Tidal and in car audio with 2021.40.x

[Mr H]

Ha! Ha! Nice! I love it when audiophiles get going! Sorry, I just have to go round with a carrier bag picking up all the hi-fi names you've dropped all over the place. I'm still running my 80's vintage AIWA mini system.

Meanwhile my NAIM system into Bowers and Wilkins sounds sublime. Do you need a bigger bag ? ;-)

I use Spotify as I get it for free with my works phone contract. My 50 year old ears enjoy it just fine

 

[RobbieBurns]

Meanwhile my NAIM system into Bowers and Wilkins sounds sublime. Do you need a bigger bag ? ;-)

I use Spotify as I get it for free with my works phone contract. My 50 year old ears enjoy it just fine

LOL! No my friend - those hi-fi names are too mainstream - I'll leave them on the floor!

Ha ha!! Its those more totally obscure specialist hi-fi brands with scandi or german sounding names or whatever that people drop into a conversation to impress you, and you just nod and go - "oh yeah - they're good" (and then you go home and google them, and gawp at the price!) These are what's beyond me - and really that says -" I'm into hi-fi - and be impressed by these names I've just dropped on you - this is hi-fi - but not as you normal folks know it..." this are the ones that fill up my little carrier bag.

Its all very amusing anyway!

 

[browellm]

Tidal HiFi = CD

Ecxept it isn't in all cases, and that's why I find the MQA tie up so insidious.

 

[MrBadger]

Sigh

 

[KennethS]

Have we started to discuss interconnects yet?

I just signed up to the Tidal $2 trial. For in car audio it sounds quite nice in our M3P. I will have to give it a proper listen later on my main home system….

 

[browellm]

Sigh

Facts > sighing.

 

[WilleyMunda]

Anyone know if you can connect a flash drive and draw from that? or just your phone? I have lots of Masters quality downloaded on my phone, and good quality HiFi also.

I don't think there Tesla lets you download the Masters version onto the Tesla will only work if you stream through your phone etc

 

[jimbo_hippo]

Is that not to be expected?

Tidal as implemented on the car appears to only support HiFi quality at best, ie CD quality (44.1k/16). So comparing it against another lossless format, or a CD source should give parity. It sounds like that has what been achieved. Job done. It would have been a different story had you made the argument of Tidal Master quality (on equipment designed to play at a higher quality of what Master can offer vs Apple lossless, but even then, not all masters are better than 'CD' quality. What Tesla Master quality allows is higher than CD quality material to be streamed, but as it appears not to be supported in the car, then Tidal HiFi = CD = Apple Lossless (at source) = xxx CD Lossless, no better and should be no worse although no experience of how well Apple Lossless would transfer in car. Hence my earlier comment that Tidal HiFi is the tier that would suit most, unless playing at home or, adding this one in, wanting to contribute a bit more to the originators of the music.

Ironically, 'CD' quality has been available in car for decades, the step forward should not be commenting on quality (even if much of the industry did take a backward step on quality vs convenience), but on bringing CD quality and convenience and instant access to a huge library of material, rather than having a 6 CD changer or scabbling on the floor to grab the next CD to play.

Now, whether high resolution (ie better than CD quality) would be discernible in the car environment is rather a moot subject, although in car FLACs at 96/24 (twice the resolution of CD) will play.

However, this all detracts from the true question of, does Tidal offer better quality than Spotify when played in the car? I don't know as I don't use Spotify, but all I know is that the in car Tidal offers a better interface than accessing my USB/FLAC media at same quality with a much larger library that is easy to access. Job done as far as I am concerned, but then I have been a Tidal subscriber for many years so I have no financial comparison to consider. But for those who already have committed to another service, or might want have start paying for material, or swap provider, then a different conclusion may be made.

For some, having access to high resolution material, ie better than CD quality, or in the case of Tidal Masters, at the quality of the original Master, Tidal offers that in a streaming format over the internet/WAN with modest bandwidth requirements. That level of quality is available in download/file/LAN often from material from unknown province (ie a lot of high resolution material is simply 'CD' quality that has been up sampled - nothing wrong with that if done properly, but up sampling can be performed very well by many pieces of kit so it is not necessary to sell it at premium as hi resolution) but what Tidal Masters does is bring parity at that level. And that allows access to a huge catalogue of material for those that want the best out of their equipment, but for those that don't, there are other solutions, but very few equals.

Yep, totally as expected, and no surprises.

 

[Epyx]

I don't think there Tesla lets you download the Masters version onto the Tesla will only work if you stream through your phone etc

Nope, not possible.
Within my Tidal App on my Android Tablet, you can choose download location. Internal or external memory. The latter is for example an SD card. Just gave it a try and downloaded an Album with 6 songs onto that SD-card.
Then, I’ve had a look at the result in Solid Explorer, an Android file explorer.
It’s a labyrinth of +-300 encrypted files ending with .exo
Nothing you can do with that, unless you are a hacker.

 

[WilleyMunda]

https://tidal.com/partners/tesla

 

[spon88]

Have we started to discuss interconnects yet?

.... or very expensive optical cables

I'm a great one for convenience. I have all of the "gear" in the house but I use the Sonos 95% of the time simply because it's always on and it's decent. If I want to geek out then I plug all of the other gubbins in and let it warm up

It's the same with cameras. I used to lug all sorts of kit around but now I have a Lumix that is insanely capable as a pocket camera and does 95% of what 25kg of kit will do. It's the law of diminishing returns as with lots of things and there's lots of rabbit holes to fall into - I've only just climbed out of some of them

 

[Mr H]

Don't forget to spend £70 on a HDMI cable.......can of worms.......open

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

Is that not to be expected?

Tidal as implemented on the car appears to only support HiFi quality at best, ie CD quality (44.1k/16). So comparing it against another lossless format, or a CD source should give parity. It sounds like that has what been achieved. Job done. It would have been a different story had you made the argument of Tidal Master quality (on equipment designed to play at a higher quality of what Master can offer vs Apple lossless, but even then, not all masters are better than 'CD' quality. What Tesla Master quality allows is higher than CD quality material to be streamed, but as it appears not to be supported in the car, then Tidal HiFi = CD = Apple Lossless (at source) = xxx CD Lossless, no better and should be no worse although no experience of how well Apple Lossless would transfer in car. Hence my earlier comment that Tidal HiFi is the tier that would suit most, unless playing at home or, adding this one in, wanting to contribute a bit more to the originators of the music.

Ironically, 'CD' quality has been available in car for decades, the step forward should not be commenting on quality (even if much of the industry did take a backward step on quality vs convenience), but on bringing CD quality and convenience and instant access to a huge library of material, rather than having a 6 CD changer or scrabbling on the floor to grab the next CD to play.

Now, whether high resolution (ie better than CD quality) would be discernible in the car environment is rather a moot subject, although in car FLACs at 96/24 (twice the resolution of CD) will play.

However, this all detracts from the true question of, does Tidal offer better quality than Spotify when played in the car? I don't know as I don't use Spotify, but all I know is that the in car Tidal offers a better interface than accessing my USB/FLAC media at same quality with a much larger library that is easy to access. Job done as far as I am concerned, but then I have been a Tidal subscriber for many years so I have no financial comparison to consider. But for those who already have committed to another service, or might want have start paying for material, or swap provider, then a different conclusion may be made.

For some, having access to high resolution material, ie better than CD quality, or in the case of Tidal Masters, at the quality of the original Master, Tidal offers that in a streaming format over the internet/WAN with modest bandwidth requirements. That level of quality is available in download/file/LAN often from material from unknown province (ie a lot of high resolution material is simply 'CD' quality that has been up sampled - nothing wrong with that if done properly, but up sampling can be performed very well by many pieces of kit so it is not necessary to sell it at premium as hi resolution) but what Tidal Masters does is bring parity at that level. And that allows access to a huge catalogue of material for those that want the best out of their equipment, but for those that don't, there are other solutions, but very few equals.

Good thoughts. agreed.

LOL! No my friend - those hi-fi names are too mainstream - I'll leave them on the floor!

Ha ha!! Its those more totally obscure specialist hi-fi brands with scandi or german sounding names or whatever that people drop into a conversation to impress you, and you just nod and go - "oh yeah - they're good" (and then you go home and google them, and gawp at the price!) These are what's beyond me - and really that says -" I'm into hi-fi - and be impressed by these names I've just dropped on you - this is hi-fi - but not as you normal folks know it..." this are the ones that fill up my little carrier bag.

Its all very amusing anyway!

And sorry, did not mean to come off as trying to impress with scandi sounding names. (I think the only one I would have used is Dahlquist, which was a somewhat obscure speaker maker from the East Coast of the US. Now vintage gear that has a pretty reasonable price). Not my intent to act as in your second to last sentence. Just was excited by the other guy’s system whose post I was responding to, and so talked about mine a bit. Anyhow, . . . Carrying on . . .

 

[OnTheEdge]

Don't forget to spend £70 on a HDMI cable

I've got a plethora of gold plated scart cables in the loft if anyone wants to make me an offer

 

[RobbieBurns]

Good thoughts. agreed.

And sorry, did not mean to come off as trying to impress with scandi sounding names. (I think the only one I would have used is Dahlquist, which was a somewhat obscure speaker maker from the East Coast of the US. Now vintage gear that has a pretty reasonable price). Not my intent to act as in your second to last sentence. Just was excited by the other guy’s system whose post I was responding to, and so talked about mine a bit. Anyhow, . . . Carrying on . . .

As I said - Its all very very amusing and all meant in good humour my friend. Oops - I've just picked up that Dalquist name off the floor you just dropped there again!! lol!!

 

[Dilly]

How many audio sources have you enabled? IIRC there is a limit (4 or 5?) to the number of concurrently enabled sources.

Photo attached of my “sources”. Even shutting some off there’s no sign of USB. Music is stored on a properly partitioned SSD shared with with dashcam/sentry. most music is in folders but there are some loose ones. All the music is accessible via USB. It’s just not a source. Never has been

 

[MrBadger]

I just be happy to get my USB music to show up as a source. Supposedly added umpteen updates ago. Never worked!

Photo attached of my “sources”. Even shutting some off there’s no sign of USB. Music is stored on a properly partitioned SSD shared with with dashcam/sentry. most music is in folders but there are some loose ones. All the music is accessible via USB. It’s just not a source. Never has been

Urm, maybe I misunderstood the "happy to get my USB music to show up as a source" but is it not there, arrowed below? I can't remember exactly what is in the audio settings, but maybe it is always available if you have a valid USB device attached and that if you don't want to see it as a source, you unplug it.

 

[Epyx]

Photo attached of my “sources”. Even shutting some off there’s no sign of USB. Music is stored on a properly partitioned SSD shared with with dashcam/sentry. most music is in folders but there are some loose ones. All the music is accessible via USB. It’s just not a source. Never has been
View attachment 740212

From TM3 manual:
"NOTE: Media Player supports USB flash drives with FAT32 formatting (NTFS and exFAT are not currently supported).

 

[Dilly]

Urm, maybe I misunderstood the "happy to get my USB music to show up as a source" but is it not there, arrowed below? I can't remember exactly what is in the audio settings, but maybe it is always available if you have a valid USB device attached and that if you don't want to see it as a source, you unplug it.

View attachment 740216

Back in a much earlier update USB became searchable, I thought by voice command. I recall that it became a “source” maybe I misunderstood.
the SSD is properly formatted FAT32

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

As I said - Its all very very amusing and all meant in good humour my friend. Oops - I've just picked up that Dalquist name off the floor you just dropped there again!! lol!!

Also, I have to recall that I found my way into a UK room, searching for Tidal on the forum, me being but a Yank! Though I have always loved British humor. Ability to engage in the same, probably lacking.