TOPIC:

Maybe there’s another feature request in here - For VolumeIO/SHD to natively support the Chromecast protocol. This way, you wouldn’t need to buy another streamer (Chromecast) only to stream to a very fine streamer that we already have (SHD)

Harryharryharry wrote:

If anyone is really impatient you can have the same effect as tidal connect but using a Google Chromecast (doesn't need to be Chromecast audio,I picked up a standard second gen for £7) and cheap hdmi to toslink/coax adapter.

I've done this for less than £20 and it works well. I wasn't expecting Tidal connect for some time and really hate the volumio app and this bypasses it almost completely.

You can even control the volume as you'd expect normally from tidal or your phone's rocker.

Aren't you streaming via another device (phone, laptop etc) rather than directly to the SHD with this approach? I'm also a little hesitant about this approach from an audio quality perspective given the multiple devices and format changes involved. Perhaps you have compared to streaming directly via Volumio though?

I think the main benefit the OP was pointing out was the ability to use the Tidal native phone app as a controller and the SHD as the (final) streamer.

Unlike Airplay (which goes through the phone) I believe Chromecast goes from the source (Tidal) directly to the streamer.

You are correct though, that the CCA protocol is limited to CD quality. So I am unsure how it will handle MQA files or high Rez audio

Yes your phone acts as a remote control in chrome cast. And it's an all digital chain into the SHD so not much to worry about sound quality.

I've also been recently enlightened from reading on the audio science review forum that there no benefit for music playback and human hearing in having higher than CD quality.

There's also some very detailed analysis of MQA which shows it actually adds a lot of distortion.

Quite a relief when you realise CD is good enough and no need to stress about the rest!

Does Chromecast support gapless playback?

@murtazao note that my post was in response to suggesting using a Google Chromecast rather that a Chromecast Audio. As you're probably aware, they are different.

Harryharryharry wrote:

Yes your phone acts as a remote control in chrome cast. And it's an all digital chain into the SHD so not much to worry about sound quality.

Not necessarily .

Harryharryharry wrote:

I've also been recently enlightened from reading on the audio science review forum that there no benefit for music playback and human hearing in having higher than CD quality.

There's also some very detailed analysis of MQA which shows it actually adds a lot of distortion.

Which is why I use Qobuz rather than Tidal. What I want to see is a form of 'Qobuz Connect' .

Harryharryharry wrote:

Quite a relief when you realise CD is good enough and no need to stress about the rest!

Note that using CD quality options from Tidal doesn't universally avoid MQA, and it's becoming increasingly hard to do so.

I get what is being said about the Chomecast being useful as a Tidal endpoint, but it isn’t gapless and it ties up a valuable physical input. Volumio now supports this natively, so if we want to see it implemented in SHD series devices we have to let miniDSP know (via email/ticket, not on this forum).

Ultrasonic wrote:

@murtazao note that my post was in response to suggesting using a Google Chromecast rather that a Chromecast Audio. As you're probably aware, they are different.

Harryharryharry wrote:

Yes your phone acts as a remote control in chrome cast. And it's an all digital chain into the SHD so not much to worry about sound quality.

Not necessarily .

Harryharryharry wrote:

I've also been recently enlightened from reading on the audio science review forum that there no benefit for music playback and human hearing in having higher than CD quality.

There's also some very detailed analysis of MQA which shows it actually adds a lot of distortion.

Which is why I use Qobuz rather than Tidal. What I want to see is a form of 'Qobuz Connect' .

Harryharryharry wrote:

Quite a relief when you realise CD is good enough and no need to stress about the rest!

Note that using CD quality options from Tidal doesn't universally avoid MQA, and it's becoming increasingly hard to do so.

@Ultrasonic : In the a volume update thread you mentioned the following :

Ultrasonic wrote:

Although with Tidal's increasing use of MQA I'd personally avoid using their service on sound quality grounds anyway.

I'm not sure what you mean with that....would you say that a FLAC file in Tidal sounds worse than a FLAC file from another streaming platform ? I'm a bit lost with all these existing formats ( FLAC, DSD, MQA...)...I know Spotify just streams at 320kpbs...so clearly inferior to a FLAC file I guess....but on sound quality, is Qobuz better ?

Thanks.

Hoon wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean with that....would you say that a FLAC file in Tidal sounds worse than a FLAC file from another streaming platform ? I'm a bit lost with all these existing formats ( FLAC, DSD, MQA...)...I know Spotify just streams at 320kpbs...so clearly inferior to a FLAC file I guess....but on sound quality, is Qobuz better ?
 

Yes. Tidal's MQA is lossy, whereas the material on Qobuz uses lossless compression, and provides true high res. content. If you do a spot of Googling you'll find loads of discussion on this subject but the following is quite compelling and watchable:



Obviously different music streaming services have differences in their music library though so Tidal may well still be best for you.
 

Price differences may well vary between countries but I'll add that Qobuz also has the advantage of being significantly cheaper than Tidal for me (in the UK).

Still no update yet?

There hasn’t been a confirmation it’s possible or that it’s something they’re working on, despite Volumio launching Tidal Connect support eight months ago (April). 

TC support will be part of the announced Volumio 3 version for SHD.

gkkpch wrote:

TC support will be part of the announced Volumio 3 version for SHD.

Has there been an announcement that this will definitely be coming to the SHD Series yet?

Yes, there is an official statement that Volumio 3 is going to be released to OEM customers with a valid contract (with minidsp that should be fine).
What I can't give you is an ETA, Q1 2022 was indicated, but is not fixed.
Knowing the amount of work that needs to be done, Q1 should very well be feasible.