downloading from Tidal directly verses HD tracks

[Mike Lavigne]

saw the new Dido album (i'm a fan) on Tidal, 'Still On My Mind', in 24/88 MQA (44/24), so i played it and really liked it. power pop, well sung and produced. spacious, lush and nice bass. i happen to like her voice.

i saw the 'add to library' button, but instead went to HD Tracks and downloaded the 44/24 file.

http://www.hdtracks.com/still-on-my-mind

no doubt to my ears the 44/24 file soundS some better on the Select II. a little more vivid and focused.

in direct comparison to the HD Tracks 44/24 file, the Tidal MQA 24/88 seems like it has a very slight smear and softness.

of course, this is simply how it sounds to me.

 

[asiufy]

That's been my experience as well. Tidal always sounds a little softer, a little muted, less vivid. Even against other streaming service (Qobuz). Against real files, it's no contest, the file always wins.
I've no idea why is that so, but it's what I've (painfully) found out...

 

[VLS]

saw the new Dido album (i'm a fan) on Tidal, 'Still On My Mind', in 24/88 MQA (44/24), so i played it and really liked it. power pop, well sung and produced. spacious, lush and nice bass. i happen to like her voice.

i saw the 'add to library' button, but instead went to HD Tracks and downloaded the 44/24 file.

http://www.hdtracks.com/still-on-my-mind

no doubt to my ears the 44/24 file soundS some better on the Select II. a little more vivid and focused.

in direct comparison to the HD Tracks 44/24 file, the Tidal MQA 24/88 seems like it has a very slight smear and softness.

of course, this is simply how it sounds to me.

Aren’t 88/24 tracks generally SACD/DSD rips? If this is the case you may be comparing something which was once DSD (plus application of MQA) to pure Redbook, which is probably a bigger difference than Tidal vs. file.