Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Meridian and Tidal Streaming Service

Great to see Meridian supporting new streaming services.
Surprised though that they are banking on a new service that will still need to prove itself.

It is not just the catalog (which seems to vary by country by streaming service), quality and usability but also the community (sharing) that drives success of a streaming service.

Hoping this is a first step towards a much wider streaming support, ensuring maximum coverage in all countries.

I agree it's cheap, and I already subscribe to Qobuz, which charges 20 GBP/month. I love the service, and use it much differently than I do rips or other physical media (including LPs).

By way of comparison, a typical cable TV package in the US costs far more, often over $100/month (although that may include internet access), and mobile phone access without a data plan, is ~$40/month.

I spend far more time listening to music than watching TV, and get much more pleasure from my audio system than I do my mobile phone.

I spend far more than $20 a month on shiny polycarbonate plastic discs ... I will test this service when it is released but I fear it is putting an end to one of my most enjoyable hobbies!

Well it's also available in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland under the name Wimp, Wimpmusic.com

Wimp Germany.
Free 7 day test then Euro 19.99 per month!!! Not sure on local taxes. Perhaps Ludwig could confirm situation.
Rip off Britain?
Hector

There is an offline button in the android and iPad app. Can't find one in the PC version though but that's perhaps less important. Haven't tried it.

Found this statement on Tidal.
"There are different pricing models for the different countries, so its not simply a case of exchange rates. If you compare TIDAL with other major music or video streaming services, you will notice the same US/UK pricing difference. Pricing is set in cooperation with the labels according to their local market standards."

Don't quite know what to make of this, but it would appear that the UK has suffered from a different and higher price model from "The Labels" for years.

Supply chain and distribution costs could have been different in the hardware past, but is this really true now in the streaming world?

I would love a credible and believable explanation from "the labels" and Tidal.

If the artists benefited from this policy I would not be unhappy, however I find this hard to believe especially with the latest Euro (Germany) published price.

I cannot believe 19.99 is the price irrespective of currency exchange rates, this cannot be a coincidence. It is just HISTORY
Hector

I think this will be the defining quality of Tidal, the ability to download FLAC (lossless) quality recordings and replaying them offline. Works via mobile already, the real test will be their downloads vs the Rhapsody downloads, which I don't believe are FLAC or lossless. I look forward to this service going live on M hardware. I imagine it will be in conjunction with something else, perhaps a wireless device?

I am not sure if the streamed quality is equal to a CD rip, according the wimp site they state the following:
Quote
We have not done this entirely alone. Early in the process, I involved Chis Sansom at Propeller Mastering in Oslo. He happens to be an old friend and we threw a lot of test music at him to find the optimal settings from our Dolby Media Generator encoder. A lot of tedious work later he gave his thumbs up.
Unquote

Maybe i am just not sure about the limiters and loudness controls the Dolby generator offers. Any opinions or facts to share maybe from experts?

Cheers!

I got the impression that Wimp isn't lossless yet. Were those comments supposed to be about Tidal?

Wimp has a lossless service called "Wimp Hifi".

See here.

Not sure I buy PCM having a variable bit-rate by nature. Perhaps they mean the compressed file size?

Also, lossless is lossless. I have no idea what this Dolby encoding thingy is.