Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming What HiFi announces Tidal available on Sooloos in 'early 2015'

Hopefully Meridian are making the update bug proof so it doesn't suffer the dropouts I keep reading with the Tidal service.

A local offline cache could alleviate that for the albums we "import".

Was Rhapsody always streamed?

For the record, I subscribed to Tidal last week as it is in Beta with Sonos (still waiting for Sooloos integration like everyone else). I have experienced zero dropouts streaming through the Sonos system.

Admittedly, I have very high speed internet (75Mbps/75Mbps Verizon Fios), but thought I'd go on record. The sound has been excellent (sounds just like streaming my own CD library through the Sonos) and reliability has been great.

John

John - with that internet speed you should be in heaven whatever you download. Many of us here in UK have speeds that are only a small fraction of that - mine rarely exceeds 13mbs down and upload just one-tenth of that!

This is why I am excited about MQA and Tidal with the promised small file size.
By the way I get plenty of drop outs on Rhapsody - some days like today it was unbearable
So we are all eagerly waiting
Regards
Huw

In anticipation of it becoming available on Sooloos I decided to try out Tidal this week on my iPhone (frankly my main music playback system).

In terms of sound quality it is miles ahead of Spotify, even at sub-lossless level compared to Spotify's Extreme (notionally 320kbs). The collection is very good (only a couple of artists I couldn't find).

For me, I decided not to continue beyond the free 7 days for now because the iPhone app doesn't handle gapless playback at all well (mashes tracks together rather than leaving a gap in between), which was very irritating.

When they release v2.2 I will be there to re-subscribe as long as it does't suffer from the same problem because the sound quality and choice is great, and hopefully the iPhone app will be fixed too (keeping an eye on the app store).

YMMV

Ian

For those that want to try out Tidal already on their setup (or Spotify for that matter), what works well for me:
- Apple TV to 861 optical
- Airplay (/air parrot) from my iMac/iPad/iPhone
- I use my iMac so my iPad/iPhone doesn't get drained

Airplay is lossless (up to CD quality), which combined with Tidal makes for decent streaming.

Sounds better than the Rhapsody over ID40 setup for me.

Means I can wait a little bit more relaxed for the Sooloos releases. Should have done this earlier .

Hi Gecko,
You don't really want to be using an ATV for this.

As far as I know, the ATV only outputs at 48k - hence is transcoding all the 44.1k material from TIDAL received over Airplay.

I currently use my Mac via Airplay to an Airport Express - this maintains a 44.1k "bit perfect" stream to the optical and into my G91.

Matt

Mmm, you're right, it does do that. Too bad I don't have an Airport Express laying around. Still sounds pretty decent though .

I need Tidal on Sooloos now...

No worries. My room will not be done before Wednesday anyway but I get my 128" 2,40:1 StudioTek100 today.

So M and Tidal have got until Wednesday.

The seemingly endless wait continues............

As this thread now approaches the magical 10,000 views mark, I think back to Dec 2014 when we were told that 'Tidal integration with Sooloos will happen in early 2015'. Some articles even suggested Jan 2015. Maybe it could be first quarter now? Who knows?

Definition of the word early

1. happening or done before the usual or expected time.
2. belonging or happening near the beginning of a particular period.
3. Denoting or belonging to the beginning of a historical period or cultural movement

I'm hoping M's definition is either 1 or 2 and certainly not 3.

I've contacted Meridian support, Tidal support, spoke to some of dealers but no-one will stump up anything. I've also kept a regular eye on both M & TIDALs facebook & Twitter accounts - zilch. I also look everyday on the Apps Store & every time I run Control:PC to see if updated versions are available.

Some concerns raised elsewhere and putting 2 & 2 together and probably making 5 lead me to wonder about the following

1. As MQA correctly becomes all consuming, are M now only looking at launching Tidal with MQA when some music is available I.e. probably 2015 Q4 and not on its own?

2. What impact is that nice Mr Zeds purchase of Tidal going to have on product, partners etc?

Ironically I dumped Sonos to move to Sooloos for obvious reasons but now see that at least 4 or 5 TIDAL 'partners' are up and running already whilst we wait for some sort of sign, maybe just a smoke signal that will tell us not even that we have got it but when, would do for starters.

This is not a whinge, I love my M gear and the quality of the music at my disposal, but once you know nectar, ambrosia etc. is round the corner there's only so much salivating one can do before your mouth runs dry and you start to become disaffected. (Not happened yet though).

What a fantastic customer base we must be! So finally, if M could just give us a little sweetner, maybe just a date or if there are actually any problems preventing the launch, that would be nice.

One of the reasons I moved to M was their legendary customer service. I remember when i got my FIRST Sooloos gear and emailed them to say I couldn't access Napster as only Rhapsody accounts were available, I was disappointed that I didn't get a reply within 2 hours, but then after 3 hours I got an all user email saying that an upgrade was available allowing access via Napster!

Keep up the excellent work M but try and keep us a bit more informed along the way!

Slow day in the office today...

Meridian isn't your brand if you expect updates at the drop of new technology.

Not their style.

I suspect they want to make sure it's right as the whining you get when its not, is overwhelming.