2. digital
  3. 174025-96382

Improvement of MacBook Air for Streaming Tidal

OK, admittedly I am a bit ignorant on streaming digital. My analogue gear and knowhow is up to par, but digital...not quite. When not listening to vinyl, for ease of use I usually stream Tidal via my MacBook Air to a DAC (Hegel HD30), then to a preamp(Aric Audio Motherlode) then to amp(Coda Model 16) to speakers(TAD CE1’s). I like how easy it is to navigate my Tidal account and library via the MacBook, but I am also smart enough(I believe) to know that I am losing a lot of the fidelity having to use the USB port out of my laptop.

I ask my audio brethren, what are reasonably priced solutions to raise my digital methodologies so that I get the most out of Tidal?

 

I thank you in advance for your assistance!

laaudionut

Showing 1 response by sbank

sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 

@laaudionut that's good advice. If you can't visit a good dealer w/ multiple streamers, I suggest searching the archives for RECENT threads. This has been answered in gory detail 50 times or more in the last year. They'll all boil down to Raspberry Pi variations and better Intel NUCs for the diy-inclined, budget blusound boxes for low cost simplicity, then stepping to SGC Sonictransporters and Sonore Rendu variants for those looking to leverage large libraries maybe with NAS. Bigger budgets will look at Innous Zen, Aurenders and Lumins. Read up and match your budget & priorities and chances are probably your answer is gonna end up being one of those mentioned above. 

Cheers,

Spencer

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