I just tried out to stream High Res music from Tidal to my NDX using the Android BubbleUPnP app. This seems to work fine. At least BubbleUPnP shows e.g. 24 Bit 96 kHz. Unfortunately I cannot see, if this really arrives at the NDX as the display isn’t working anymore. Can anybody confirm that BubbleUPnP allows to enjoy High Res Tidal on a legacy streamer?
When searching this forum about this topic I found out that some of you use BubbleUPnP Server. What is the advantage of this compared to the app?
As it’s UPnP and the NDX is able to play these resolutions, I don’t see why it would be otherwise. So my best guess is that Bubble UPnP is a great solution for your needs.
But… You should have the latest update I believe of the software. And there may lie a problem, I don’t know if there has been an update to support Tidal Hi Res since their switch to flac.
I use BubbleUPNP with Qobuz and it does pass through high definition streams to my NDS and is displayed as such by the NDS. The NDS is the same generation as the NDX so I’m sure it will be the same with your NDX. I also use BubbleUPNP to transcode the stream to PCM WAV (which you can set in settings) which I understand relieves some the compute load on the streamer. It does sound better than sending through native FLAC from Qobuz.
I now use a Raspberrypi based bubbleupnp server. Using the server conserves the battery on your android device as it is only acting as a control point for the server, with the stream passing through the server rather than through the device. I also used to find that with the highest definition streams my phone used to struggle transcoding to WAV and I would get breaks in the music. This doesn’t now happen with the server.
I used Bubble UPnP Server on a NAS to stream Tidal, Qobuz and local music to an NDX. It worked well and improved sound quality compared to using Tidal or UPnP in the Naim app.
You need to use a third party app to control it, such as Linn or Lumin.
How the Bubble app on Android compares I couldn’t say.
This may depend on which generation NDX you have. The first version of the NDX does not support Hi Res audio and is also not Spotify Connect enabled. There is a second version with an updated board that does allow for Hi Res playback and Spotify Connect functionality. Naim used to distinguish between these NDX variants in the model history section of their previous website but no longer do.
Only a few of the very earliest NDX would not support at least 24/96 if they had never been updated. In this case files from Tidal (or anywhere else) in anything above 16/44.1 wouldn’t play so I don’t think that’s an issue for the OP.
Still, it might help if he confirmed the streaming board type and firmware version he has.
Yes - the NDX is playing what BubbleUPnP says. I used to have an ND5XS with a Ndac. When Bubble indicated it was playing a high-res file, the Hi-Res light on the Ndac would light up, confirming it.
Thank you very much for all your replies! The NDX has the high resolution streamer board (up to 192 kHz) as an update by the pre-owner. @Bokermonz Is the setting for transcoding you mentioned “Player settings” → Name of NDX/NDS → “Audio Format” → WAV? (I hope I translated correctly as I have the German locale.)
When I am a bit more familiar with my one week old NAS I will try BubbleUPnP server in a docker container as it is not available for the latest Synology software.
Thank you again!
Best wishes, Volker
Yo Herr Volker- as you are asking the question is it correct to assume that you can’t hear a difference in sound quality? - so either your ndx is not streaming in higher res after all or, if it is, it makes so little difference to the sq that you can’t really tell?
@JonnySidemouth Ha ha, great question. I did an A/B comparison (limited in BubbleUPnP app the Tidal sound quality to CD) and was quite sure that it sounded better with the HighRes setting.
That raised the question if it was just my expectation or real. If you would have answered that NDX cannot play High Res Tidal even via Bubble it would just have been imagination, but so I am quite sure that the difference is real
So when I providing my NDS with a UPnP stream, from the Roon server through the SonoreUPnP Bridge, I can check what is being played, either on the front display, under format or in the Naim App
Make sure to set the correct settings in BubbleUPnP, as Bokermonz mentioned, seems to work well with the WAV audio format. There are some threads on this forum already on how to do that which helped me set up my 272 in a similar way. You’ll see a few threads come up using keywords like UPnP, bubble, Tidal, legacy. I can’t remember which ones specifically but there are some with screenshots of settings.
As IainO mentioned, use a wired ethernet connection instead of WiFi for playback up to 192hz/24bit otherwise the track may keep stopping.
