Have I gone over to the Dark Side?

[User211]

Resistance is futile.

I'm not sure the chipset in your DAC will allow TIDAL's MQA to shine, Tom. Isn't it some esoteric old school chip that Peter thinks sounds great but doesn't support 24/96 and above?

Also, is the SPDIF input optical or hardwired (I suspect the later)?

[montesquieu]

Resistance is futile.

I'm not sure the chipset in your DAC will allow TIDAL's MQA to shine, Tom. Isn't it some esoteric old school chip that Peter thinks sounds great but doesn't support 24/96 and above?

Also, is the SPDIF input optical or hardwired (I suspect the later)?

It's a very much upgraded AN kit Dac 2.1x, upgraded to more or less 4.1 spec ... it has the same balanced output transformers and I/V transformers as the 4.1x, it's stuffed with Black Gates and (unusally for an AN) has four digital inputs - AN transformer-coupled AES-EBU (XLR), AN transformer-coupled SPDIF (RCA), a JFET buffered SPDIF input (also RCA) and a board that gives Asynchronous USB input that I've had working with PCs but doesn't like Macs for some reason. No optical.

The DAC does 24/96 which is all my ears can really handle anyway ... the little RPi wtih HifiBerry Digi+board sounds really quite good into the RCA inputs.

[User211]

If that is a newish MacBook doesn't it have a USB-C port?

Just trying to help but TBH I haven't really got any top suggestions based on practical usage. I use a pretty odd setup myself.

I used to use an MF VLINK but I can't recommend one. Always had sync issues with it and the DAC - another MF product LOL.

[montesquieu]

Macbook is an old one, 2009 but 8GB ram and it's had the CD drive removed and replaced with a 256gb SSD drive, the internal is now a 1Tb drive so a decent amount of space and excellent performance for a machine of this vintage.

Is there no streaming appliance that outputs SPDIF - Apple Music or whatever? - that speaks to Tidal?

[User211]

There are loads of generic products that will do what you want i.e. not specifically aimed at TIDAL. So what is the output on the Mac - Firewire or USB-B? Need to know what needs to be connected to what, and the fact that you said the MacBook didn't work with the DAC's USB input is confusing without further info.

What OS is the MacBook using and will TIDAL even run on it is another question?

[montesquieu]

There are loads of generic products that will do what you want i.e. not specifically aimed at TIDAL. So what is the output on the Mac - Firewire or USB-B? Need to know what needs to be connected to what, and the fact that you said the MacBook didn't work with the DAC's USB input is confusing without further info.

It's an older Mac with everythiing - USB, Firewire etc, the problem is there is no Mac driver for the board that was fitted in my DAC, it works fine with a PC laptop. But I'd rather not have a Mac permanently plugged in I'd rather use an appliance of some kind that's why I was asking if there's a cheap appliance that could stream Tidal that I could control from my phone or a web browser.

[struth]

Not sure if you can use tidal on a pc and control it from a ipad.you can on spotify but I was told, perhaps wrongly that it didnt work with tidal. That would be a big offput for me as I need that.

ps i think there is a 2 month trial going at moment

[jonners]

Is there no streaming appliance that outputs SPDIF - Apple Music or whatever? - that speaks to Tidal?

Yes, you already have a RPi with a Digi+ for SPDIF, so just add an Android phone or cheap Android tablet running Bubble UPNP which will stream Tidal to your Pi. Done.
You can also run Bubble on a Mac or PC, apparently. I think that's more complicated: http://www.hifizine.com/2016/06/how-...-raspberry-pi/

[User211]

I tried Bubble uPnP with my Android phone and tried to get it to stream TIDAL. It didn't work well. There are some YouTube videos showing how, It wouldn't stream phone stored content (the TIDAL phone app offline mode - as opposed to a live stream). It is also a hassle.

You can stream TIDAL to a Bluetooth receiver as they recently allowed it but you lose SQ that way.

You could read this: http://www.hifizine.com/2016/06/how-...-raspberry-pi/ and try the Lumin option?

[jonners]

I tried Bubble uPnP with my Android phone and tried to get it to stream TIDAL. It didn't work well.

I've streamed Qobuz from a tablet that way without any problems but I haven't tried Tidal yet.