Hi-fi is not about sound. Hi-fi is about music. That may seem painfully obvious, but I would suggest that those who argue about what they perceive to be objective values in hi-fi have lost sight of this simple statement. Sure, we can abstract the listening experience, measuring and comparing how different components reproduce recorded sounds. We have no emotional connection to sounds. Many reviewers—I'm as guilty as the next—tend to dissect the listening experience to the point that they mistake the parts (the sounds) for the whole (the music).
Midrange magic. Deep, tuneful bass. Sweet highs. That's not how we talk about music—it's how we talk about sounds. But this sort of language makes it easy to compare the sounds of different components: how well Component A handles bass compared to Component B, etc. And when comparing components, it also helps to listen to the same music over and over—especially music we're very familiar with. The reference track. No wonder people forget that listening to music is, first and foremost, about music, and not about comparing how different components reproduce sound. We should get back to how we listened as children, and ask a different question: Does this DAC make me want to dance and sing?
Ultimately, we want our hi-fis to make us want to listen more. Ideally, our hi-fis will make us want to explore as much new music as we can, finding joy in discovery, in new voices and new rhythms. If you find yourself listening to the same music over and over, buying mostly audiophile reissues of records you already own, and arguing on forums and blogs about other people's choices in gear, it may be time for a new hi-fi—or a new hobby.
Tidal Lossless Streaming
What better way to discover new music than to select from a library of recordings comprising millions of albums in CD-quality sound for a fixed monthly price of $19.99? The Tidal lossless streaming service (www.tidalhifi.com) became available last fall in the US and Canada, and I've been listening to it pretty much every day for the past month or so. My typical listening habits revolve around reading reviews and getting recommendations from friends, then logging in to Tidal and searching for the music I'm interested in. In most cases, the albums I'm looking for are right there. Sweet. The Tidal interface is simple, and familiar to anyone who's used some sort of computer-based music service. Tidal offers curated Playlists, What's New, Recommended Albums, Top 20 Albums, Favorites (yours), and Playlists (yours). The search engine returns results in an instant. So far, I've discovered a few new favorite albums, including Weyes Blood's The Innocents, Richard Dawson's Nothing Important, Grouper's Ruins, Caribou's Our Love, and others.
I've also queued up a bunch of old favorites from the Doors, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Jimmy Scott, Jimi Hendrix, EinstÅrzende Neubauten, and more. The way I figure, I'd have spent more money buying all of the music I've listened to on Tidal—and then some—than I have on the monthly fee. Tidal claims to have over 25 million tracks in its library, and the number grows each week—my explorations can continue practically unabated.
You can listen to Tidal in a number of ways, including through a Web browser (currently, the Compact Disc's resolution of 16-bit/44.1kHz is supported only by Google Chrome), through Tidal's desktop app, or via the mobile app for iOS and Android devices. I've pretty much stuck to the desktop app, and the sound quality of their lossless streaming is about as good as playing music from my NAS devices. One nice feature of the mobile app is the ability to listen to your selections Offline: the songs are downloaded to your device for local playback, saving you data charges.
Setting up the Tidal desktop app is relatively simple. Click on the System icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, and select Sound Quality (HiFi) and your Sound Output Device (your DAC). You're ready to roll. I used Tidal through my desktop system—a Mytek Digital Stereo192-DSD DAC and a pair of Adam A3X powered speakers—as well as through my main system: a MacBook Pro laptop, Auralic Vega DAC, Pass INT-30A integrated amplifier, and DeVore Fidelity The Nine speakers. I find Tidal's lossless streaming to be on a par with CD-quality sources, which means I can listen, explore, and enjoy for as long as time allows.
As you listen, the Tidal app also displays Related Artists, which I've come to appreciate as another way to discover new music. Again, having direct access to millions of albums in CD-quality sound leaves me little to complain about. Tidal has signed deals with a number of audio manufacturers—including Bluesound, Linn, Auralic, and Electrocompaniet—to make their service available with the purchase of a supported device.
The Best Hi-Fi . . .
. . . is the one that's used to discover and enjoy music most often. Musical enjoyment is something to be shared and cherished. To turn this hobby into a catfight over whose big rig is best is a travesty brought about by a few misguided misanthropes. The absolute sound turns out to be the one that's in our heads. Also rattling around in there—as with every other form of enjoyment—each of us has his or her preferences and favorites. Instead of arguing, we should be endlessly thankful that we can afford the time simply to listen to music. This luxury is the most valuable means to our end, which is . . . enjoyment. Stating the obvious seldom changes anything. Some people will go on arguing about hi-fi. Some people will go on doing lots of other things that are even more stultifying. Yes, hi-fi is a serious business—but let's try to remember that enjoying music through a hi-fi is serious fun.
What better way to discover new music than to select from a library of recordings comprising millions of albums in CD-quality sound for a fixed monthly price of $19.99? The Tidal lossless streaming service (www.tidalhifi.com) became available last fall in the US and Canada, and I've been listening to it pretty much every day for the past month or so. My typical listening habits revolve around reading reviews and getting recommendations from friends, then logging in to Tidal and searching for the music I'm interested in. In most cases, the albums I'm looking for are right there. Sweet. The Tidal interface is simple, and familiar to anyone who's used some sort of computer-based music service. Tidal offers curated Playlists, What's New, Recommended Albums, Top 20 Albums, Favorites (yours), and Playlists (yours). The search engine returns results in an instant. So far, I've discovered a few new favorite albums, including Weyes Blood's The Innocents, Richard Dawson's Nothing Important, Grouper's Ruins, Caribou's Our Love, and others.
I've also queued up a bunch of old favorites from the Doors, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Jimmy Scott, Jimi Hendrix, EinstÅrzende Neubauten, and more. The way I figure, I'd have spent more money buying all of the music I've listened to on Tidal—and then some—than I have on the monthly fee. Tidal claims to have over 25 million tracks in its library, and the number grows each week—my explorations can continue practically unabated.
Setting up the Tidal desktop app is relatively simple. Click on the System icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, and select Sound Quality (HiFi) and your Sound Output Device (your DAC). You're ready to roll. I used Tidal through my desktop system—a Mytek Digital Stereo192-DSD DAC and a pair of Adam A3X powered speakers—as well as through my main system: a MacBook Pro laptop, Auralic Vega DAC, Pass INT-30A integrated amplifier, and DeVore Fidelity The Nine speakers. I find Tidal's lossless streaming to be on a par with CD-quality sources, which means I can listen, explore, and enjoy for as long as time allows.
As you listen, the Tidal app also displays Related Artists, which I've come to appreciate as another way to discover new music. Again, having direct access to millions of albums in CD-quality sound leaves me little to complain about. Tidal has signed deals with a number of audio manufacturers—including Bluesound, Linn, Auralic, and Electrocompaniet—to make their service available with the purchase of a supported device.
. . . is the one that's used to discover and enjoy music most often. Musical enjoyment is something to be shared and cherished. To turn this hobby into a catfight over whose big rig is best is a travesty brought about by a few misguided misanthropes. The absolute sound turns out to be the one that's in our heads. Also rattling around in there—as with every other form of enjoyment—each of us has his or her preferences and favorites. Instead of arguing, we should be endlessly thankful that we can afford the time simply to listen to music. This luxury is the most valuable means to our end, which is . . . enjoyment. Stating the obvious seldom changes anything. Some people will go on arguing about hi-fi. Some people will go on doing lots of other things that are even more stultifying. Yes, hi-fi is a serious business—but let's try to remember that enjoying music through a hi-fi is serious fun.
