This is the best hifi channel on the platform. Many thanks for your efforts!

".... I came up in the bronze age" 😂😂😂😂 thanks Kelvin. Funny and comprehensive

THANKS KELVIN,FOR DOING US A REAL PUBLIC SERVICE 🤗 ALOT OF WORK 😅💚💚💚

Please keep doing this amazing stuff on KZfaq, we love it, Cheers from Tbilisi 👌🏻✌🏻🇬🇪

A comparison between lossless giants Tidal vs Qobuz would be interesting ❤

Enjoy your cds vinyl and the pub Cheers 🍻

Every year or so I get fed up with Spotify trying to push podcasts when I’m in the mood for music & so I try Qobuz or Tidal to see what the fuss is about. But until I can press play on my phone, pause the same track with a remote for a different device and a minute later hit play on a 3rd or 4th device to start, stop or replay the same track in the same playlist I’ll always go back to Spotify. The convenience wins and I’ve never been able to notice that much of a difference in sound quality - for which the amp, speakers & recording itself makes a much much bigger difference anyway. Thoroughly enjoying these newer videos of yours… glad you started doing them again ✌️

Interesting, thanks -- would be cool if you compare Apple Music vs Qobuz next

I feel like Spotify has a better new music discovery algo. Also has a social aspect to it where you and your friends can build playlist together. I also like to be able to change songs from my phone as a remote control to other devices. Not sure if Tidal does that.

Thanks Kelvin, another good one. You seem to have a great knack for picking interesting topics!

Hi Kelvin, a few months ago I did a survey of US classical & jazz internet radio stations & there was a huge variation in MP3 audio quality. I settled on WCRB & WQXR for classical (they may even use similar equipment?), KKJZ for jazz & I'm very happy with the sound quality. There are differences in announcer audio too but that's probably down to the microphone, studio room & studio preferences? I doubt very much that Spotify tweaks each MP3 conversion. It's more likely you're hearing Spotify wide processing, MP3 artifacts or different masterings of the same recording. Cheers!

Tidal for me and my own ripped cd’s and vinyl

Not entered the world of streaming as of yet. Suppose someday I will have to step in to this idiom. Great review as always kelvin 👍

I'll stick to the old cds,..now I'm off to the pub, thanks for that

Thank you ever so much for your time and work Mr,X,, 👍‍‍🌟👍‍‍ Cheers from Sweden,, 💖🙏💖

Man, Kelvin you had me grinning the whole time. A real rabbit hole, yeah ;⁠) I think a lot of people will feel the same as you with this comparison. It was fun watching you describe it all. Thanks for the effort. Cheers 🍻

Old school years and years of working out what sounds better speakers or the amplifier thanks for your experience atb Michael 😊😊

I don’t get sighing up to a streaming service, if an artist you like pulls the music what do you have, if a new release comes out that not as good as the previous version your left with that. As you say they will let you have the greatest hits. I’ve been buying CDS at 25p to a £1 and i physically own them. I will tend to download music on to my phone or to a hard drive and play from them. But I still own the music. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Hi Kelvin, another great video. I am in the position that I run both and they are similar money per month. I agree that Spotify seems to have got better. On my system Tidal occasionally buffers which is irritating …

Anyone with a half-decent system will hear the difference between lossy compression (AFAIK Spotify) and lossless compression (TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, others). If the difference is meaningful to your enjoyment of music is personal opinion.

I’m bronze-age, and while I congratulate, and appreciate your findings tremendously, I’m having a massive four antenna array on a 43 ft tower installed. I have FM Tuners from seven manufacturers and even with Full 50dB modulation/pre-amplifier boosted quieting (which is eerily profoundly SACD black) it’s still only 30Hz-15kHz which at my age, I consider just fine! DAB Tuners, which of course deliver SACD quality haven’t REALLY taken hold as well here in the U.S., and I’d be remiss if I left out Sirius satellite XM services. Which brings me to that central point that I’m a cheap git, who will hold on to what few bob he’s got left. Preferring to go all-out on where it all began, the wireless. I, believe it (or not) can still find outstanding programs on FM Stereo Radio and have planned on recording and preserving great hosts. Keep up the excellent work, please! I enjoy watching. 12:47

I could notice a difference switching from Spotify to Amazon lossless right away on a pair of old Elac bookshelf speakers with an SMSL dac and vintage Rotel amp, for me it was like listening to a CD compared to a good mp3. I found the low end a bit one notey with spotify and a bit less sparkle in the high end.

Hi kev, another great informative video. I use apple and Amazon music, but I have found tidal pretty good , if I didn’t have apple I would have tidal instead. Regards mark

A quick Google of "Spotify music quality"...result is that the "basic" Spotify service provides music at a very low 160 Kbp/s, whereas there "premium" paid-service provides music at a bit rate of 320 Kbp/s...good enough for potable music devices and cheap ear-buds. Spotify is basically playing compressed, lossy MP3 tracks which are limited to 320 Kbp/s bit rate...(definitely NOT audiophile-grade). Even the "premium" 320 Kbp/s is poor compared to a lossless FLAC of 24Bit/192 kHz which will playing over 1,500 Kbp/s. Tidal uses High Quality lossless FLAC files and lossless MQA files, hence the better quality digital-file input-source will be noticeable on good HiFi systems with good Amps and big wooden-box speakers...(all of which verifys and cofirms what you've just spoken about in your video Kelvin)...the extra quality that Tidal provides won't be resolved or audible on low-quality portable sound systems and ear-buds etc.

Kelvin never fails to give honest reviews. Love your videos.

Try radio paradise. Always surprised by the sound quality

Good vid - I'm cheap, though lol. I just go with 1080 to 720 res on videos off youtube. I really save critical listening for my Albums and cds, but KZfaq is darn good if its a higher res good quality download from a clean source

Your exactly right Spotify is more basso and tidal has more detail

Brilliant video kelvin 😊

Interesting analysis. I’ve listened to both as well. I don’t think Spotify has changed their bit rate delivery. They have been promising lossless streaming for a couple of years. With the dac I’m using and my Cambridge streamer, I do hear a difference. Tidal is quite a bit better. In the car or portable headphones, Spotify is just fine.

I’m in the US, and stream primarily on Amazon Music. Even for songs in their “Ultra HD” tier (which is actually a range), nothing sounds as good as a CD until you get at least to 24 bit/96 khz or higher.

It's all in the mastering. Were you listening to the original or good audiophile mastering of Thriller? The original has masses of dynamic range, this has been infamously crushed to death over the years by subsequent remasterings. The mastering is far more important than bitrate.

Is there a service that has non-bricked versions of popular newer pop songs? Tried two or three and all new stuff seems maxed out. The only other option seems to buy LPs and "rip" them... but I lack the proper setup.

Good Sunday morning to you Kelvin, thanks for this update. It's been a few years now since I left Spotify for Tidal due to the differences in sound quality, I do run a fairly revealing system at home. The thing I do miss about Spotify is its robust playlist generator where you can play a song and it will carry on that theme on its own always changing up the songs randomly. With Tidal, it seems to always play songs from the same bucket, it has far less random variety. I did test the free version of Spotify out recently to see if its sound quality had gotten any better and it was immediately clear it hadn't with my system and my ears. I would tend to agree with you that either one should be sufficient with a less resolving system and/or earbuds.

After listening a lot of streaming services during the last few years, to my own ears, none of them has bettered my good old fashioned CD collection. Even the supposedly hi-rez ones sounds compressed when compared to Redbook physical CDs. 🤔

Interesting comparison - thanks Kelvin. We use Spotify when playing background music around the house using Sonos or requesting tracks through Google. I ditched Tidal as I didn't get on with MQA and am a very happy Qobuz listener on my 'proper ' hi-fi system.

Daft Punk's music was genius and ahead of their time. Check out 'Technologic'.

Good work again..❤

Tidal...easily using a formula dac and Lumin mini streamer

I have all three: Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. I’ve always had Spotify for discovery and Qobuz for quality but last few months I added Tidal as they are ditching MQA for FLAC lossless and they have Tidal Connect whereas Qobuz still doesn’t. Though Qobuz still has edge in sound quality I’m going to dump it for Tidal as it’s caught up and even surpassed in its recommendation engine.

Tidal at home, Spotify in the car.

I stream music using spotify on my smart TV & that goes into a DAC which goes to my hifi setup. I never tried Tidal. My only reference here is CD. Most of the time the sound quality of spotify is good enough for me. Sometimes, for sake of comparison, i stream what i have on CD jus to see how much the differences are. Surprisingly, the difference is not that much. But its album dependant. For eg, Patricia barber’s cafe blue album sounded pretty flat on spotify. For most other music or albums, the difference between spotify & CD is not that huge. But i have a good DAC & that probably helps. Hv tried a couple of popular DACs & finally settled on a Beresford bushmaster & that’s an awesome DAC despite its low cost.

I dropped Spotify for Tidal as it's £1 cheaper. I heard Spotify will be charging £5 extra for their Hi-Res when it comes out so Tidal will be much better value in comparison.

Tidal is definitely better than Spotify but the best is Qobuz I’ve chord dac rega dac using streamer and Mac book through audervana

Thanks for that! 🍺

Was wondering if either service has something like a test CD with pink noise and such.

I really don't know what you were talking about i don't use any digital medium am I missing out i wouldn't have a clue im off to the pub

If you like "old" Sound come and listen to this channel.

great video kelvin keep em coming please😬

I still heard distinct differences between Tidal and Spotify. More Depth, Texture, Tone, Space and Air. Bigger soundstage with better Bass Transients and Tone. Imagine is more 3D and dimensional. Using SoTM streamer, Chord Dac, Naim and PMC speakers. However Qobuz sounds that bit better than Tidal. Been using the streaming services for several years now.

Pub it is

Hi Kelvin, any experience with Sonneteer Alabaster amplifier? If yes, how does it compare to Sugden, Lavardin and LFD amplifiers?

Nice one Kelvin 😂😂😂

I wish my ears were lossless ... but they're not, so Spotify is fine for me.

Thanks for the interesting video. Were you comparing Spotify Premium (320kbps) with the Tidal lossless (flac) tier as Tidal also have a lower quality tier (320 kbps bitrate) ?

Ummm … can you link to the lava lamps? Everything I’m finding here in the States look cheap. Would appreciate

Hey Kelvin is that premium or free Spotify? They are very different. Premium has double the bitrate and user controls for bass treble etc. No horse in it as I prefer records. Blind tests tho seem to always come out as a guess with either expert or punters😊 Cheers big ears.

As you mentioned around 11:00 mark, if you're listening on a $600 system you're probably not gonna notice a difference. If you're happy with what you have - great be happy! if, on the on hand, you listen to a synergistic, resolving system around $6000 you're probably gonna notice a difference. It also depends on how you listen. Are you critical listener? Or do you mostly listen to your music in the background.

Thoughts on Amazon HD? I have most of the high resolution services, and prefer Amazon.

I need some newbie advice please. I've been offered Elac ub 5.2 or Epos es 14,either for £400,which should I go for?

i am still in the bronze age or am i ? - latest highest level format is Chase the Dragon reel to reel from what ive found, latest state of the art ? Never tried streaming, life is complicated enough these days! (-;

Roger Waters & Mike Oldfield, thinking of Amarok.

Hi "Five" Kelvin , how does using good old CD's fare in comparison to these media servers...of course played on a excellent CD player...I am curious.. Thnxs as always for a un biased opinion.

I doubt if anyone over 35 or 40 years old can hear any difference in the bit rates as old ears just cant hear those missing frequencies.

The more revealing your chain, the more clear the difference will be between lossless and lossy mp3. I experience it as a more relaxed wider sound. When streaming your streamer will make a big difference. Different power supply and or power cord also make a difference. Tidal and Spotify are now evenly priced, so why not Tidal. Podcasts you can listen anywhere.

I use qobuz

Hi Kelvin. Would you have any spotify playlists to share for testing ?

A stream is like a river, but smaler c"?

I went back to Spotify after a couple of years on Tidal because the higher bitrate wasn't worth it for the worse music discovery. The reasons for the difference are a couple of things generally accepted by music producers (of which I am an amateur one) is that every song uploaded to streaming services is normalised and basically remastered so that it conforms to their loudness requirements. So it is compression that causes the differences but not bitrate compression but audio compression coming from a mastering limiter (and maybe EQ) being used. I can only hear it when I crank up my B&W 702'a. On everything else it's asnear as makes no difference to y ears. Another thing that can make a tangible difference is having "adjust all songs to the same level" turned on in Spotify. That really alters the sound.

I use Qobuz I understood that was best?

What about dial a disc?

Purely taking about sound quality..

Only Tidal

Qobuz at home….vinyl too.

It is a long rabbit hole. You have no way of knowing which particular mastering they are offering and thus no way of telling how much dynamic compression has been used. DR figures should be indicated alongside every single track so you dont have to waste time searching for the least compressed versions of favourite tracks.

Billie Jean. If MJ had stopped the plastic surgery on his face at this time, he looked good.

Qobuz! Waaaaaaaaaaay better than tidal

I must be stone age - vinyl sounds best 😅

Neither. They're both crap

What are you talking about? Spotify and any other platform depends on the quality of the music was uploaded. Crap upload, crappier playback. All streaming plus dab radio sound like crap.