So I came across this deal for Tidals music streaming service and have decided to give it a try,(6 months free) lots of time to play with it. I had seen several posts on the forum about the better quality and so far I have to agree. Unfortunately I'm not sure if my Onkyo receiver is fully capable of delivering all of the Tidals streaming options, even though it has a built in Tidal app. When on the network selector it always seems to go to the chrome cast app and never the tidal app. When on chrome cast it only plays in HiFi level. but if I connect by bluetooth I can get Master level audio. Any ides about how to get the built in Tidal app functioning? Will it give master or atmos or 360 audio?

Thanks

I have never been able to get the Spotify or Tidal app working in my 2012-vintage Onk.

Are you guys using Tidal premium or hifi?

Neither worked on my Onk. I am now using Spotify premium. That doesn't work on my Onk either.

I'm using Tidal hifi family. I got the Tidal app to finally work on the Onkyo (2016 vintage) . However It required another app be downloaded called Onkyo Controller to my iphone8, it won't cast from my Fire tablet though. The Onkyo app is a very poor 2.4 star rating by 30 users. Can't play the atmos tracks, but can play the 360 tracks on my stereo. So far, Not worth the bother or the big bucks. I do appreciate the master level playback, but I don't think I will cancel my Spotify family premium.

There is some debate whether Tidal 'masters' are any better than Hifi. That said, I believe it's a fairly small list of devices that support streaming in master. At least Hifi works in most places which should be CD/lossless equivalent. Amazon Music HD also has limited supported devices as an example.

"Support streaming in masters" is quite different than rendering in masters. Then there's the question of what does "render" really mean? The D/A can perhaps pass a pristine master output which the amp, or more likely the speaker, messes up.

Having said that, even on the Air Force or Freedom, I have no trouble distinguishing between a low fidelity and higher fidelity recording. I don't know though if I could tell the difference between HiFi and Masters. I think it would depend on how well the piece was engineered.

RE Tidal and MQA, it's a must watch: https://youtu.be/pRjsu9-Vznc

Ben, I'm still watching. Amazing! I love, love, love this guy. And I remember this with Neil Young. So glad I haven't spent any money on this nonsense.

Bam! Pow!

I gotta say that Tanner has giant 'nads like Ian to stand up and say "Hell no, Bryston won't support MQA!".

Ben, thank you for the link!

I remember looking for Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" when I first started my Tidal subscription and was really disappointed not to find it. Now I know why.

After listening to Tidal for a month, I have enjoyed the quality/sound, but I guess its just a manipulation of the originals. I do think it is better than Spotify quality for listening pleasure, but definitely not worth the price. Still planning on cancelling my free Tidal subscription. Now hoping that the new HIFi Spotify comes out sooner than later and that GoldenSound can do the same analysis. I've subscribed to his you tube channel so that I don't miss it if he does manage to do it.

Bill