Tidal Connect

Don’t believe everything you read, especially if it’s easy to just try it yourself.

But ideally you ask someone else to test you blind. As what you read will make you biased.

I can’t try, have an Nds. However @Stevesky himself, as the main Naim engineer, said recently in another thread that the native app is much better vs Chromcast, which is a cheap and noisy component ( 20 dollars), mainly implemented for convenience.

Maybe his ears are better than mine? But also, I’m personally not that interested in theoretical differences. If you can’t hear it, then why does it matter? Maybe he, as an engineer (although so am I), feels differently?

The article I linked above shows it does have a slight issue, but that’s with the built-in DAC. I.e. one that’s easily solved by using the digital out into a good external DAC. I trust that my Uniti has a good DAC.
But that’s with the dongle, so probably not even applicable to what Naim have built-in. Regardless, I trust that Naim have done everything in their power to optimise the sound quality.

The dongle is not expensive, so if you’re interested you could try it out. I find such experiments interesting.

Glad from day 1 to have traded in my Atom for a NAD M10. Got upgraded with Tidal connect in latest firmware / app upgrade immediately. So not surprised that for Naim, I still own a Muso QB gen 1, we have to wait until 2021 (?!) and the gen 1 is even not supported then ? Don’t tell me integration in Naim app is sufficient. It simply lacks functionality (f.i my mix). Just like spotify connect it would be an essential upgrade and I do not understand why gen1 shall not be supported.

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Please add it to the SuperUniti. Thanks. :pray:

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Maybe that post will enlighten you.


Stevesky

4d

HI @LJS,

When using Chromecast the stream is bit perfect and native upto 192kHz/24bit. The downside of Chromecast + Qobuz is that it’s not really designed to run at such high sample rates. The buffer sizes are far too small (hence prone to drop outs) and the Chromecast stack is very inefficient so uses nearly all the CPU time in the streamer. Not only is this bad for unit response times, but not also great for sound quality as the electric noise floor of the product increases as everything works harder.

For this reason + others, earlier this year we integrated Qobuz natively into the platform.
Benefits:

  • Proper buffering - We buffer up to 50MB of data at a time so very robust from internet data fluctuations. The average 16/44.1kHz track is fully loaded within 15secs, hence its playback from RAM buffer.
  • Efficient - near enough the same as playing a native 192kHz FLAC file from a NAS.
  • Faster to connect / play / do stuff.
  • Runs from the internal streamers Play Queue. Once the app has loaded in the play queue the streamer just gets on with it independent from the app / things in the cloud etc.

Overall, I would recommend use Qobuz via the Naim app if possible.

Best regards

Steve Harris
Software Director
Naim Audio Ltd.

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I had seen that post. But as I mentioned, maybe theoretical, but I don’t hear the difference with Tidal myself. That’s what matters to me, like to you it doesn’t matter that you can’t measure a difference between Ethernet cables. It’s about what you can hear or think you can hear, not about what someone else says.

You also use tubes (like me soon), no engineer will tell you tubes have less distortion / measure better than solid state, yet many people prefer the sound.

Also, he mentions the high sample rates, I use Tidal with 16b/44.1kHz. So maybe it’s more audible with 24b/192kHz from Qobuz?

Never experienced drop outs, but then I do have a good, stable & fast network.

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The most important is that you enjoy :+1:

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Makes me wonder why other brands (Lyngdorf) offer this TODAY and Naim says happy 2021… It to many times feels like Naim is taken by surprise.

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To clarify, we were not ‘taken by surprise’ - we’ve been working with TIDAL on the project for some time.

We just have other software priorities before we release this particular update.

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Your customers are not important?

Our customers are always the most important. All of them. Not just those whom use TIDAL! We understand what an exciting development this is, and are sorry it’ll mean being patient a little longer - in the meantime, there are still plenty of ways (including direct casting) to enjoy TIDAL on our systems.

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Are you able to share with us an idea when in 2021 we could expect such an update, @Naim.Marketing ?
Are we talking more of the beginning of 2021, the mid, or the end of next year?

I really would appreciate an estimation of that timeframe.

Thank you!

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Leave it with me - i’ll see it if we can share a more detailed update.

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Thank you, @Naim.Marketing!

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He said no such thing. There is no Chromecast hardware in Naim hardware it’s all software. He said it’s code uses more memory and resources and may sound different nothing more.

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[quote=“frenchrooster, post:62, topic:11949”]
« the Chromecast stack is very inefficient so uses nearly all the CPU time in the streamer. Not only is this bad for unit response times, but not also great for sound quality as the electric noise floor of the product increases as everything works harder.
[/quote] »

It’s exactly what Stevesky wrote

That is good news @Naim.Marketing. I might even sign-up for the beta program when it’s ready. Looking forward to it!

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Because if sound quality is a priority, then my expectation is that with tidal-connect it will support the first unfold of MQA (Tidal masters) e.g. better than 44/16 where available. Otherwise, Naim already support 44/16 with their application…

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I would assume that Tidal Connect will will support MQA in part by giving you the “first unfold” that the Tidal app can do. I can’t say I liked what it did when I tried it, but I guess it’s nice to have options.

Edit…apparently not! See Stevesky’s post below.