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What is you TIDAL setup?

A lot of audiophiles are waxing lyrical about this new HD streaming technology, proclaiming that this may be the best thing that happened to audio since the dawn of CDs. Positive reviews abound everywhere online. I succumbed and ordered a subscription. I'm glad I did, because TIDAL is freaking awesome! For a meager 20 clams a month, you suddenly have a 25 million CD collection at your fingertips! That alone is mind boggling and unthinkable a decade or so ago. I have been a SPOTIFY subscriber for a long time and can confidently say that TIDAL's streaming service is significantly better sounding and worth the extra subscription fee. I still kept SPOTIFY because, simply put, it has more selections. If SPOTIFY will offer HD streaming in the future, I will be in sonic nirvana! Pardon me for burying the leade. How did you incorporate TIDAL into your system? Here's my setup:

My system is composed of:

Shelter 7000
Well Tempered Amadeus
OPPO 103D - Transport and Blu ray Player
MAC MINI - upgraded SSD w/ 16GB RAM. Loaded with Amarra software
Auralic VEGA
Hovland HP100MC
Symphonic Line RG7 MK4
ISOCLEAN 80A3
Gemme Audio Tanto Karbon V3
iPAD Gen 2 with Retina Display
Wireworld Silver Eclipse Cables

I did not want to go through the hassle of moving my tricked-out MAC MINi from the computer nook to the listening room so I figured out a way to use my iPAD as the source. You cannot plug your iPAD directly into the VEGA. You need an interface. This is where the OPPO comes in where it also serves as a CD and Blu Ray discs transport. You have to buy an iPAD HDMI adapter. Plug in the iPAD using the adapter to the back of the OPPO and you're in business. Did I mention that the OPPO can also play whatever music file you throw at it?! Be it AIFF, FLAC, DSD, etc.. For the price, it's one amazing technologically-packed piece of gadgetry. Let's move on. Ensure you have the TIDAL app downloaded to the iPAD. Connect OPPO to the VEGA via toslink or COAX and Vega to the preamp, receiver or amp and you're ready to play!

In my setup, I plugged the VEGA straight to the amp using ENDLER attenuators. I found the resultant sound much more transparent and dynamic than going through a preamp. For additional info, using the VEGA's built in volume control is not as sonically satisfying. I found the frequency extremes truncated and the overall sound dynamically constricted. This is especially true at lower listening levels.

So there! In the end, I believe I was able to save some money by buying the OPPO vice the Auralic Aries. Plus I now have a very capable transport that can also play my old CD and Blu Ray collections. I'm immensely enjoying TIDAL. I haven't touched my turntable or played any CDs for almost a month. Well..., gotta go! I still have 24,999,824 CDs to listen to.
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reubent
6,956 posts
 
@shadorne - Happy New Year! A few quick question about your Roon setup. Do you have Roon Core running on your MacMini? Which MAC Mini hardware configuration? Is your MAC Mini connected directly to your DAC, on your audio rack? Or are you using some other type of streaming device, as well as your iPad as a controller? Also, is your MAC Mini connected to your network via direct ethernet or are you using WiFi? Where are your ripped music files? On the MAC Mini? External Disk? NAS connected via ethernet or WiFi? Lastly, if you have Roon Core running on the MAC Mini, can you stream via Roon to other streaming devices in you home, via WiFi?

I'm hoping to add a music streaming service to my system and whole house during the coming year. I'm just trying to get my ducks lined up.......

Thanks for any comments......
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@reubent

Mac Mini 2.8 GHz i5 running Roon Server (headless) connected to Benchmark DAC3 via both optical and USB. I have the lossless music in a variety of formats on a 6TB drive connected to the Mac via USB - FLAC, AAC, AIFF, DSD etc. Roon controls everything from iPad or iPhone. I have Roon setup so it passes bit perfect files to the DAC. It only does conversion for files that my DAC cannot handle which is DSD128 and higher or reducing sample rate of hi-res files to 96KHz for optical. The DAC does all upsampling. I can’t hear a difference between optical or USB or cables or Singxer SU-1, so I am reasonably confident the DAC performs as claimed - it rejects all incoming jitter. There will be some intrinsic jitter in the DAC itself but Stereophile measurements suggest it is well below audibility.

Roon handles access to a Tidal. No MQA first unfold yet implemented in Roon but it is in the works. MQA is not a big deal to me as it is a lossy format anyway.

Roon works on almost any platform. So by no means should you limit yourself to my hardware setup.

Good Luck!
reubent
6,956 posts
 

@shadorne - Thanks for the reply. I'm not limiting myself to your config., just trying to find the relative performance you have on hand. I've heard that Roon takes a bit of power and wanted to know what you were using. A 2.6G i5 is not a powerhouse by any stretch. Do you also run Tidal on the MAC Mini at the same time? No performance issues?

I may hit you up for some additional information as the year progresses and I get closer to setting up the music stream.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

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