Best Transport for Tidal

The only streamer, (it's not really a transport) that I have heard that I liked better than my Sonos Connect, was the Auralic Aries.

I really liked the operating system MUCH better than the Sonos and it did indeed sound fuller and more open.

Excellent unit.

Thank you. That was one of my top choices.
Probably going to buy one soon.

Here's my setup: Tidal App downloaded to my iPad from iTunes. iPad connected to an Oppo BDP 103D via HDMI adapter. Oppo is then hooked up to an Auralic Vega via SDIF connection. Sounds wunderbar!

ickstream through a squezebox supports it. Thats is what I have been using and its pretty sweet. Listening so much, I am looking for a modwright transport. Figure the tubes will look pretty all lit up.

Cerrot- I think you'll like the modwright transport. I'm using one to play files from my Musicvault server and it also sounds pretty darn good w the Pandora1 (the higher bit-rate service). Can someone tell me in fairly basic terms what I need to do to get this ickstream/tidal thing going. Right now I have jriver on my music server which is wired to my wireless router and the MW transport connects wirelessly to the router. I'd love to give tidal a try.

Swamp...it is detailed it here.

It's really pretty easy to do.

Here is the ickstream official forum pages.

You need to have LMS (Logitech Media Server) running on your computer. Ickstream is a 3rd party plug-in that goes into LMS. I found LMS version 7.8 to work the best.

On the links I provided above, just follow the directions. If you have any questions, look through the forum pages first, then post your question, if you can't find it.

The ickstream dudes are fantastic to work with and are pretty quick to fix problems.

I finally gave up with my Squeezebox Duet, (they told me that unit had a lot of unique problems that other models didn't have). I bought a Sonos Connect and haven't had a single issue with it and it sounds superb.

Good luck...

Thx, Mofi. I'm running LMS on my MusicVault so I'll check out those links and see what happens.

Would there be much difference between Sonos, Bluesound, or Ipad, for Tidal use only, if runnung through DAC on Aesthetix Romulus? Thanks

Mofimadness,
did you also notice a difference in the sound quality connecting Usb vs CoAx or optical

Beshair...I never tried the USB, but I did compare the coax and optical outputs of the Sonos Connect. I found the coax to be much better sounding. I tried several different optical cables, but really didn't like it.

My only experience is Tidal on Auralic Aries to DAC. Just be careful because the Aries requires an Ipad (not Iphone yet) or Andriod device to run (anything, including Tidal). There is no computer interface.

In my experience the Aries has been very good. However I can only compare the playback of CD through the same DAC via a Musical Fidelity A5 acting as transport to the Aries and it is comparable. So close that I wouldn't venture into stating a difference. Whether your Sonos would compare I do not know.

Did you test the auralic aries using tidal using 24 bits as the sonos is a 20bit resolution.

Auralic recommends usb connection which the sonos does not even have one.

Streaming is not as good as the player and running through a squeezebox or other device via a 3rd party plugin seems best. I think you can maximize the browser playing buy shutting everything off and not touching your keyboard but streamed music via a download connection is easilly effected by alot of things. I see the downloaded player being a lot better and I'd LOVE to tear it apart but I am using the squezebox so just hanging for know. Listening to music has not been this fulfilling since I got my first radio! Eyeing the auralic, etc but I suspect and hope Magnun Dynalab or some of the other big boys team up with tidal to offer something soon.

Swamp walker

Contact Neal at Musicvault. He can remotely reconfigure your MV to stream Tidal. He did it for me although to be honest I think Tidal sounds better streaming through my Auralic Aries.

Good Luck

Scifi

Thx, Scifi. I may just do that. I installed the ickplayer plug-in and installed the tidal player on my MV server. Now I see ickstream under My Apps on my transporter, but Tidal is nowhere to be found.

Swamp...you don't install the Tidal webplayer. You install the Tidal App into ickstream. You have to follow kind of closely the instructions when you get ickstream installed, then install the Tidal App.

Once you choose ickstream on the Squeezebox, you will get a sub directory that has the Tidal App in it.

I agree with Scifi, have Neal do it, that's part of his service when you buy the MV.

I got it going but I'm getting a dropout about every 10-20 seconds. I'll probably turn it over to Neal tomorrow.

Swamp...that's the same problem I had on my Duet and finally gave up and bought a Sonos.

I'm sure that Neal will be able to help.

I realized that I still had the Tidal player running on the MV. When I shut that down this a.m. it seemed much better. I'm streaming wirelessly from the MV to a MW Transporter and I have all of my CDs ripped to the MV, so I'm not about to trash that set-up for Sonos. If I can't get tidal to work right, I'll drop it. I know it's heresy, but I really enjoy listening to Pandora. No commercials and very acceptable SQ. So I'll live happily w that if that's the only thing that works.