Lyngdorf TDAI-3400

Here’s a late opinion about how to make tdai-3400 sound its best.

I’ve had the tdai-3400 for half a year, and found it to be great. Without roomperfect it is so-so, but with it sounds wonderful. Thats not surprising and has been written several times.

I’ve primarily used it with a 400gb usb stick at the back (but also with direct ethernet streaming), both because it was cheap and because I thought the sound could not get better than this (no noise from upstream units etc.). But I was wrong.

To satisfy my curiosity whether there was something to gain I bought the Schiit Eitr USB-to-spdif converter. I believe it both galvanically isolates, buffers and reclocks the usb signal. I then play usb out from an odroid xu4 (with kodi currently) -> Eitr -> Lyngdorf coax in. After letting it play for a couple of days there is no doubt, the sound is in a higher class; everything is tightened up, clearer and smoother, better precision and more 3d, I can now sometimes hear sounds coming from strange places behind me which I could not before. The difference is quite obvious.

And the kicker is that the Eitr is only 100$ on sale from Schiit. I spent a lot of time googling before I bought it, and there are several competitors including a singxer and a mutec, but the Schiit seemed on level with the best and at the lowest price. The general opinion seems to me to be that streamers up to around the auralic g1 will benefit from the Eitr, meaning sms200, microrendu, the small Innous will benefit, and sms200 ultra, ultrarendu etc. likely also. But it is of course subjective and not every opinion read can be trusted.

I’ve read some debate whether the stuff upstream from the Eitr matters at all - Schiit says no, but some say they hear a difference with both source and usb cable. My odroid xu4 is not especially audiophile or anything, its maybe similar to the raspberry 4. I’ve bought a special usb cable so I can inject very clean 5v usb power to the eitr (it uses a little bit of power from the source, 100mA I think), but I can’t yet say it there is any benefit to it yet (don’t yet have a good 5v power supply) - but a few say it benefits. I am curious to test it with a better source, the Allo USbridge signature would be a cheapish option.

I don’t doubt those who say that an excellent dac (I believe I’ve read > 2000$) into the upgraded analog inputs on the tdai may be the very best, but the price is also in another league.

So, if anyone is using usb in to the tdai-3400/2170, or streaming directly to it, i’d say try the Eitr with any usb source, you may be surprised.

Note: the Eitr will be discontinued, thats why it is only 100$ now. Schiit supposedly have invented something thats a bit better, but they say they won’t put it in a separate unit like the Eitr, only build it into their own dacs. I have no relation to Schiit what so ever, and I don’t have any other Schiit gear, but I find the Eitr to be crazy value for the money.

Any more opinions on this? I have a 3400 and am looking to get the best sound quality from Tidal and Qobuz. Ethernet directly into the 3400 and run Roon? Or dedicated streamer from Lumin, Innuos, Auralic, etc, with USB or AES into the Lyngdorf?

I had the TDAI-3400 for about a year and used only the on board DAC for streaming (Innuous Zenith III) and was pretty happy with it until I tried the Mytek Manhattan 2 DAC.  It's a lot more expensive as a stand alone DAC but the improvements in sound were profound.  
My point is that you might want to explore some stand alone DACs to get the best sound from this amp.  The Schitt Yggy is a high bang for the buck DAC as one example.  Mytek Brooklyn is another one to consider.  Buy one from a seller that allows a trial and the risk is low.
A stand alone music server will also sound much better than streaming directly into the Lyngdorf.  

I am very late to this party, but I just purchased a TDAI-3400.

Until a few weeks ago, prior to moving into a new house, I had been listening exclusively to losslessly ripped CDs, played in Apple Music/iTunes --> NAD M51 DAC --> Pass XA30.5 --> Spatial Audio M1 Turbo S speakers. It is a great setup that sounded fantastic for many years in my old house. However, in the new house, it sounded completely different. Most notably, the soundstage was compressed, the bass was severely lacking, and something was off about the lower midrange.  

I have one media wall in the new house with the one audio system for television, movies and music. In this house room treatment is not an option and speaker placement is limited. In researching room correction software, the Lyngdorf caught my attention. That gave me "the bug" and got me interested in streaming, which I had never incorporated, which got me looking at a number of all-in-one units. But Lyngdorf's Room Perfect put it in the top spot for  to try.

My initial thought was to use something like the Lyngdorf standalone for TV and movies, but output to the Pass amplifier for critical music listening. Based on recommendations in one of the posts on this site, I contacted Neal Van Berg at Sound Science, a Lyngdorf dealer. He was awesome to speak with, fully supported my idea and allowed me to do an in-home trial, and provided lots of help and insights along the way.

I set up the Lyngdorf and ran Room Perfect. It could not have been easier, and the difference it made blew my mind. I wasn't expecting it to be that profound. But what was more surprising to me is this. I had just assumed the Pass amp would sound much better than the TDAI for destination music listening. And I do prefer the Pass on some music - especially some favorite female vocals, for example. But the more I go back and forth between listening to Lyngdorf-->Pass vs. Lyngdorf on its own, the more I am enjoying the complete Lyngdorf sound. I would say that it is at least as enjoyable as the Pass on a lot if not most music I listen to.

I'm also having a blast with Tidal and Qobuz via Roon as well. In fact, I am listening to more music now than I have in a long time. And there is  nothing fatiguing about the TDAI's sound, which seems to be a common concern with Class D. I find the Lyngdorf sound to be quite open, natural and relaxed. And there are numerous ways it allows you to tweak your sound through voicings you can customize via parametric EQ.

Conclusion: I plan to keep the Pass amp for certain listening sessions, but if the Pass had to go away I could be very happy with the TDAI-3400 on its own. I am keeping it.

Hi all,

I am thinking of getting the TDAI-3400 as an all in one unit and plug in a USB stick or HDD and let it play my music files.  Is the unit processing powerful enough to make music selection / playing a smooth experience compared to Roon?

I am also look at the Naim Uniti Nova as another choice..

Thanks!