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A comment on Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal. Parent comment

Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by willtim on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:02AM (#26342528)
I have it set to "Very High" and have their normalisation turned off. I can provide samples demonstrating distortion and break-up; the waveforms even look completely different visually. It's even audible over non-audiophile headphones. On my HD800S it's unlistenable. I have no idea what they are doing to the sound, but I have found many recordings that sound awful on both Android and Windows.
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by svantana on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:15AM (#26342719)
That sounds more like error on the label's/uploader's behalf? Most often that should be the same across platforms, including lossless. I've heard cd skips, vinyl crackle and tape warble on spotify so I know what you mean.
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by raverbashing on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:04AM (#26342548)
Then I'd think it's the "audio watermarking" some companies insist on using. Because for some rights holders, you're paying for their product but f-you nonetheless.

Edit: watermarking not fingerprinting

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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by xnx on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:11AM (#26342667)
Fingerprinting or watermarking?
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by jakub_g on Thursday March 04, 2021 @02:18PM (#26346852)
Might be related:

https://www.mattmontag.com/music/universals-audible-watermar...

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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by SSLy on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:10AM (#26342642)
Would you be able to share specific passages? The neighbour commenter mentioned fingerprinting, it might be that or bad master.
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by willtim on Thursday March 04, 2021 @09:16AM (#26342722)
Sure, one example is the first minute opening of Osmo Vanska's Mahler 5. The big crescendo between 40-45 seconds sounds particularly bad, lots of break-up and distortion. Sounds fantastic on the CD.
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by SonOfLilit on Thursday March 04, 2021 @02:42PM (#26347161)
Links:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2in7T2TWPkJW6Z6Ih9P4Ew?si=7e6...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTcl20dgHSM

Sounds identical (and very noisy) on Spotify and Youtube on my very crappy laptop speakers. I don't own the CD.

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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by willtim on Friday March 05, 2021 @04:55AM (#26354996)
This reply might be interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26354999
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by kingosticks on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:21AM (#26344347)
This https://open.spotify.com/album/1V5q6IEheMUjOTYJar4f54 ? It sounds fine to me but the exact copy I get might well be different to you if we are in different regions.
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by kingosticks on Thursday March 04, 2021 @07:06PM (#26350393)
The Spotify version sounds identical to the tidal "hifi" version (to me). I'm actually pretty curious now what this amazing CD version sounds like!

I'm currently on a Tidal free trial but I won't be moving from Spotify when it's up. I personally can't tell the difference. Maybe I'm half deaf but ignorence is bliss.

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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by willtim on Friday March 05, 2021 @04:56AM (#26354999)
I've uploaded a small example, a small clip taken from the CD followed by the same clip captured from Spotify: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F3NvOpqcMfvNSmyyvbgfUlV6XMO...
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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by kingosticks on Friday March 05, 2021 @07:45AM (#26356231)
Cool, thanks! I had a go at a comparison. This is Spotify ("Very high" and volume normalization disabled), then Tidal ("HiFi") and then yours (CD then Spotify). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Stns23J5aRoj9EeZBVKrX35Cxfh...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rAITjrK39fiJYOT53ghq9DbC-e4...

If it's helpful for you, the code 'LIDLMUSIC' gives a free 6-month Tidal trial. It might be UK specific I have no idea.

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Re:Square acquires majority of Tidal in $297M deal by willtim on Saturday March 06, 2021 @05:49AM (#26366580)
Very strange, I can confirm that your Spotify sample does sound much better than my one. Mine sounds identical on Windows and Android though, two very different platforms, so it may indeed be a UK problem. Thank you very much for the code.
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