Tidal Waves

Streaming giant Tidal continues upping its sound quality game. But can the company stem the tide of its many hi-res challengers?

- By Mike Mettler

Tidal has literally rolled with the changes over the course of its 7.5 years (and counting) being nestled in our collective streaming consciousness. In recent years, the streaming giant has doubled down on the ways it offers a multi-genre cornucopia of streaming content in a number of hi-res-friendly ways. Seeing how we've yet to devote an entire Stream On column to this uber-popular platform, we felt it was high time to dive headfirst into the Tidal streaming pool.

Like pretty much every streaming service these days, Tidal offers a number of listening option tiers. Yes, there is a Free level that provides, in their words, “Good Sound Quality for 80 million songs—but only at a most basic 16-bit/44.1kHz, mind you. An ad-free HiFi level adds 350,000 videos to the pot and runs $9.99/ month for lossless offerings-all well and good for the slightly above-average listener, but not us. We audiophiles need only concern ourselves with the HiFi Plus plan, which commences with a 30-day free trial before running $19.99/ month for access to Dolby Atmos, Master Quality Audio, and 360 Reality Audio content at 24/96 and up. Discounts are applied to the plans designated as Family (up to five additional accounts for $14.99/ month), Student (50 percent off), and Military (40 percent off), so you may want to consider one of those routes if any of them fit your lifestyle. Regardless, HiFi Plus is the only option to consider on the SQ table in my opinion—though, admittedly, that monthly price point may be a turn-off for the more frugal amongst us.