rkeesecker

Sorry, I shouldn't have used the word "naive." That doesn't help anything or anyone. My apologies to Kenny.

Kenny, an admirable thought, but naive. Please, I'm not trying to upset you - but consider this - I am making some charitable gifts at this time of year to deserving nonprofit organizations ... educational, social services, health. However, as much as I am impressed with Tidal's website and their approach, I am not about being charitable to a business. When the product is ready without a doubt, launch it. Researching this topic thoroughly on the Internet, learning from audio professionals posting their own research into lossless streaming, and being burned by other streaming services to which I have paid a monthly fee, will give pause to anyone. The quality of this kind of service must be undeniable and proven. My experience with Tidal's "Are you ready?" test and other "high quality" audio streaming companies tells me these services are not yet ready to offer a product which lives up to their hype. Their marketing and word-smithing are done very well, but as you suggest, I will pass them by for some time and let them "get things sorted out" at the expense of other subscribers. It won't be on my nickel. When they are for real, I'll pony up.

Glad to see that audio quality is back. I have done a lot of research on the veracity of the so-called "high quality" stream offerings of Spotify, Beats, Google Music, etc. I dropped Rhapsody because of the low quality stream and signed up for Spotify. Six months after using Spotify I dropped them because the quality of their "Extreme" stream is awful. Learned a lot recently about what these services are really providing, and it's not genuine. Enthusiastic to learn about Tidal and some other lossless services coming online now. So ... I took the "Are you ready for lossless?" test on the Tidal website. Used Bose headphones. Twice I miserably failed the test, getting only one of the five correct, each time the one was a different track. I truly could not tell the difference. That being the case, I am not going to pony up $20/month because of that experience, commentary around the Internet from true audio professionals, and what I am reading in this forum. Too many variables in streaming music, from bandwith hookups to software to hardware. Goodbye streaming. Hello public library CD section and occasional CD purchases from the likes of Amazon and other sources. Hope CDs don't disappear any time soon because the lossless streaming industry is much too unreliable. Will stick to ripping lossless from CDs instead of getting burned by a nacent lossless streaming industry.