Let me share my experience with Volumio and Tidal and hopefully it can be of help to you.
I tried MyVolumio for a couple months because of the “native” integration but after realizing how painfully bad it was I decided to cancel the subscription.
It was much better to use bubbleUPnp and simple direct stream to Volumio without requiring a subscription which I found not worthy. Yes it was limited to 44.1-48khz but it simply worked well and was very inexpensive.
I had great expectations for the Tidal Connect implementation and waited for it anxiously, finally a way to stream from the Tidal App at high-res.
But what a disappointed it was. Due to Tidal license model it does not stream beyond 48hkz. For that you need a MQA capable DAC and to be honest I’m not convinced of that marketing first technology.
It’s a fact MQA is not a lossless format and it’s simply a marketing gimmick by Tidal to make money in detrimental of music.
So I gave Qobuz a chance and what a wonderful surprise it’s much much better than Tidal in all aspects.
It streams Flac up to 192khz and is true lossless and you can stream from bubble upnp to Volumio without a subscription.
So, my advice is that give a try to Qobuz and stop using Tidal. Tidal is lying and abusing with MQA.
Just a few remarks…I don’t want to have another discussion about MQA.
MQA needs special hardware. That’s no secret and was never denied by them. And they want to earn money. Is that shameless?
Tidal is a business.
Qobuz is a business.
Volumio is a (small) business.
MQA is a business.
So what?
And especially Volumio is work in progress. So let them work. And as long as people think 2.99/month is a huge amount I am quite sure that the MQA licence fees are to high for Volumio.
And everyone who tries to tell me, that all these charges for streaming services and hardware are immoral…think back a few years.
Finally: For me Qobuz is also the best possible option! But my fear is, in competition with the giants Spotify, Amazon and Apple: How long will this niche survive?
But I would never give an advice to cancel A for B. Sometimes I like the sound of Tidal more. Don’t ask me why. And why not both?
MQA isnt a scam. But its also not a codec. Its a process. The MQA datastream is embedded in the audio of any lossless codec, and as such, the audio stream will be modified. The modification means its never going to give you a bit perfect output from the master, but the MQA process has already modified that anyway, even without that modification!
You can’t analyze MQA like a codec, because it isnt. Everyone that tries to seems to call MQA a scam and never listens to it! The reviewers that use their ears instead of a digital analysis seem to really like it. In my own tests, MQA sounds great to me.
As for Tidal vs Qobuz, I tried both and liked and liked Tidal better. I am not saying anyone should use one over the other. Use your own ears and try both, but remember that Tidal will sound better with an MQA DAC and will use a lot less data.
I am upgrading my old dacmagic for new high resolution DAC. People may not like MQA but not spending hundreds on one that doesn’t include support. The tidal player interface and library is better (using PC and phone app) and is pretty inexpensive.
How are you streaming from Qobuz? I was asking in another thread, but there is no support or option for volumio in output devices (to my raspberry pi 4).
I’m not sure anyone would be able to hear the difference between 96 and 192kHz so is mostly for bragging rights
I do not know if I understand you correctly.
In the paid ! Volumio options (Virtuoso or Superstar) you will find Qobuz (and Tidal) integrated.
But direct from the Qobuz app there is now way.
The way I handle it day by day is putting albums, playlists or tracks in my Qobuz favorites and then choose it in Volumio. But also Qobuz direct via Volumio works. The information you get via the very good Qobuz app of course you do not find all in Volumio.
Yes that works I discovered, just like an album etc.
I found out on the PC I can search within volumio and brings up results within the Qobuz area. Seems to Play it full hi res too so it works well enough
