Basic Tidal streamer to USB DAC


Forgive me if I'm broaching a topic that has been addressed many times before, but I've been searching through the forums and can't quite find what I'm looking for.

I currently use a MacBook Pro running Audirvana Plus to stream Tidal directly viA USB to my DAC.  I want to eliminate the MacBook from this chain and instead use a basic network streamer that I can control from an iPhone or iPad to stream Tidal to the DAC.  The DAC is USB only so this streamer must have a USB out.

I can't seem to find a basic streamer that does just this and only this.  I don't need a DAC in the streamer, and I really don't understand all the other Roon business and all that.  I just want to stream Tidal to my DAC without using a laptop.

Any recommendations?  Thanks for your help.

zm

Showing 2 responses by nekoaudio

There are two primary ways of streaming Tidal from a phone/tablet to a network streamer, connected to your DAC.

The first way is to run the Tidal app on your mobile device and use an audio streaming protocol like AirPlay to send the data from your mobile to the streamer. You just need an AirPlay-compatible streamer or similar for that.

The second way is to sign-in to Tidal within the network streamer's app. So you will use the streamer's app to pick what music to play from Tidal.

The benefit to the first approach is greater product compatibility and using the Tidal app. The downside is you'll be limited to whatever codec the streaming protocol uses, which will possibly involve resampling and re-encoding. Just search for any product that lists AirPlay and has USB digital output.

The benefit to the second approach is the original audio data will be sent to the network streamer. The downside is you may not like the user interface of the streamer's app. For this you the streamer's product information must explicitly say Tidal is natively supported, and has USB digital output. You will want to research the streamer's app before purchasing, in case it turns out you really do not like using the app.

Roon is just an advanced software package for navigating and playing your music, from local files or streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz. It has some additional features but they're probably of little interest to you right now.
AirPlay has always been reliable for me as long as the network is reliable. Using 802.11b Wi-Fi to stream music from an old, underpowered computer can be a problem. That being said, I've gotten audible benefit to re-clocking AirPlay S/PDIF data signals with some DACs.

@zm I think the Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra does do what you're looking for, but I haven't tried it myself so I'm just going by the documentation. Pro-Ject's products have always been good quality in my experience.