Is Tidal/Deezer worth it?
Is Tidal/Deezer worth it?
Hello, everybody, I've been thinking to move on from my Spotify subscription to move to Tidal or Deezer. I want to try out HIFI audio, but still get a good and stable experience. Are there any suggestions for which one I should pick? Could you also tell about your experience with those apps, or are there any other you would recommend more?
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Unless you have expensive equipment, you will get no quality improvement over 360bit from Spotify. No flagship phone or Bluetooth headphones have high enough quality for various reasons. So without dedicated equipment, they're not worth paying more than you do for Spotify now.
And even if you have the equipment, whether your ears can discern the difference is debatable. And even if you can discern the difference, whether it's a noticeable improvement is another matter. And even if is a noticeable improvement, that doesn't necessarily mean your enjoyment of the music is any higher - sure, you may be able to make out some additional instruments or some nuances you didn't pick up before, but that doesn't mean the emotional response that's invoked in you is any higher. At least in my case, I found that in the end, it didn't really matter - the enjoyment that I got from listening to lossless audio via audiophile gear wasn't really much different from the enjoyment I got from HQ streaming music via regular gear. At least, the inconvenience wasn't really worth the gains.
IMO, music is about emotions and mood. Some of my fondest memories of music can be traced back to crackly radio on a cheap 2-in-1 set and making mixtapes, or catching the FM waves whilst driving and discovering some legit good tracks, many of which are still part of my regular playlists.
even if you have the g, whether your ears can discern the difference is debatable
You can test if you can tell the difference!
IMO everybody who's considering Tidal or another hifi platform should take this test first. If it turns out you can't tell the difference at 128kbps then you really shouldn't bother.
You should be able to get some improvements if your phone and headphones support LDAC or AptX HD. How perceptible this improvement is is debatable. IMO it wasn't worth the 75% reduction in battery life for my headphones.
My personal recommendation: FLAC torrents and rebuild a library like the good old days. But I know that's just me.
I would love to but sources for mp3 seem harder than 4k video, at least for me.
Yea, the hifi streamer services don't have a lot of content compared to others and the price is insane.
I love starting with v0 and if and when the release gets trumped I'll consider getting flac. I have no other reason for flac other than ooo shiny.
Dunno where you stand on all things Apple, but Apple Music is truly stable and has Hi-Fi (lossless). Works on both iOS and Android. Queuing and other specifics might irk you at first - just bear in mind it's different from Spotify in that it favours albums over playlists and algo-generated content. TIDAL's fine and the sound quality rumours you've heard are all true, but still has a bit of ironing out to do. Deezer used to be great, but now it's expensive AF. Just export your library through tunemymusic.com or soundiiz.com first and feel free to explore whatever tickles your fancy.
Ditto on Apple Music. Lossless at no extra cost with a much better UX than all except maybe Spotify. Wasn't a fan of Tidal's UX compared to Spotify and Apple Music, and Deezer still has this weird hard limit of 2,000 tracks on playlists. For comparison, Spotify has a 10,000 track limit and Apple Music has none (not to be confused with the 100k song library limit).
My main reason for sticking with Apple Music lately was the library management, particularly when syncing local songs. I have some music I got from Bandcamp that is not on streaming at all. On Spotify, you can't have them alongside your liked songs, while on Apple Music, they're treated as part of your music library and therefore much more streamlined than Spotify's.
I've been very happy with Tidal. I prefer the UX to the Spotify app but it is lacking some functionality like Spotify Connect. It's also nice that they pay artists more, and that none of my subscription fees are feeding into a $200 million contract for Joe Rogan.
If you use Google Home/Assistant, Tidal doesn't integrate well. It does integrate with Alexa.
As far as audio quality, I'm reasonably certain that I'd be unable to discern between the top tiers of any of the current services in a blind A/B test.
I love Tidal for the audio quality and have no plans to go back to Spotify (unless they release a competitive hi-fi service). That said, the Tidal app (UI design, error frequency, AC/AA integration, etc) is not as polished and well-made as something like Spotify, and the lack of unification between playback on different devices was a bit of a letdown at first (I.e., you can play different tracks on different devices at the same time; you can’t use your phone as a remote control for playback on your desktop app).
I'm tired of monthly subscriptions. I bought a lifetime Plex Pass. PlexAmp is a great app that plays music you own(or as close to owning as you can get).
Yes I'm "in Argentina" and it is totally worth it like under 3 bucks for a family plan.
I used Deezer for several years before they removed regional pricing. Sound quality was better than Spotify IMO, and I like their UI more. It's cleaner and less cluttered. The fact that you get lossless included by default now is definitely a plus too. You can also upload your own wav/mp3 files if you can't find it in their catalog. Never tried Tidal so I don't have an opinion about it.
I used Tidal for a bit and quite liked it, though it has quite a few gaps in its library compared to Spotify and YouTube Music. I signed up for Dolby Atmos music, which was hella cool but I blew through all the Dolby Atmos content I wanted to hear before the 30 day trial was up.
Quality wise, as others have said if you're using standard Bluetooth SBC it doesn't matter anyway. If you've got decent gear and actually use it then it's worth paying for Hi-Fi but that's not most people.
Free trial though. Can't go wrong with that.
I use Tidal HiFi and it's great, you need compatible headphones to really benefit from the sound quality though.
As far as I've experienced you need really good quality headphones in order to enjoy Tidal. Mine is on the high end of mid tier and I couldn't tell the difference in quality when I asked my wife to test me. I use Youtube Music because it's pretty much the same as Spotify plus no ads on regular Youtube.
I got a pair of mid-range Sennheisers and the difference in quality is noticeable. Could never go back to tin can sound.
That's what we call the placebo effect.
Try telling 256kbps AAC and lossless apart when you don't know which is which beforehand:
If you're into self hosting, Navidrome is a really great option to self host flacs. Super light weight and a lot of great 3rd party apps.
I realize you asked for other recommendations, but I suspect you don't want to actually maintain your own music library but rather want streaming services recommended?
Of the two alternatives you are currently looking for I do have experience with Deezer, although it has been two years at least. The music library is almost as complete as Spotify in my experience I rarely had issues with songs not being on there. The recommendation algorithm at the time was nice, but would sometimes get stuck in a hyper specific genre that would only reinforce itself.
For HIFI audio you basically do need fairly good audio gear for it (decent wired headphones for example), I'd say that for most people it is not worth paying extra for as it is really difficult to tell the difference.
One other service I have used is Youtube Music as it is included in premium. It does not have an HIFI option but otherwise is fairly okay. Basically worth looking into if you were also considering Youtube premium, but otherwise not really special.
I am really loving the sound quality on deezer, switched to it a couple months ago after my YouTube music family plan price jumped 50%. I put up with YTM's awful quality for the (old) price and other perks (YT) for years but no longer. Haven't tried tidal.
Ironically my fav lossless streaming service on Android is Apple Music. Amazon Music HD is also pretty good.
Not a fan of Tidal's UI and recommendations, and I hate that I can't see album covers when scrolling through a playlist. Haven't tried Deezer cause Canada
If you use AndroidAuto and want to be able to like/dislike songs, or add a song to your library, you'll be disappointed with Tidal. I just tried them again recently to see if I could move away from Spotify, and they STILL don't offer these abilities after all these years. For me, that's a deal breaker.
(These features, along with being able to reliably cast to a home stereo receiver, are usually what kills a music streaming service for me, on Android. Seems like most of these music streaming companies just don't care to add these features to their apps).
Tidal: great sound quality. Buggy software.
I moved to Deezer from You Tube Music a couple of years ago. I was on YTM for about six months after Google shut down Google Play Music (which was awesome). You Tube Music was a steaming turd, flakiest app I have ever used.
Deezer has been fantastic. Android app very rarely gives me any issues, and has probably the most extensive catalogue of any streaming service I have ever used (although it is a bit disorganised and shambolic at times), The Premium subscription is reasonably priced, especially if I use the yearly sub rather than the monthly one, and sound quality is great (although I only use HQ audio, not Hifi). I believe they pay artists more than most others
Other big upside is that there is NO limit to how many tracks you can download into a device if you are a Premium user! I have half a terabyte of country music in my phone. The only limitation is how much storage your device has. You can only download playlists / music into a maximum of three devices, I only have my phone and a waterproof media player so not an issue for me
Only downsides are the somewhat disorganised catalogue I mentioned - some artists have more than one artist profile with different albums scattered across them, and when two different artists share the same name they often get mushed together into the one profile. Discographies tend to be a bit random in the way they are organised. But careful use of the search function will find almost anything and everything.
Reorganising/ rearranging large playlists on the web client/ browser can get a bit flaky, with a really big playlist I find its sometimes easier to just rebuild it from scratch rather than move large blocks of tracks around
The MP3 upload tool is pretty clunky and has no folder feature, and a limit of only 2000 tracks upload. But because they have such an extensive catalog you shouldnt need it much
The downloaded music section in the app has no folders either which would be nice but isnt a deal breaker. Only other issue I have is that the Play button for playlists on the Android app defaults to shuffle mode which is a flaw shared with Spotify, and there is no way to disable shuffle even for Premium users. This is the ONLY thing YouTube Music gets right
I havent used Tidal but I have heard their catalogue is much more limited and what little exploration I did bore that out
I've been using Deezer for almost 3 months, and I used Tidal for about the same amount of time in the not too distant past.
I gave up on Tidal because they didn't have the music I am looking for, and that's okay, plus, their app was kinda bad.
I'm about to cancel my Deezer sub, the app is fantastic, I've loved being with Deezer, but there content is constantly running into dead ends, their AI player is really neat, but needs much love to become awesome.
Anyways, I hate Spotify, especially their UI, but we have a family plan.
I'm always on the lookout for music apps/subscriptions that are awesome, but like someone already commented, I am starting to feel like PlexAmp may be my future.