@laaudionut "...I usually stream Tidal via my MacBook Air to a DAC"
Understandable question and reasoning. Yep, tried it both ways with A) MacBook Air (noisy) direct to DAC and B) via OSX client for Mac running Tidal on a quality streamer. Yes, agree, the native laptop application in landscape view on a Mac offers more capability, visibility, control vs. iPad or iPhone. Same with other service providers like Apple Lossless HiFi, Amazon HD... I search tracks and create playlists on the Mac laptop (easier to do) and play back playlists later on an iPad or iPhone if i’m not searching or creating playlists, fwiw.
+1 what others said, its much nicer and more musical using a purpose built streamer setup with audio grade power supplies/filtering inside. Get a nice streamer, connect to your streamer from your laptop with the Tidal app from there. Use of a streamer with a quality DAC built-in to the streamer or a separate higher quality external DAC can help the sound notably. If you are a true analog/vinyl fan today, you’ll see members posting about R2R ladder DACs striving for a less grainy sound. Getting your noisy MacBook Air out of the streamer role, shift its’ use to client/app control will help. Hundreds of threads on A’gon about good streamers and DACs people like. Best of luck.