[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] I am overwhelmed by a tidal wave of goodness!!

[posnos]

First let me say that the Transporter, which I have owned since 2006, is
still top dog.... the gift that keeps on giving.

I played around with the Spotify plugin awhile back but it sounded dull
and flat so I gave up.

A couple of days ago I installed the Tidal plugin and signed up.

All I can say is wow!!!!

I run my Transporter into a high end outboard DAC and as a test of
Tidal, I have been streaming lots of Count Basie into my HD650
headphones.

All the cues I expect are there in stream: room echoes, soloist
placement, soundstage depth etc.

So many thanks to the developer of the Tidal plugin and ickStream (one
in the same?) and of course Tidal (no sure about Jay Z).

This truly is ground breaking.

Haven’t got to do a direct compare between a CD and Tidal... and I might
not. There are too many differences in the chain to make it worthwhile.

What I hear from Tidal is very very good.... so does it matter if its
100% CD quality or 95%?... whatever it is its great.

I can say that (at least with Count Basie), the stream seems very hot...
hitting 0DB or slightly more many times.

So I have adjusted the Transporter volume down 2db from full so as not
to saturate the outboard DAC input (obviously doesn’t help with any
inherent limit distortion in the stream).

I sometimes think when the Basie Band ramps up, I heat a split second
hint of distortion on crescendos (or it could have been on the source
tape during mastering... who knows).

Bottom line.. it kills Spotify and other lowres streams.


Peter


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[NikolajC]

I have also enjoyed FLAC streaming for some time, but I found the
inability to search in the streams too much of a drawback - so I'm back
to "normal" Wimp/Tidal again. Unless Ickstream now supports searching in
the stream?

PS: I don't think a digital signal can be above 0db actually.


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[ralphpnj]

Thanks for the report. So far, in spite of Jay Z and his troupe of
pampered superstars, Tidal looks promising.



Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. &
sub
Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub
Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1
& Energy sub
Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0
Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar
Garage: SB3-JVC compact system
Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso
Server: SBS on dedicated windows 7 computer w/2 Drobos
'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/)
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[Mnyb]

Post by NikolajC
I have also enjoyed FLAC streaming for some time, but I found the
inability to search in the streams too much of a drawback - so I'm back
to "normal" Wimp/Tidal again. Unless Ickstream now supports searching in
the stream?
PS: I don't think a digital signal can be above 0db actually.

Saddly it can if it has been subject to the loudness war overcompression
thing . It's not in the signal itself .
The overshoot occurres in the DAC usually in the over sampling filters ,
10 consecutive full word 0dB ( aka digital clipping ) or some such can
get even worse with some math some of these filters use .
Most DAC don't cater for this effect as it is abnormal and should not
happen with proper recordings .

Proper recordings even have headroom and never peaks at 0dB anywhere
,sadly we don't have proper recordings anymore .
If the producer finds that he can increase a song several dB by letting
it clip a couple of times ,that's what's going to happen .

Note that LMS >7.8 has a setting for default level on streaming sources
it's usually -5 dB set that to zero before comparing services with you
own files . Btw this setting is useful when listening to internet radio
it can be very loud sometimes .



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Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH 2 x
MeridianDSP5200 MeridianDSP5200HC 2 xMeridianDSP3100 +Rel Stadium 3
sub.
Bedroom/Office: Boom
Kitchen: Touch + powered Fostex PM0.4
Misc use: Radio (with battery)
iPad1 with iPengHD & SqueezePad
(spares Touch, SB3, reciever ,controller )
server HP proliant micro server N36L with ClearOS Linux

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
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