I've been trialing the TIDAL hi-fi (16/44.1) streaming service for almost 3 weeks based on the free ickstream trial. It has decent selection for my tastes based on my limited use (about the same as Spotify), but I'll not likely continue as I frequently get buffering at certain times (typically early evening). I suspect this is infrastructure overload on Tidal's end. On my end, I have >100mbps download speed on my internet connection, local network, server, and players are all ethernet/gigabit connected, with no problems playing even 24/96 files, and during the times that Tidal is buffering, I can test to see that I can easily stream HD video from the internet with no buffering. At other random times of the day I can play for many hours with no buffering.
But bottom line for me is that the buffering is a sign that Tidal has some growing pains to go through before I'll subscribe. Spotify is more than enough for me in any case in terms of quality of the stream, but I'm not against the idea of paying $19/month for a good library of FLAC streams. But at that price (or any price) I'm not willing to put up with buffering. *Home:* VortexBox 4TB (2.3) > LMS 7.8 > Transporter, Touch, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet) *Cottage:* VBA 3TB (2.3) > LMS 7.8 > Touch > Benchmark DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) *Office:* Win7(64) > LMS 7.9 > Squeezelite *Spares:* Touch(3), Radio(3), Boom, SB3, CONTROLLER *Controllers:* iPhone6 & iPadAir2 (iPeng8 & Squeezepad), CONTROLLER, or SqueezePlay 7.8 on Win7(64) laptop *Files:* ripping: dbpoweramp > FLAC; post-rip: mp3tag, PerfectTunes; Streaming: Spotify ------------------------------------------------------------------------ garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103453 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
