.

Right, I’m going to put my earphones in, plug in my phone, and engage in a thoroughly enjoyable fashion with something from the approximately 40,000 tracks in my phone’s library, along with a nice Highland Park.

G’night.