I'm casually testing Tidal Hifi via the iPad app and an Arcam rDock-uni (new addition) into the 818.

My impressions:

- The bait 'n switch from 30 day trial to 7 day trial left a bad taste

- The UI in both the web site and iPad app works well and is uncluttered

- I find that tracks skip once about 50% of the time right at the start. My bandwidth is otherwise solid and I never have problems with streaming music or movies from other services

- Quick spot checks in the catalog tell me that it's decent, but that it doesn't have the same breadth or depth as Rhapsody's (yet?)

- It's too early to say much about Tidal's sound quality, especially since I'm listening through new components

I'm partial to owning music and storing it locally. I use Rhapsody for sampling new music and occasionally to beef up party mixes. Unless Tidal's catalog supersedes Rhapsody's or M's integration with Tidal enables me to play 44.1Khz/16bit music from Tidal offline, I will probably stick with Rhapsody.

Soundserge


Antipodes CX + Roon, 818v3, DSP 7200SEs, 218, DSP3200s