I have two Node 2i's and one Vault in three different places. I've never known them to be connected via Bluetooth. WiFi, yes, but not BT, I'm currently in front of my Mac Studio which is hardwired into my router, as is my Vault. Just for the fun of it, I turned off BT on my Mac, opened up the Mac BluOS app, and played music via Qobuz. No BT involved at all.
Tidal FLAC vs. Qobuz
Does the recent change by Tidal, from MQA to FLAC make Tidal the better choice for streaming? Or, since Tidal only seems to offer FLAC on its own app and not the BluOS defeat the purpose since you need to transmit by Bluetooth instead of ethernet?
Currently, I stream from Tidal over direct ethernet cable to a Bluesound Vault streamer, to a McIntosh amp and Revel speakers. I have a trial membership to Qobuz but I find Tidal has a much better catalog. Since Tidal added Flac I thought it would be the obvious choice moving forward, but isn't the point of FLAC defeated since you need to send wirelessly from the Tidal app over Bluetooth?
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My kids like Tidal better for EDM and RAP. I also think their interface and song suggestion algorithms are pretty sweet.
They are missing some Dylan albums which is really lamo. They just don't sound as good as Qobuz. There MQA was just nasty.
Tidal has a new high res service which I haven't tried. I am paying 10 bucks a month on Qobuz, it is $20 on Tidal - BUT Tidal's family plan (up to 6 people) is $30 per month and it appears that you DO NOT have to live in same house. Qobuz you MUST LIVE under the same roof for their family plan.
Tough choice. |
@gkelly I did demo the Rose 150, but I was in the middle of changing the entire system - amp, pre, speakers, t table etc, so maybe I didn't give the Rose a fair chance. Since then I have done more research and it seems like much of the hype around the Rose was the screen and there were better stand alone dac's at that price. In addition, I like the BluOS better than the rose OS. So now that I have the system i want and have started using both Tidal and Qobuz, I want to start looking at dacs again. |
I think I can add to this conversation and clear up a lot of confusion.. Had a Node 2i at one time. Bluetooth is not involved when you use the BluOs app nor is it when you use Tidal Direct app. With either method, the music is via wifi to the streamer and then internal DAC of your Vault. The only difference is the control app. With BluOS you have more than one way to control it. With an Ipad/Iphone as your control device, you likely will prefer the BlueOS interface as it shows a better multiple album view appearance with than Tidal Direct. With a laptop, (Mac) as a control device, they are similar. Upgrading the power supply of the vault will have some benefit, getting a better outboard DAC will also have some benefit. To my mind the Bluesound products are a good entry point into the streaming world and their chief attraction is the low cost and ability to control multiple vaults/nodes/powered speakers in multiple locations. If you only listen to your main system then you can improve much with a better streamer and DAC but you will loose the BlueOS operating system. Each streamer has it's own operating system. My first upgrade from the Node was a Lumin Streamer. I currently use an Auralic and prefer the user interface to the Lumin. |
Had tidal right when it came out...loved it. Then I started getting error messages regarding multiple users. Tried to debug it. Dumped tidal, went to qobuz. Have not looked back, and that was probably 3 years ago. I have 2k+ CDs ripped to flac. Qobuz & ripped cds via Roon takes care of it all flawlessly. Don't underestimate the greatness of Roon....btw I have a Teddy ps on my RME. Really widened the soundstage quite noticably
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