Getting Tidal Onto LR System

Posted by: Tallan on 07 July 2016

My main system is currently a Nait XS2 as pre-amp to NAP 200, and my digital sources are a UnitiServe + NAS into a nDAC with associated power supplies, etc. My question is what would be the optimal (simple and fairly cheap) way to bring Tidal's music service into this chain? Both Ethernet and ACGN WiFi are available. I understand that the UnitiServe is basically a dedicated Windows XP client; is there any way to load and control Tidal on it? Failing that are there any fairly inexpensive music streamers which support Tidal? And finally related to that will the USB inputs on the nDAC support input from such a streamer's USB output? I seem to remember reading somewhere on the Naim site that USB on the DAC was ONLY for Apple's i-devices and USB stick drives.

(I much prefer NOT streaming Tidal from an iPhone or iPad, etc.)

Any suggestions or pointers in the right direction will be much appreciated.

Posted on: 07 July 2016 by Brubacca

If you want something to just plug in and work I would say:

Bluesound Node 2 - about $500 usd

Sonos has something similar I think called connect

Auralic Aries Mini

These should be fairly easy to get going and you could feed their digital out to the Ndac

If you don'the mind a little elbow grease you could try one of the Sonore devices - Sonicorbiter SE is about $350

If you want a ton of work try a Rapsberry PI- about $100 and possibly some serious time.

All my solution are looking to use Optical on the nDac

Posted on: 07 July 2016 by Tallan

Many thanks for this. After quite a lot of review scanning I decided to go with the Auralic Aries Mini which comes with a free year of Tidal content ("a $240 value!!" they crow. It slices, it dices!!). As getting Tidal into my nDAC is my primary goal the Mini seems like just the ticket. And in the great Naim tradition a better power supply is available down the road as an extra cost option. Plus the unit can be fitted internally with either a regular or SSD hard drive making it into a mini-NAS, both steps I may take eventually.

Again, many thanks.

Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Brubacca

Good choice. Enjoy. Let us know how it sounds.