Yes, I was doing Roon/Amarra for Tidal>Mac mini via USB>PS Audio PWD.

Yeah, I don't completely understand why there's even a difference at all with any of software client. I get why a DAC would make a difference, but only sort of get why the software client would. Don't really know.

I like Roon a lot, except for the crazy price. IIRC, they use Meridian's audio engine? I thought it sounded very good, and in one night, rediscovered a bunch of music both in Tidal and in my NAS collection.

Still, because of the price, I actually had planned on doing the trial then cancelling before being charged. Silly me, I forgot to cancel and then saw the charge come through while I was on vacation. Can't say I was very upset, though. I was actually kind of glad! I think I know what Freud would say about that... [emoji12]

Spent a couple hours with Roon and I'm impressed. I cruised around my collection more or less like I would with real vinyl records. That's a pretty giant leap forward for me. Being able to seamlessly go between my files and Tidal's is great. I really like what they're doing with metadata. The suggestions, the radio feature, all cool. And who knew I had six performances of Leonard 'hallelujah!' I'm not in love with the UI. It feels like an of the shelf WordPress theme to me. But it's getting the job done.

There are some technical issues for me. I don't think it will run on my current VortexBox. So, the plan at the moment is to run RoonServer on my file server and keep the data store and the other servers on the music server. If I can work that out, Roon gets my $120 a year.

FYI: Tidal has a "Friends and Family" deal where the primary member pays the full amount and you can add on up to 3-5 more people for half price (5$ for poor people music, 10$ for FLAC.) If anyone wants to go in on this, we could bring down the per-person cost a bit (2 for 30$, 3 for 40$, 4 for 50$, 5 (possibly) for 60$) which would make the cost for Roon basically what most of us are paying anyways.

Post up if anyone is interested and we can take it from there.

**BRENT**

I'd be interested in the friends and family deal Brent.  Thanks

So I've downloaded Roon and got a trial subscription to Tidal.  So far, I'm impressed.

The interface on my PC and iPhone are great.  I don't feel constrained using the iPhone.  I really am playing music I haven't listened to in for ever  

The synchronization across devices is excellent.  I can see the zone support really working out nice for me as well. For now I have the server installed on my desktop, but this will change in the future.  This is pretty much what I've been looking for so thanks for highlighting this here

The sound quality seems great, but I haven't done any comparisons to JRiver yet.  I've got a bit of a cold still so I'll wait on that.

going into geek mode now...

It's got some nice integration features as well.  I'm going to have to build a Raspberry PI 3 bridge to AMB's γ24.  I think I can take the I2S stream straight from the PI into the DAC through some galvanic isolators or put it through an ASRC first (not sure if this would help yet).  I want to look at integrating the volume into the DAC as well. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/50hp8l/free_3_months_of_tidal_via_sennheisers_captune/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sennheiser.captune&hl=en

indeed

 

^ Thanks. 

Meanwhile ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3787181/Jay-Zs-streaming-service-Tidal-posts-huge-losses.html

That'll be a huge test for Roon. Streaming services will come and go. That's the way of things. Will Roon be able to integrate the next one? If yes, huge win for all of us. Otherwise, it's back to each equipment maker to cobble something together.

But the way, a cool feature in Roon is the ability to expert a complete listing of all your albums in Tidal in a spreadsheet. (Which MIGHT even turn out to be inportable in the next service. At the least, it will be a reasonable cut and paste job. )

I remember recreating my MOG connection into Tidal from screenshots. Ugh. To me, getting past your collection being ephemeral is one of the biggest obstacles to the streaming model.

On 8/26/2016 at 4:37 PM, MexicanDragon said:

FYI: Tidal has a "Friends and Family" deal where the primary member pays the full amount and you can add on up to 3-5 more people for half price (5$ for poor people music, 10$ for FLAC.) If anyone wants to go in on this, we could bring down the per-person cost a bit (2 for 30$, 3 for 40$, 4 for 50$, 5 (possibly) for 60$) which would make the cost for Roon basically what most of us are paying anyways.

Post up if anyone is interested and we can take it from there.

**BRENT**

 

On 8/28/2016 at 10:22 AM, Kerry said:

I'd be interested in the friends and family deal Brent.  Thanks

So next weekend I think we're going to give this whole "d-_-b Family Tidal Plan" thing a shot; anyone else want in?

**BRENT**

Yeah sure, why not. In for a lossless sub.

*Do not waste your money on Amarra for Tidal*, my gosh what a piece of shit this software is. It's pathetically slow and very heavy on memory. Does it improve the sound? Not sure, not by a lot in any case. Irrelevant I'd say when it works this poorly. It shouldn't be that hard, I think the Sonic studio folks just don't care. 

Their customer support sure doesn't care about you if you have a problem, that's for sure. 

 

So MQA finally came to Tidal.

Now what the fuck is MQA?

1 hour ago, TMoney said:

So MQA finally came to Tidal.

Now what the fuck is MQA?

"The new HDCD" ?

A licensing money grab by meridian? /s 

https://archimago.blogspot.ca/2016/10/musings-keeping-it-simple-mqa-is-codec.html

https://archimago.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-response-re-mqa-blocking-of-meridians.html

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/04/the-mqa-revolution-brother-you-have-to-wait-and-see/

gush ...

http://www.mqa.co.uk/

http://www.whathifi.com/advice/mqa-audio-what-it-how-can-you-get-it

I'm pretty sure that MQA is the new rave drug.

It's yet another non-inter-compatible lossless compression format.  Like FLAC and Apple lossless wasn't enough.

Bacon.

It's another format cashgrab. The only reason it's known is due to some highly connected ex-Dolby peeps behind it.

Streamers are desperate for a differentiation factor, so they grab every straw they get.

Credit: I work for a company which might be able to deliver the superweapon the streamers need. And it doesn't involve selling all your gear/music. Thus we're sort of competing with MQA, even though our methods can be compatible.

Bacon.

Agreed.

Can I still be adopted by Brent for a Hi-Fi membership?  The MQA files come with different colored lights, and by God I need those in my life.

Not as much adoption as Ponzi scheme, but PM me. Still have a couple slots.

**BRENT**

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

I'm not sure I can hear a difference between MQA and standard Tidal lossless in casual listening but as long as MQA is included in the lossless plan I already have then no complaints from me.

I have noticed that some of the MQA albums they've been posting are better masters than some of the "remastered" dynamically compressed shit that has been there before but that has nothing to do with the MQA format and everything to do with the dynamic range of the baseline master.

The HiFi content is 44.1/16 only correct?  Nothing higher than that?

I think the MQA format itself is 16/44 but once it is unpacked by the decoder it is 24/96.

ahh, ok.  I wasn't going to give it a try but now I will.  

I have a ripped SACD of "Rumours", and just compared the MQA version.  Definitely a different master, appears to also be different from the 16/44 FLAC I have.  I'm not very obsessed over versions of albums, as a rule, but I thought it was worth mentioning.  I couldn't say which one I prefer, but the MQA version was good enough to merit a full playthrough.