Disappointed with Tidal would Roon be the solution?

My problem with Tidal is that it does not really inspire me to listen for longer periods or seek out new music. If this is down to the user interface or the slightly lower quality I experience vs. my cds ripped to aiff on my nas I don’t know.

I love that the naim app shows albums available on Tidal of the artist currently playing from my nas. But when I occasionally switch to Tidal I usually listen for a few songs but then lose interest…

Would love to hear if their are others like me and if Roon (or other) have made you change your mind on streaming services?

The issue with streaming (Qobuz or Tidal) and Naim app is that there are almost no possibilities to manage favourite albums : almost no research function, no way to put favourites in separate folders, to range by type of album: Classical, Rock, Jazz… With more than 100 favourite album, it becomes a mess… Thus, my NAS stays my best source and streaming is only to discover new artists.

Maybe Roon can help on this topic ?

You have an impressive system.

Why do you stream Tidal, limited to CD quality since Naim does not support MQA?

Try Qobuz, having the option to stream many of the offered tracks in HiRes. It’s much more satisfying.

Unfortunately Qobuz isn’t available in Sweden… (yet?)

Several forumites have commented that Roon improves the SQ of internet streamed content Tidal/Qobuz to the level of locally streamed content from your NAS, all else being equal. @trickydickie for one

Naims integration of Tidal is not great, no idea why but it is lacking compared to other systems and software. You could try Roon, AudiVarna or Amarra all offer Tidal and have different approaches. It may or may not engage more with you. I have never had this issue with Tidal being a user since day one here in UK, but then I have never used Naim for streaming it.

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Do you have airplay or a Sonos?

You can use the native tidal app and send to either of these directly. Works a treat and very good for discover/browse.

Hi all,

tanks for you feedback! I actually started google how to install an SSD in my ageing macbook pro and I must say it looks pretty straight forward. I understand it is required for Roon to work, or will it work on an standard harddrive as well but less snappy?

Hi Occean,

I have a few apple product like appleTV and the ND player has airplay. But when using the Tidal app on my iPad for some reason the naim app does not connect to the server (in my case minim on nas). Close Tidal and restart the Naim app and all is fine again, annoying!
Will explore more… I suspect the key is to create you own favourite “library” with artists and albums in the Tidal app for a greater experience.

It’s a shame you can’t get Qobuz in your location, as I would certainly recommend that you try it. Some have managed to get it using a VPN, and either Paypal, or a credit card registered in a country where Qobuz is supported, but this doesn’t always work.
I agree that Roon improves Tidal performance, although I didn’t find the MQA material to sound any better, so I just set it to play 16/44 material.
I run Roon on a MacBook Pro, and it works fine, although mine has a SSD.

For a trial don’t worry about an SSD.

The SSD is recommended as the Roon database is very demanding.

Just keep things simple for the trial. If you like it then you can look at options to implement it properly. If you find it slow cut it some slack as the reason will be down to the lack of SSD.

Thanks, I think I will wait until Qobus become available here. Still having the cd quality as good as local is also not bad! :slight_smile:
Out of curiosity, do Roon run in the background on the MacBook without the screen lightening up etc.? Can you even close the lid?

Thanks! Good to know!

I did this a couple of weeks ago for a friend in his mid 2012 MBP, it took about 40 minutes to clone the hard drive then another 10 mins to open the case, swap the drives out and put the case back together again. It was a quicker and easier job than I had anticipated for sure and it makes a helluva difference

I have Qobuz and Tidal (Apple Music too).

Tidal had a good value months ago and I signed up.

I’m barely listening to it and for £19.99/month with little use I’ll probably ditch it, but none of the streaming services have perfect catalogues and every so often I’ll find something on Tidal that’s not on Qobuz.

I have both Roon and Audirvana, and have found that I’m using Audirvana more often than Roon.

Audirvana pushes the audiophile aspect more, I’m really not convinced there are huge differences between Roon/Audirvana/streaming/NAS playback that make one clear cut over another.

With Audirvana I normally use it when I know what I want to listen to, locally streamed or otherwise.

Roon I’d suggest is excellent for discovering new music with the Roon Radio feature, I think it does an MQA first unfold (Audirvana too possibly), and if you really want to seek out new music it may be a good option, demo it.

Many have moved to streaming exclusively, but others, myself included use streaming to audition new music and either bin/continue to stream or if something is exceptional the streaming will lead to a download purchase.

Tidal does offer purchased downloads last time I checked.

Qobuz is very good, I hope it comes to Sweden before too long.

I run Roon on a 2012 Mac Mini. Sticking with High Sierra for now.

For a few years I’ve installed OS X/macOS on external Samsung T3 or T5 external SSDs - wroks a treat - considerbaly faster than the Mini’s internal 1TB hard drive. There is a newer T model I believe.

They come with legacy cables for USB 2/0/3.0 to USB C (the drive), extremely reliable though you may not want a permanently attached drive if you use the laptop on the go.

Just pointing out external boot as an option if you have any concerns about fiddling inside the MBP.

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You cannot close the lid, but as long as you are logged in, the MacBook can be asleep with the screen off and Roon will still work. Then you can use an iOS device to control it.

Surely there must be something in the settings to let you close the lid without putting the computer to sleep, Windows has had that since forever.

Edit: Seems like you can but unless you have an external display connected you need a 3rd party utility to do it

In my experience, Tidal sounds better on my PC than on my streamer.

Qobuz is available in Italy but at crazy cost, so for me a no-go for the moment.

M.

Macbooks rely on heat loss through the keyboard for cooling, and Apple therefore discourage enabling their use with the lid down for that reason. There are workarounds that can get round this, but I wouldn’t recommend them for that reason. You only need the lid to be up an inch or two, and it will work. The screen can be blank.

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