I have been trying to find that info on Tidal’s site, but they don’t seem to mention it.
If it works well with AirPods though, I might give it a shot.
I might be mistaken, but don’t the AirPods simply connect and stream using Bluetooth?
I guess you’re right, it’s just bluetooth, I had it in my head that it used AirPlay, but I think I am wrong now that you mention it.
1 Like
Sonos speakers most of the time. I don’t own any HomePods, so not a problem for me.
Here’s the full list of supported devices.
1 Like
Came across this video from a reasonably popular audiophile(?) on YouTube. Sounds like he subscribes to everything, and his main point is that there is no perfect music streaming service.
His main points for Apple Music:
- Spatial audio is good
- No hassle app
- Good Apple TV app
- DJ mixes
Side note: that Fiio R7 (device in thumbnail) looks pretty dang cool!
4 Likes
I find Darko to have good explanations and reasoning for his opinions. I’ll check that one out, thanks!
Some of his reasons are kind of specific to him. I never use the Apple TV Music app for instance. I just use my Sonos stuff hooked up to the TV. I had no idea about DJ playlists he mentions, but I should check them out. I do like spatial audio quite a bit on the tracks that have it, so that is a big plus for me on Apple Music.
On the other hand, starting April 10, Tidal will only be $10.99 for everything. And I have always loved the idea os using Last.FM, which Tidal supports, unlike Apple Music.
1 Like
Wow will that be $10.99 for HiFi Plus too?
Yep, starting April 10, they are combing them into one service, $10.99 for everything.
2 Likes
Obviously it comes down to profitability but reducing a subscription from a company may prompt a domino effect … (he wishfully thinks)
1 Like
Side note to this discussion: as someone who loves stats, I am enjoying Last.FM. Like Apple’s year in review, which is now monthly, but with more control. I can quickly and easily see what I am listening to (the stats will be neat long term) and then it suggests other things I might like (too early too say how good that is). It’s not as pretty as what Apple does (at least what I have seen so far), but it’s much faster without trying to get all fancy. Apple’s review drives me nuts making me go to a separate web page, sign in, and then having to scroll through all the fancy html stuff.
The catch is getting it to work with Apple Music, since AM doesn’t support it. Sonos does though. So, if I play Apple Music through the Sonos app, it records it. If I AirPlay from the Music app to the Sonos, Last.FM does not see it. Just as Apple Music doesn’t record stats of music played through Sonos. Then on iOS it gets more complicated, and from what I have seen on Reddit it doesn’t work very well.
Mavis Pro, an Apple Music app, does work with Last.FM.
I am pretty sure I am switching to Tidal, at least for a month in April anyway. And Tidal supports it, so no jumping through hoops.
Anyone who like this kind of stuff, it’s free with ads, but doesn’t have as many reports, or $30 a year.
3 Likes
Nice. I should see if my old last.fm data is around. Powered by the foobar2k autoscrobbler (audioscrobbler? Is it an eggcorn if either make sense?)
1 Like
Love my Last.FM stats! 
NepTunes on the Mac (£1.79 a year) scrobbles all your apple music plays on mac to Last.fm and, as you say, Marvis on iOS is great as an Apple Music front end that also scrobbles to Last.FM
I really liked the new and improved end of year stats last.fm did this past new year, nice improvement.
Re: Apple Music vs other streamers - I primarily use Plexamp with Tidal as the Plex DJ & Sonic Analysis features are exceptional. I keep Apple Music since I’m getting it as part of Apple One but since I went to Plexamp I hardly use it. I also have a lifetime Roon license that I could use with my Tidal sub, but it’s Roon Radio is nowhere close to Plexamp’s features.
1 Like
For me I prefer tidal for the Roon integration and the Tidal Connect feature which lets me stream music directly to different hardware streamers. No other music services have both of these features.
You might have sent me down a dangerous path. I don’t use Plex, I am not a movie/TV person, so I didn’t know they had a music component as well. I still have my music files, but I haven’t used them since I made the switch to Apple Music a decade ago. So I could set up a Plex server on my Synology, and then tie that in with Tidal and Last.FM? That might be a kind of cool thing to look into it.
My music files are probably not great quality though, so it may not be worth the effort.
1 Like
Yeah that’s how I use it, I have the plex server running on my NUC based OMV server in a docker container. I moslty use my local files but it integrtes pretty well with Tidal. It all scrobbles to Last.FM perfectly. The feature set of Plexamp is great and the server is solid, I’ve streamed from it while travelling extensively for long periods away from home and have not had any issues.
If you have the sonic alaysis compelte on your library then the ‘Guest DJ’s’ are excellent. It surfaces tracks I’d never pick, so much better than a generic shuffle.
If they ever fixed the downsides to Qobuz, I’d switch because the royalties they pay artists are apparently much higher, for the focus on human-curated playlists and artist info (although I also want algorithmic playlists and song radio, which is lacking), the higher detail in song and album info, and the possibility for purchasing music if you want.
1 Like
Been playing around with Plex today and my old MP3s. I haven’t subscribed to Tidal yet, or anything else, but I do like what I see. Before Apple Music I was very exact with my library and had a bunch of smart playlists, had everything rated, metadata setup, etc. I miss those days. Now it seems like I just move from whatever the algorithm puts in front of me to the next thing. I forget about those cool songs I heard last month as they get lost in the pile. I would like to fix that.
I feel like I should try Roon as well, but people seemed mixed as to whether Roon or PlexAmp is better. It sounds like PlexAmp is more feature rich though. Is there any point in looking at Roon? Especially since it the more expensive service.
I am in a dilemma if I should bother with local files. I have 400-500 CDs ripped as MP3s, I believe I used decent quality variable bitrate, but that was a long time ago. I would bet 99.9% of it is available today from all the streaming services. So is there any point in going an re-ripping everything as FLAC? Seems like it would be a lot of time and work to do it (and money to get a trustworthy drive and software, although I could go the free route there).
Edit: just ripped my first CD in 20 years, it brought back memories of sitting at my desk in front of my old PC doing it before. Though I vaguely remember ripping some on a G5 iMac, I think it was a G5, but I might be getting my Macs mixed up. Anyway, used XLD, but I need to figure out Musicbrainz Picard for the tagging part still.
1 Like
Roon has a much nicer UI, and for me is very useful for it’s rich data about the music - I often find myself going on a deep dive starting at one album bio and following the links to other music I don’t know. PlexAmp can’t offer that to the same level and quality. Also, the in home streaming capabilities of Roon are better, but PlexAmp isn’t bad - I stream from it using airplay on Mac & iOS and I have a Pi running RoPieee connected to my headphone Mac & Amp - this supports Roon & PlexAmp.
The two key areas PlexAmp wins for me is ‘Radio’ (Roon Radio is good but limited, PlexAmp is just brilliant) and Mobile (Roon Arc is horrible to use offline, and just syncing tracks to it is an art)
1 Like
I don’t own any high-end speakers or headphones. I listen to music on homepods and AirPods Pro. Ripping my music collection as FLAC would be a total waste of my time.