Instead of being a streaming service, Tonal helps collectors build music collections that stay forever.
Compared to other players, Tonal tackles three fundamental questions more seriously:
Before checking out Tonal’s answers, try to answer these questions for your current audio player of choice.
Tonal collects music into .tonal audio files — a lightweight lossless container that repacks PCM or DSD data of a complete disc in standardized FLAC or WavPack encoding.
Tonal creates these files from intact Hi-Res downloads or accurate rips. Tonal audio files embed no music tag.
“Grade” implies measurability. “Audiophile-grade” is no exception.
To voice the authentic sound with the subtle nuance of your DAC, Tonal taps into the lowest layer in the audio stack, bypassing all digital signal processing.
Configurations that may affect audiophile performances are tuned precisely and automatically.
Signal path between raw lossless audio and the hardware layer is unbelievably short: 4 SLOC in C.
The secret is to think in metadata, not tags.
Tonal pioneered a set of concise, elegant, declarative languages to enable community-based collaborations on music metadata.
Curators author music metadata in Tonal Metadata Language using the web-based editor; collectors get instant updates from the Tonal app.
Anyone who still has not gotten past the stage of the beauty of music still knows nothing about music.
Music is not beautiful. It has beauty as well, but the beauty is only the bait.
Truth is our ultimate goal, not beauty.