Tidal Max not working

I think you”ll find if you cast Tidal Max using Tidal Connect to the streamer using the latest streamer firmware and a Tidal Max/Connect app, you don’t need any explicit support from the Naim app.
Regular Tidal is selected by the Naim app, and yes older app versions won’t or might not support that.
Though I have not explicitly done this without having set up regular Tidal on my current Naim app.
Though I only really stream Tidal Max via the Tidal Max Connect app as to my ears it sounds marginally better - on my NDX2.

Hi Peter, I have also installed the new firmware on my NSS 333 but honestly speaking I am disappointed about this upgrade. The SQ on my system has changed significantly. The sound is brighter (too bright) and the tight bass and dark sound of my system have disappeared. I was really looking forward to this new firmware but unfortunately it is not what I had hoped for.

2 Likes

Just a thought, but maybe swap back to the cables that came with your 300 series kit. Perhaps the changes in sound due to your aftermarket cables now takes the sound in the wrong direction for you when combined with the new firmware?

1 Like

Simon, I agree but I have set up loads of “favourites “ in the app so they appear on the front panel. This is because some of the time the ndx2 is very shy and doesn’t appear in my list of devices even though my Qb and Muso are keen to help out. When it does this it also disappears from the tidal connect list. So I end up using the remote…

Today received the newsletter announcing tidal max via Naim and Focal app. However, after updating app it streams at Flac 44.1kHz via naim App. Via Air Play with Tidal app it streams same song at 24-bit 192kHz. No ‘Max’ under input settings either:

Is this (yet again) due to “lack of support” on muso 1st gen? Or is update of app not yet released in the Netherlands?

Although the post I’ve linked below refers to the streamers/all in ones, the same issue is there on 1st gen. MuSos. So they will not get Tidal Max as far as we know.

Thanks for the reply. That’s a pity…

I don’t think the first gen Muso’s have had an upgrade, just the second gen.

A ‘work around’ to play 24-bit 192kHz 5386kbps on Muso 1st gen seems to be to use the mconnect player. This streams the song from the Tidal server using upnp. When I switch to the Naim app it shows the song playing under upnp at 192 kHz. No buffering issues whatsoever.

Anyway, I am not hearing any difference, so will stick to naim app. But you would say if mconnect can do it Naim should also be able to implement it!?


Well, no. At least not with the given hardware.

The issue is, that the memory/buffer in the old generation is too small for hires-from-internet.
It’s the same same amount of bits/second, whether streamed/cast locally or via the internet. But the packet delay back/forth is very different. In the local network, it’ll be 1 millisecond on LAN or a few ms on WiFi.
On internet links, latency will be more in the range of 10-50ms (depending on link speed/technology and distance to servers) or even 100+ ms across continents.

For typical streaming protocols with flow control, this means you need 10-100 times the buffers.

Mconnect achieves this, with using buffering on another device (phone, PC, …) in your local network, and then using the short hop to the local UPnP renderer using this additional/separate buffer to over for delays to the internet. So you cannot fix the missing buffer size without additional hardware.

3 Likes

See others mentioned it but it seems using Tidal Connect now sounds better than listen thru roon. In past think it sounded either the same or close enough to just stick with roon but it now Tidal Connect sounds a little more alive and better sense of space.

My only complaint is there should be someway to connect before playing for the first time. Once you have the play screen then you can connect before music is playing if haven’t used in a while. But the first time you need to play it play thru phone for a second to even get to that screen. Unless there’s another way that I don’t know about.

Yes yes yes, but Tidal seems not to think so. long press of the play button on both
os’s is just one way this could be done. Without most users playing anything on the phone would ever discover it.

Anyone found a way to keep Tidal Connect stream music on macbook when closing the lid? Tidal app. It’s not on a Spotify Connect level indeed. It’s also not syncing between smarthone and laptop the way Spotify does it. Patents one might think but Roon works like Spotify on these things. But maybe they paid Spotify to do it.

Is there not a ‘when lid closed do norhing’ option in macos like there is in Windows?

Cannot find it. Then it’s Roon for a bit longer then. Those features are crucial to me to keep my pulse low. I wonder when Spotify “HIFI” will launch… long wait.

Maybe something in there will help but it just seems so much easier on Windows :grin:

I’ve noticed a couple of issues and was wondering if anyone else has experienced them. I select Max within the Naim app but after a while (hours, days), the quality setting within the Naim app changes from Max to High by itself. I use both Tidal Connect and UPnP on the Naim app (on an iPhone and iPad), both up to date. Not sure what’s going on but it’s slightly irritating. More annoying though is when I’m just using Tidal connect via the Tidal app to my ND5XS 2, I select a new track to play and it starts playing through my iPhone/iPad instead and stops streaming through the streamer. I have to ‘find’ my device again.

Yes the behavior where tidal forgets that there is a connect stream playing on the same device is anoying. Must be a tidal issue though. Sometimes it works fine and at other times it will stop working after 10 to 30 minutes. I have no idea of why this difference occurs.

1 Like

I tested Tidal for a period. However I found Qobuz sound quality to be completely superior to Tidal’s. So it was an easy decision to keep Qobuz.

1 Like

Yes a similar Tidal Connect streaming issue has been reported some time back…

However in terms of sound balance I find stand Tidal and Qobuz streaming similar on my NDX2 into DAVE, however i find Tidal Connect nearly always preferable to both standard Tidal and Qobuz streaming. I guess different software libraries.