Tidal going Flac!

[Kimbleman]

I read that Tidal will be offering hi-res Flac files in the very near future rather than MQA, so my question relates to (near) legacy streamers.
As the user of an ND5XS anything above the Tidal CD quality was not accessible, but with the adoption of Flac files will this now be possible to stream?
Cheers.
Gaz

[ChrisSU]

This has been discussed on a couple of other threads recently. I don’t think it will work because streaming over the internet from a remote server involves delays that you don’t have when streaming from a local server, which will likely empty the small buffer in a 1st gen streamer and cause dropouts.

[IainO]

It will be interesting to see.

Our SuperUniti has no issues with local hires content over WiFi. Only DSD content causes it to drop occasionally, but 24/96 or even higher bitrate PCM never an issue. Full buffer on the display.

If it doesn’t work we have our existing workaround (for Tidal connect) which will do hires no bother, or we buy a used ND5XS2 for the office.

[Kimbleman]

Are there any naim audio tech guys (or girls) on here that can offer a definitive answer

[Wditters]

I have been streaming Qobuz in 24/96 and 24/192 for ages on all Naim devices in the household (2*Mu-so 2nd Gen and a Naim HE)… Has always been spotless. If Tidal should decide to transition to hi-res Flac that would also be 24/96 and 24/192. I see no reason why this would be a problem with Tidal if it isn’t currently a problem with Qobuz … Unless you still have some Naim legacy equipment or an ISDN internet connection

[ChrisSU]

Gave a look at what @Stevesky has to say in thus post about Qobuz 24 bit support, and why anything above 16/44.1 on a 1st gen streamer is not going to work reliably.

Tidal and MQA (oh no, not again)

Hi @jsgreenwood @alan33 @ChrisSU Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned MQA debate Streaming service track provenance This is one of the biggest problem with any album that is not a modern release, is what generation of copy is it and has been compromised by some post production process. In the case of TIDAL it is a server side decision the track that is delivered and just because its in a FLAC file does not mean its the best sounding version available. The MQA masters situation …

[IainO]

Interesting. So it’s latency at higher bitrates which will cause gen 1 devices streaming hires to have issues.

All our current workarounds for SU won’t have this issue though, as there’s a “modern” network device between Tidal and streamer (RPI, NAS, tablet etc.)

Quality can also be selected in the naim app per device it seems (via Tidal input) so we could upgrade subscription to hires but have SU pull 16/44.1 stream whilst NDX2 pulls hires (if we were limiting ourselves to the naim app).

[davidhendon]

It’s not latency at all, although that can also cause problems. It’s the short length of the buffer in the old streamers and the bursty nature of streamed music over busy contended networks, which means the buffer empties periodically.