TOPIC:

For $16 USD you can run your TV through a TOSLINK to SPDIF converter . Since you’re already running your TV audio into the 2-channel SHD then that already cancels out any concerns over multi-channel codec compatibility (e.g. DTS vs  Dolby, etc.), and this supports up to 24/192. 

I already do this with my SHD. My TV optical output is set to 2-channel PCM, and then that gets converted to SPDIF before going into my SHD. This is because I want to leave the SHD’s TOSLINK port open for a direct connection since I place a much larger emphasis on making sure I have the best quality possible for music. Not that I’ve ever noticed any sort of bugs or quality degradation with that converter. It should be bit-perfect but I’ve never seen a test of one. 

The way you say "the vast majority of people don't pay for Roon" makes me curious.  Do you say this because you think it lacks performance or that its overpriced? 

My system sounds way better using Roon as an interface instead of SHD/Volumio..  Personal I dont find Roon to be very inexpensive at all,  given all that its capable of doing.

You obviously don't understand what tidal connect is. No worries sampling sounds better and you can't do that with roon. Also you are also ignoring the fact that they are doing this so that we are forced to layer subscription on top of subscription. MiniDSP is clearly favouring Roon because they probably get a percentage of the subscriptions used on the device

amirsag wrote:

The way you say "the vast majority of people don't pay for Roon" makes me curious.  Do you say this because you think it lacks performance or that its overpriced? 

My system sounds way better using Roon as an interface instead of SHD/Volumio..  Personal I dont find Roon to be very inexpensive at all,  given all that its capable of doing.

I don’t have a strong opinion on either its performance or price. I’m just going off the basic fact that Roon’s user base is minuscule compared to standard streaming services like Spotify and Tidal. I know the subset of Roon users among the population of SHD owners is much higher than the general public, but it still has to be quite a minority compared to those just using one layer of streaming. I don’t have any hard numbers, as you might suspect, but I think that’s a safe assumption.

Can you put your finger on what’s different between the two? Personally I would need measurements to consider something like that being anything but expectation bias. 

You completely blew past the point that Optical has quality reduction versus coaxial. That was actually my primary point, I'm aware there's adapters but again you're just making another excuse to have to tether another device that this device is absolutely capable of doing without anything else plugged into it and this company has refused to do it for over 2 years now at a price point that actually doesn't make sense compared to Matrix element. I wish I had bought that instead

djfirestorm wrote:

You completely blew past the point that Optical has quality reduction versus coaxial. That was actually my primary point, I'm aware there's adapters but again you're just making another excuse to have to tether another device that this device is absolutely capable of doing without anything else plugged into it and this company has refused to do it for over 2 years now at a price point that actually doesn't make sense compared to Matrix element. I wish I had bought that instead

You’re arguing with yourself here. I’m entirely uninterested in your conviction that optical always sounds worse than coaxial, and I wasn’t responding to you in my last post about Roon. 

I completely agree with you! There is zero reason anyone should have to buy an external streamer or use the single toslink input to do something the SHD should do on its own internally! miniDSP are slow and lagging well behind reasonable expectations. 

Okay it just seemed like the way you were wording that you are trying to argue that it's totally fine. Some people like to troll over features that we actually are supposed to have that don't exist. But at least you recognize that these are still valid. anyways minidsp is not going to get any more business or recommendations from me. 

amirsag wrote:

The way you say "the vast majority of people don't pay for Roon" makes me curious.  Do you say this because you think it lacks performance or that its overpriced? 

My system sounds way better using Roon as an interface instead of SHD/Volumio..  Personal I dont find Roon to be very inexpensive at all,  given all that its capable of doing.

Have you been using Roon for a long time? If you have then bear in mind it's much more expensive now than t used to be. For me it is wildly overpriced vs what I might consider for purely online music streaming. I can see more appeal for those with a locally stored music library. Its EQ capability is also a beneficial feature for those without miniDSPs. On the sound quality front I've read both positive and negative reports.

None of this relates to Tidal Connect though.

Well it’s funny the Wiim Mini is being mentioned here, as this is the exact temporary workaround I almost purchased. I even ordered it already, but after reading here and there the soundquality is more or less equal to the Google Chromecast, I decided to cancel my order. In my situation I just use bluetooth to directly stream to my dac. It’s not optimal either, but I wanted to save myself from the hassle of buying something now and having to resell it later on. 

That being said, I still think the Wiim Mini is a cool little streamer and my best guess is that you won’t lose too much money when reselling it later. 

I just like to discover new music through the Tidal native app algorithm, and perhaps later on add it into playlists and listen through Volumio. 








 

JohanMaa wrote:

Well it’s funny the Wiim Mini is being mentioned here, as this is the exact temporary workaround I almost purchased. I even ordered it already, but after reading here and there the soundquality is more or less equal to the Google Chromecast, I decided to cancel my order. In my situation I just use bluetooth to directly stream to my dac. It’s not optimal either, but I wanted to save myself from the hassle of buying something now and having to resell it later on. 

That being said, I still think the Wiim Mini is a cool little streamer and my best guess is that you won’t lose too much money when reselling it later. 

I just like to discover new music through the Tidal native app algorithm, and perhaps later on add it into playlists and listen through Volumio. 
 

We all operate on different budgets and appetite for admin like selling old gear, but for me skipping trading bluetooth for bit-perfect 24/192 into the SHD via Wiim Mini toslink would be an easy choice (especially since you might never sell it because miniDSP might never deliver Tidal Connect!).

I know the Wiim Mini toslink showed a hair of jitter on ASR, but that’s the only knock against it, and I bet that disappears once the SHD is done resampling that to 24/96. I’m sympathetic to the idea that most people probably can’t tell the difference between 320kbps from Spotify and any CD quality stream from Tidal, but Bluetooth is a whole different level of compression.  

Once again, the real point is you shouldn’t have to be using the Tidal native app for ease of use and music discovery via bluetooth, then save what you like to a playlist, and then go into Volumio to find it again. Volumio has had Tidal Connect for twelve months now. miniDSP is being negligent towards their flagship hardware. There’s no excuse.

notman wrote:

JohanMaa wrote:

Well it’s funny the Wiim Mini is being mentioned here, as this is the exact temporary workaround I almost purchased. I even ordered it already, but after reading here and there the soundquality is more or less equal to the Google Chromecast, I decided to cancel my order. In my situation I just use bluetooth to directly stream to my dac. It’s not optimal either, but I wanted to save myself from the hassle of buying something now and having to resell it later on. 

That being said, I still think the Wiim Mini is a cool little streamer and my best guess is that you won’t lose too much money when reselling it later. 

I just like to discover new music through the Tidal native app algorithm, and perhaps later on add it into playlists and listen through Volumio. 

 

We all operate on different budgets and appetite for admin like selling old gear, but for me skipping trading bluetooth for bit-perfect 24/192 into the SHD via Wiim Mini toslink would be an easy choice (especially since you might never sell it because miniDSP might never deliver Tidal Connect!).

I know the Wiim Mini toslink showed a hair of jitter on ASR, but that’s the only knock against it, and I bet that disappears once the SHD is done resampling that to 24/96. I’m sympathetic to the idea that most people probably can’t tell the difference between 320kbps from Spotify and any CD quality stream from Tidal, but Bluetooth is a whole different level of compression.  

Once again, the real point is you shouldn’t have to be using the Tidal native app for ease of use and music discovery via bluetooth, then save what you like to a playlist, and then go into Volumio to find it again. Volumio has had Tidal Connect for twelve months now. miniDSP is being negligent towards their flagship hardware. There’s no excuse.
 

"Volumio has had Tidal Connect for twelve months now. miniDSP is being negligent towards their flagship hardware. There’s no excuse."

THIS!!!!!!!!  WTF MINIDSP DEV TEAM?!?!?!  COMMENT PLEASE!!!! When can we actually expect to have the advertised functionality on your device???

Raccio14 wrote:

"Volumio has had Tidal Connect for twelve months now. miniDSP is being negligent towards their flagship hardware. There’s no excuse."

THIS!!!!!!!!  WTF MINIDSP DEV TEAM?!?!?!  COMMENT PLEASE!!!! When can we actually expect to have the advertised functionality on your device???

It would be nice to have an update but I'd be extremely surprised if there has ever been any miniDSP advertising to suggest Tidal Connect support.

Hi,

If  you want to use the native Android tidal app, use squeezelite/lms and install the lms connect app mentioned in the 3rd party software area on forums.slimdevices.com (only android) . That way you can "share" the selected music from tidal to lms and stream without any loss. Works great .

Greets
Christian
 

Michelangelo from Volumio here.

As you might know, your beloved MiniDSP products run a custom version of Volumio, namely Volumio OEM. Volumio OEM is a "special" version of Volumio that we develop and maintain for our partners. It is a special version because it integrates tailor-made code to allow perfect operation of the system, customizations at UX level, and much more.

Volumio OEM operates on a different logic and time schedule compared to ordinary Volumio. The reason is that on the OEM side, the main priority is to provide a flawless software and integration. When you purchase a ready-made product, the last thing you want is to have to deal with issues, which is instead something that is more acceptable in the DIY market. This means that what you see in Volumio, takes some more time to be ported also on OEM versions: only when it's 100% rock-solid and stable. On top of that, porting some features (like TC) require extra time just to get the necessary agreements and certifications with the service providers. 

I can understand the frustration of some of you who would love to see TIDAL Connect running on their MiniDSP units, and I am here to address what is the current situation. Although it has never been publicly announced, MiniDSP is pushing hard to make this happen, and Volumio Team and MiniDSP team are taking the necessary steps to do so. Those sorts of things require time and I am here to state that mainly the responsibility of this is on Volumio's side. 

I can assure you that MiniDSP is our most proactive partner and they are really involved in making it better, they have a strong feeling on what customers want and they push to make it happen. So, although we can't promise if and when this feature will come to your units, please know that MiniDSP and Volumio are working hard to make it happen.

I hope this helps to appreciate MiniDSP and Volumio's efforts to provide you guys with products that evolve over time, without sacrificing quality and stability. You can be sure that you purchased a system that will constantly evolve over time and has competent teams behind it, which I think is quite unique in today's market. 

 

mikelangeloz post=60494Michelangelo from Volumio here.

As you might know, your beloved MiniDSP products run a custom version of Volumio, namely Volumio OEM. Volumio OEM is a "special" version of Volumio that we develop and maintain for our partners. It is a special version because it integrates tailor-made code to allow perfect operation of the system, customizations at UX level, and much more.

Volumio OEM operates on a different logic and time schedule compared to ordinary Volumio. The reason is that on the OEM side, the main priority is to provide a flawless software and integration. When you purchase a ready-made product, the last thing you want is to have to deal with issues, which is instead something that is more acceptable in the DIY market. This means that what you see in Volumio, takes some more time to be ported also on OEM versions: only when it's 100% rock-solid and stable. On top of that, porting some features (like TC) require extra time just to get the necessary agreements and certifications with the service providers. 

I can understand the frustration of some of you who would love to see TIDAL Connect running on their MiniDSP units, and I am here to address what is the current situation. Although it has never been publicly announced, MiniDSP is pushing hard to make this happen, and Volumio Team and MiniDSP team are taking the necessary steps to do so. Those sorts of things require time and I am here to state that mainly the responsibility of this is on Volumio's side. 

I can assure you that MiniDSP is our most proactive partner and they are really involved in making it better, they have a strong feeling on what customers want and they push to make it happen. So, although we can't promise if and when this feature will come to your units, please know that MiniDSP and Volumio are working hard to make it happen.

I hope this helps to appreciate MiniDSP and Volumio's efforts to provide you guys with products that evolve over time, without sacrificing quality and stability. You can be sure that you purchased a system that will constantly evolve over time and has competent teams behind it, which I think is quite unique in today's market. 

 

Michelangelo,

Thank you so much for your reply.  Hopefully it's soon!  Last rumor was Q1 2022, and Q1 is over in 26 days!  

I understand that OEM software takes longer to get out, but over a year seems a bit excessive to me. 

.....
Ultimately, I still feel that if MiniDSP is advertising 24bit/96kHz input.... but not all sources are capable of that, then they needed to make that known in the spec sheet specifically what inputs are capable of the full capability, and which are not. 

If you only list the full capability, that implies ALL sources will be handled with that capability.  Any thing short of that IMO is quite frankly false advertisement.  

And the lies that 24bit/96k requires MQA hardware certified unfolding are strictly false. 
MQA certified unfolding hardware unlocks the absolute maximum rates available, even higher than 24/96.   

Regular PCs without MQA hardware still are capable of running Tidal at 24/96.  So is the SHD over USB.  
If the unit can do it with USB, it should be able to do it over Ethernet.