I subbed for the Tidal 3 months just so I could do some back to back comparisons as I got a Topping D30Pro DAC for Xmas. So this is with an A30Pro amp and Sennheiser HD598SE headphones. It is really eye opening when you compare a Tidal Master (PC s/w decoded as I don't have an MQA DAC) to a Hi Rez FLAC track from this list https://www.whathifi.com/features/15...r-hi-fi-system. In this case the Hans Zimmer stuff that I have a copy of. The difference is much more than I expected. Clarity, articulation and placing of instruments within the whole is just so much better in the FLAC. The Tidal track just seems flatter and duller for want of a better description. I got my son to try the comparison with his younger better hearing and he found the difference mainly in going back from the FLAC to the Tidal version there is just something missing. I also tried a Spotify comparison and that in all honesty is pretty decent. I guess Quboz is one to try at some point. That and wasting money on better headphones obviously!
Last edited by reecie; 1st February 2022 at 10:38.
Can’t agree on turning off spatial audio, at least over AirPod Max and on tracks that are made for it. Searching for spatial audio in the music app brings up the category. For me it transforms the headphone soundstage, but where it really comes into its own is playing lossles audio via an Apple TV to a Dolby Atmos speaker setup, since spatial audio is in the end just an attempt to create an Atmos-lite experience over headphones. The real thing on speakers is something which needs to be heard to appreciate where the art of mixing is at the moment (the soundtrack to Dune would be a reasonable place to start). Obviously only home cinema nuts are likely to have the seven speakers and sub required for it, and setting it up correctly is a PhD project (don’t think for a moment the amp’s auto-calibration is going to sort it all out!).
Lossless Dolby Atmos is the reason I’ll stick with Apple, but TBH I’m knee deep in the Apple ecosystem anyway, and had never even heard of half of the other services until reading this thread.