Pulled the trigger on recapped nDAC

Spotify isn’t hires so it’ll never put the light on. :thinking:

I’m going to look into Tidal

1 Like

Just ditch Spotify altogether. You will thank us.

7 Likes

Well, I installed Tidal on my TV and it sounds much worse than Spotify, and the HD light doesn’t come on.

Do you have to have “master” quality?

Are you using a TV as your streaming source?

If you want to light the HD lamp, try Qobuz. It worked for me, but Tidal didn’t. Not all HiRes tracks light the HD lamp, you need to be streaming 48khz sampling rate or above.

What bitrate are you streaming Tidal at?

You’d have to go a long way to find worse than Spotify but Tidal isn’t it.

Tidal also don’t do Hires so the HD won’t light up. It’s unlikely that your TV will unfold MQA so no HD light on Tidal :confused:

I’ve noticed that TV is much worse sound quality than my NDX, even when using NDX and TV both going digital out to Qutest. That’s with HD TV. Tidal sounds great through NDX but it won’t ever hit 24bit. Not all recordings benefit from 24 bit hi Res though, particularly as not much music before 21st Century was recorded in 24 bit.

I loaded both apps on my TV, Tidal is set to “HiFi”. Tidal sounds much worse.

There is a “master quality” available but I have to pay twice as much per month.

I can’t figure that out from the simple dumb, tv app, which only has 4 levels with names:

Master
HiFi
High
Bleh

I love my TV which means I still probably haven’t heard digital as good as it can get, but Spotify actually sounds awesome for nearly everything I listen to from my TV.

Blu Ray from Oppo sounds awesome as well.

1 Like

I guess the TV will do some resampling/downsampling. I guess a TV is not considered a first class source component around here.

Going to my nDAC with Toslink it sounds really good to me…probably not like an NDX though.

The nDAC is an upgrade over the the NDX - this is specified in Naim’s upgrade path.

None of the above options are Hires. Master is MQA which needs an MQA decoder that neither your TV nor the nDAC can provide.

The nDAC responds well to a decent quality source.

1 Like

What is your exact setup? Using the TV as your streaming source isn’t going to ideal and using Tidal or Qobuz (even Apple Music) should be well ahead of Spotify (which is pretty low quality).

Agree with JimDog. I also use a DC1 between ND5XS2 and Naim DAC/555 (but non DR). So musical combo.

2 Likes

Tidal would have to Master with some app or computer, or DAC processing the MQA to give you something higher than 48.

In addition almost all TVs are limited to 48kHz out and cannot go higher. Using the TV as streaming solution likely will never enable you to listen to high-res on the nDAC regardless of streaming platform.

@SnaicInTheGrass I think I recall simplicity was part of what you wished to achieve, but maybe adding a network streamer (minus DAC) is worth a thought?

It would be an additional UI to listen to music, but would likely serve HD music to your NDAC.

Other streamers are available, but here’s my Primare NP5, CD5 puck shown for scale.

1 Like

Yeah I’m going to hold what I got right now, its good enough for me.

Every time I upgrade my Naim system it gets better too…I guess I’ll be happy not knowing what I’m missing at least until I become wealthy.

I’ve been more than happy and better is better as I see improvements even if they aren’t the top.

Always known I’m playing a game I can’t afford to play! lol

2 Likes

Its not a game though. I was happy for many years with lesser Naim systems and was happy. Other spending priorities were around I’m now mostly since Covid, had two things, available funds and time to test pre owned kit. That and the extra time enforced at home has given me an extension to or possibly just a deeper involvement in a hobby I’ve always had a leaning towards. If I turn in another hobby direction as the pandemic eases I will be just as happy to ease back on the Naim spending, even sell something I will still have had the enjoyment and have a system of some sort to continue to enjoy.

1 Like