When I go to the Tidal app to play music, my ND5XS2 does recognize this and plays music. However, what I find strange is that when I go to the Naim app, the connection is via Chromecast and not Tidal.
What is the difference between going straight to the Tidal app vs. going to the Naim app to access Tidal? I have not extensively compared the sound quality but theoretically, will there be a difference?
Off hand I’m thinking that “passing through” Chromecast is inferior because I’m not using the “native” connection of Tidal. I’m new to digital so I’m no expert here and could be wrong….
Naim have said the using the inbuilt Tidal should give better quality. There are technical reasons for this that are beyond me. You can try it and see. Incidentally, Naim have also said that they will be introducing Tidal Connect, which will give another option in future.
Not long to wait until your Naim will have TIDAL Connect support, which will allow you to stream direct from TIDAL App, rather than via Chromecast.
Until then, the native Naim App implementation of TIDAL will give you better quality and other benefits (eg support for gapless playback), but obviously you can trade that off for convenience (playlist access etc) by using TIDAL App via Chromecast.
The TIDAL Connect update is currently with our Beta test group for evaluation. As soon as we know a date for public release, i’ll let everyone know.
