[TjPhysicist]

   
I rip all of my CDs to Lame vbr -0 using dBPoweramp.  The track info always appears with "VBR" in parenthesis.
 
Here is the Google album of Hotel California, and you can see the 320 CBR mp3 that is used:
 

 
 
My CD ripped tracks look like this:
 

 
 
And this:
 

Seriously then, WTH? I see the album on mine, but only two songs in it:
 

 

[sonitus mirus]

  Seriously then, WTH? I see the album on mine, but only two songs in it:
 

 
I don't believe you are alone, as there does appear to be some sort of licensing issue that other people are experiencing after searching around a bit.  I own the Eagles box set on CD, and I'm sure that I had these uploaded at one point, since the Eagles catalog was only made available to stream sometime after I began using Google.  So perhaps what I am seeing is some kind of match being made, as this album did exist at one point in its entirety.

 

[TjPhysicist]

   
I don't believe you are alone, as there does appear to be some sort of licensing issue that other people are experiencing after searching around a bit.  I own the Eagles box set on CD, and I'm sure that I had these uploaded at one point, since the Eagles catalog was only made available to stream sometime after I began using Google.  So perhaps what I am seeing is some kind of match being made, as this album did exist at one point in its entirety.

Oh the "match" feature thing is AWESOME feature of Google music (not sure how many others have that feature), I've uploaded a few badly degraded quality songs and gotten pretty good quality versions of it. If only google music would do lossless, it'd be perfect, I mean i don't mind actually going out and buying songs/CD's I want to listen to all the time and uploading it myself.

 

[canali]

Question to Tidal users:
are you actively searching our new artists/genres to listen to?
 
I feel like a kid in a candy store...am exploring genres i normally wouldn't:
classical (mostly Bach so far), opera, funk, R&B, soul, etc....
often places i wouldn't tread if i didn't have unlimited access.
same thing as before: if i find a piece i really enjoy, then i'll search out a well produced copy
and buy it somewhere (cd or flac file)
 
before with Tidal, when using my cans/iems i'd go back to my golden reliables alot
(Zepp, Rush, etc)...but this time I find myself ever so hungry to 
listen and explore mostly new stuff..and it's wonderfully fulfilling.
 
big thing for me is that in now have a desktop setup: audioengine A5+ and a nice
pioneer sub...that live speaker sound makes Tidal even more attractive.
(seeking to upgrade to adam audio F5 so if anyone wants to let go of a pair, kindly PM me)

 

[TjPhysicist]

  Question to Tidal users:
are you actively searching our new artists/genres to listen to?
 
I feel like a kid in a candy store...am exploring classical (mostly Bach so far),
opera, funk, R&B, etc.
 
before with Tidal, using my cans/iems i'd go back to my golden reliables alot
(Zepp, Rush, etc)...but this time I find myself ever so hungry to 
listen and explore mostly new stuff..and it's wonderfully fulfilling.
 
big thing for me is that in now have a desktop setup: audioengine A5+ and a nice
pioneer sub...that live speaker sound makes Tidal even more attractive.
(seeking to upgrade to adam audio F5 so if anyone wants to let go of a pair, kindly PM me)

I find nothing can beat Google Music's "discovery" algorithm. Often I'll listen to songs suggested to me by Google Music and then look them up on Tidal to listen to them (if I liked the song obv. some songs I don't care about higher definition).  But the one thing though iS, i'm rediscovering "old loves", so to speak, old songs I used to listen to, classic rock stuff, suddenly sounding REALLY amazing.

 

[sonitus mirus]

  I find nothing can beat Google Music's "discovery" algorithm. Often I'll listen to songs suggested to me by Google Music and then look them up on Tidal to listen to them (if I liked the song obv. some songs I don't care about higher definition).  But the one thing though iS, i'm rediscovering "old loves", so to speak, old songs I used to listen to, classic rock stuff, suddenly sounding REALLY amazing.

 
The one thing that keeps from switching to Tidal permanently is the shuffle library feature you get with Google as part of the app compared to having to use Roon or Audivarna, depending on your OS.  With Google, I add an entire album if I like one song from it.  I don't usually listen to the full album when I add it, but it gets stashed in my library and eventually I will get around to listening to more songs on the albums through the shuffle feature.  And I know exactly how many times I've listened to a song on Google, or if it is something I've never heard before, thanks to the stats it shows. (thought I use Last FM, too)  Sometimes I really enjoy the songs, and I add several albums, or an entire artist's catalog.  Oftentimes I will read about a great album or song while browsing the web or even in these forums.  I'll listen to the song or pick a song from the top list and play it next, never disrupting the full library shuffle I use most of the day.  If I like it, I'll add the album the song was on.  I have nearly 20K songs in my Google library and I have not heard everything yet.   With Tidal, it works great if you know exactly what you want to listen to, and I get that.  If it only allowed me to randomly play my favorite artists (700+ on Google), albums (1400+ on Google), or songs (20K+ on Google), I'd consider dropping Google for Tidal.  In the end, I can't hear a difference, and the Google interface and discovery are too important to pass up.

 

[sheldaze]

Sound quality question - is offline better than streaming, through iPad?
 
Technical info - MC707LL/A (3rd generation iPad), HIFI Tidal subscription, streaming through home WiFi. I have noticed other devices will take a little longer to start the stream, such as my Squeezebox.

 

[canali]

  Sound quality question - is offline better than streaming, through iPad?
 
Technical info - MC707LL/A (3rd generation iPad), HIFI Tidal subscription, streaming through home WiFi. I have noticed other devices will take a little longer to start the stream, such as my Squeezebox.

to me it wouldn't make any difference if lossless is being played...i can't hear any difference.
hate the buffering/static when streaming however, on each song that lasts for 10 to 15 sec
(this happens with anyone else?)
 
also the new Roon upgrade coming in Jan.
from Darko:

Coming over the hill: the monstrous Roon 1.3

by John H. Darkoabout 20 hours ago
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2017/01/coming-over-the-hill-the-monstrous-roon-1-3/

 

[sheldaze]

  to me it wouldn't make any difference if lossless is being played...i can't hear any difference.
hate the buffering/static when streaming however, on each song that lasts for 10 to 15 sec
(this happens with anyone else?)

There was a definite difference at the beginning of the song. Perhaps I need to let it play a little longer to see if it catches up.
I was also thinking it might be the difference in compression algorithm, and an older iPad might be sacrificing quality for speed - such as it takes a lot of CPU on my older Mac computer to play Tidal HIFI.

 

[canali]

so i reached out to tidal tech support as per the static and buffering that occurs when choosing
a new song to play (happens for 10-20 sec at the start)
 
was told to adjust my DNS settings..
 
has anyone also do this and have any success?
 
their email reply below:
 
 

TIDAL Support [KevinMN] (TIDAL) Jan 3, 6:42 AM EST Hello  I am one of the Techs here at TIDAL and I am happy to help you. Please see below for the answers to your questions. Based on the information your provided, this issue may be resolved by making some adjustments to your device in question.  Please change the DNS settings on your device by following this guide: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using?hl=en

 

[sheldaze]

  so i reached out to tidal tech support as per the static and buffering that occurs when choosing
a new song to play (happens for 10-20 sec at the start)
 
was told to adjust my DNS settings..
 
has anyone also do this and have any success?
 
their email reply below:
 

Spoiler: Tidal Support

 

TIDAL Support [KevinMN] (TIDAL) Jan 3, 6:42 AM EST Hello  I am one of the Techs here at TIDAL and I am happy to help you. Please see below for the answers to your questions. Based on the information your provided, this issue may be resolved by making some adjustments to your device in question.  Please change the DNS settings on your device by following this guide: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using?hl=en

 

As my signature states (translated to English - just because you made a change and got a positive result, does not mean that the result was in fact due to the change), I'll need to try a few times. The immediate result seems good though!

 

[canali]

  As my signature states (translated to English - just because you made a change and got a positive result, does not mean that the result was in fact due to the change), I'll need to try a few times. The immediate result seems good though!

good to hear it...i haven't done it yet...always a bit wary of changing dns addresses and worried i'll screw things up.

 

[TjPhysicist]

  good to hear it...i haven't done it yet...always a bit wary of changing dns addresses and worried i'll screw things up.

Just to add to the mix. I've been using tidal on wifi (macbook mostly) with audirvana. My router always has google DNS setup (I do that mainly because I find a lot of ISPs tend to screw around with DNS sometimes changing where things will lead me, so I'm a bit paranoid) and I've rare if ever experienced any gap (or worst case 1-2s perhaps, nothing I've ever noticed as being bothersome at all) while changing songs.

 

[doggiemom]

Although this is not relevant to your problem, I am glad to hear that you got a response from Tidal support.  I had a paid Spotify subscription, but cancelled it because Spotify Connect caused me so many problems:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Make-Spotify-Connect-a-choice/idc-p/1228922#M52998
It is virtually impossible to contact a real person at Spotify - they try to direct all their help to the forums.  When I finally did find a way to contact someone, they told me the problem was with my account security, so to change my password, despite the fact that there are 24 pages of posts by people with the same problem that I had.
 
Back on subject:  I love the year end "best of" genre playlists on Tidal.  They help me find a lot of gems that I missed throughout the year, because of their lousy pro-certain-genre interface.

 

[canali]

anyone else also trying out sennheiser's captune app with their flac and tidal?
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/captune-headphone-sound-app
 
i go back and forth between it and onkyo hf  player
now, however, that i'm back to tidal i'll try the captune app more.