mconnect -> tidal -> streamer

[pd44]

I'm very happy today; I have a fantastic streamer/DAC - Cocktail Audio N25 - it has a really sweet sound - when nothing else is getting in the way resampling etc, e.g. AirPlay. Some of my ripped CDs (flacs) actually sound nicer through the N25 than through my CD player. Most of the other ripped CDs sound nearly as good.

Unfortunately Cocktail Audio went bust & their app was offloaded from my phone.

Previously I'd used this (quite poor) app to stream tidal & home-ripped music. What to do?

I crawled around on the floor for a while with the N25s remote & checking its display, but I thought there must be a better way, I'm getting too old for this!

Well, of course the streamer/DAC shows up on my LAN as a UPnP device. I use mconnect's "browser" function to browse my Tidal account. Then mconnect "Play to" & choose the N25 from the list of UPnP devices. Then hit "Play" 😀

It would appear that mconnect just sends the Tidal url to the N25 which goes & fetches the stream, so you get the full Tidal quality & no intermediate sampling. Phew!

If I want to listen to my local collection (which is on a USB disk plugged in to the N25) I choose the N25 UPnP server from the mconnect "Browser" tab & voila!

I haven't tried them, but I guess BubbleUPnP or JPlay would work equally as well, I hope to try Bubble soon.

That's it - thought I'd share for others in a similar situation, the apps often don't last as long as the hardware!

 

[Vincent Kars]

It would appear that mconnect just sends the Tidal url to the N25 which goes & fetches the stream

That is how UPnP works.
You have a server (Tidal or any UPnP server in your LAN)
Mconnect is the control point, it browses the server for its content.
If you select a track to play, the URL is send to the renderer N25

no intermediate sampling.

Depends.
In case of Win, all audio is re-sampled to the settings in the Audio panel unless you enable the "direct" mode in the Tidat app.
Don't know if the N25 has a direct mode.

 

[PieterG]

The Cocktail has a display that shows stream format, right?
If it plays Tidal without resampling, a hi-res stream should appear as something like PCM 24bit/96kHz. (That's assuming you picked a 24/96 source of course...)