Apple vs Spotify vs Tidal: Which streaming service sounds the best?

July 10, 2015

Apple Music lauched last week, and arguably accelerated the streaming wars to new, unprecedented heights. The Verge decided to test out each of the services in a blind test with lots of volunteers to see which service delivers the best-sounding music to the uninformed consumer. The test gave each participant a pair of Sony headphones and an iPhone 6 Plus and the same songs on each service. Participants were then asked to divulge which one sounded the best.

Looking at the advertised numbers alone, Tidal comes out on top with 1.4 mbps lossless audio content. Spotify offers 320 kbps .mp3 files, and Apple delivers 256 kbps AAC files. However, in a blind audio test, Tidal was far from the supreme victor. Many participants stated that Tidal was the poorest sounding service, while in 29 percent of the tests, listeners could not tell a difference between the services. Take a look at the full test at The Verge.

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