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Will Tidal's HiFi quality now play on the Sonos One?

  • July 7, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 1784 views

Hello there. I’ve got a Sonos One updated to S2. I was thinking about getting a Tidal sub for the sound quality. I know there was talk of S2 including the new ability for Sonos speakers to play high fidelity streams. 

 

Has that now happened? If I play a Tidal HiFi account through my Sonos One will I get the HiFi quality stream? Is that now live ?

 

Thanks for any help.

Best answer by ratty

The S1 → S2 update is not relevant in fact. Tidal’s HiFi was supported at lossless 16/44.1 CD quality before and after the update.

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6 replies

Iain59
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  • Collaborator II
  • 63 replies
  • July 7, 2020

You’ll get ‘CD quality’ 16/44 - Hi-Res 24/48 only available from your own music library at present. TBH telling the difference on a Sonos One would be pretty tough even for the most dedicated audiophiles.


ratty
  • 31405 replies
  • July 7, 2020

You’d get standard lossless CD quality. The 24-bit support introduced with S2 only applies to FLAC/ALAC files in the local library, not (yet) to streaming services.

Even if 24-bit support for streaming services were to appear it wouldn’t automatically decode Tidal’s MQA files. In fact I’d be amazed if Sonos ever opted to support MQA.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • July 7, 2020

You’ll get ‘CD quality’ 16/44 - Hi-Res 24/48 only available from your own music library at present. TBH telling the difference on a Sonos One would be pretty tough even for the most dedicated audiophiles.

 

Hi. I’m talking about the quality that Tidal label ‘HiFi’, quoted from their website below. I’m not taking about their ‘Master’ quality, to be clear. 

 

HiFi - Lossless CD quality (1411kbps or 16bit / 44.1kHz) - 

 

It sounds like you’re talking about the same thing, about ‘HiFi’ from Tidal. Is that right? 


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • July 7, 2020

You’d get standard lossless CD quality. The 24-bit support introduced with S2 only applies to FLAC/ALAC files in the local library, not (yet) to streaming services.

Even if 24-bit support for streaming services were to appear it wouldn’t automatically decode Tidal’s MQA files. In fact I’d be amazed if Sonos ever opted to support MQA.

Thanks for the response. I’m not talking about the MQA tier/quality. See my post above. 


ratty
  • 31405 replies
  • Answer
  • July 7, 2020

The S1 → S2 update is not relevant in fact. Tidal’s HiFi was supported at lossless 16/44.1 CD quality before and after the update.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • July 7, 2020

The S1 → S2 update is not relevant in fact. Tidal’s HiFi was supported at lossless 16/44.1 CD quality before and after the update.

Right, I see. Some confusion there then. Thanks a lot for clearing that up for me.