tidal in a Mac mini dac system

Posted by: elkman70 on 17 September 2016

Hi,

i currently use two sources:

1) cds3

2) hdd into Mac mini with iTunes into asynchronous dac into amp, controlled with an iPad with remote 

I am thinking of possibly getting tidal. How can I best make this work and control from iPad using the kit listed in point 2 above.

Regards, 

Nick

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by dayjay

 

Its easy, get Audirvana, and Audirvana remote.  Tidal is really well integrated into Audirvana, as is Qobuz for that matter, and it sounds almost as good as local files.  Whilst you're at it I would also cease using iTunes for better quality playback.  You can try Audirvana and Tidal for free.

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by GregW

You should also try Roon. It will seamlessly manage your own local library with Tidal. The metadata, including lyrics support and metadata management are superb. 

I''ve used Audirvana since version 1, I think it's great, but Roon is better imo.

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by AndyL
dayjay posted:

 

Its easy, get Audirvana, and Audirvana remote.  Tidal is really well integrated into Audirvana, as is Qobuz for that matter, and it sounds almost as good as local files.  Whilst you're at it I would also cease using iTunes for better quality playback.  You can try Audirvana and Tidal for free.

+1

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by elkman70

Thanks all. Audirvana and tidal on trial. Seems to work well. Are there any settings I should consider?

Regards,

Nick

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by dayjay

Personally I use it in stand alone mode rather than with iTunes, this I believe gives the best quality sound.  Up sampling to DSD has received a good reception on here if you have sufficient memory and its worth trying out the two different modes to see which you prefer - I use mode 2 which sounds slightly better to me.

Posted on: 17 September 2016 by AndyL
elkman70 posted:

Thanks all. Audirvana and tidal on trial. Seems to work well. Are there any settings I should consider?

Regards,

Nick

I prefer to check Maximum Sample Rate Upsampling rather than DSD upsampling (YMMV)

select Exclusive access mode, Direct mode, Integer mode and SYSOptimizer

if you get dropouts try reducing the 'Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre-load'

if you lose the initial second of playback on a track, set 'Spl rate switching latency' to '2s'