Tidal hi res “very computationally intensive”

[Brantome]

I was casually checking the status of firmware for my Linn MDSM/4 streamer/amp and noticed a couple of notes referring to Tidal viz.

“TIDAL: Temporarily default older products to stream Lossless FLAC (44.1kHz/16bit) until a mutually agreeable solution has been found to prevent drop outs.
NOTE: You can still opt-in to Hi-Res FLAC (Up to 192kHz/24bit) by changing the TIDAL Sound Quality option in Manage Systems. It is very likely you will experience frequent drop outs with this setting.”

and

“Tidal Hi-Res streams are very computationally intensive. Until such time as Tidal can address this, reduce the maximum supported sample rate for products that cannot currently support 192k.”

From those notes from Linn, who I’d say are a mid to high end supplier with a solid reputation for quality, it would suggest that if WiiM devices are suffering similar issues particularly perhaps on the Mini given its reduced power compared to the Pro or Pro Plus, then they’re not alone and the solution (or at least part of it) rests with Tidal themselves…

Beta:DsDavaar105:Release Notes - LinnDocs

docs.linn.co.uk

 

[merifon]

I'm using mini with Tidal up to 192khz and since the working beta FW, I never, never faced a single problem.
Am I lucky? Instead is Bluos Nad Mdc card, which I'm fighting it from a month that make me little irritated, anyway not for dropouts but other quirks and its support it's not as fast as WiiM. Maybe it's hardware can't manage Tidal so well...

 

[Brantome]

I’d be the first to admit that it’s maybe just older Linn kit that has the issue - they do have a reputation of supporting their kit for a very long time with firmware updates and new features, so are bound to hit a brick wall at some point or another. But the tone of those notes is that however Tidal are delivering hi res can be made less computationally intensive.

It’s good you haven’t hit the issues that I know others have been getting, but just posted this to perhaps give some background for those that have experienced dropouts with Tidal hi res.

Maybe WiiM have already reached a “mutually agreeable solution” with Tidal over dropouts…

 

[merifon]

What I could say, other than hoping to have long lasting mini working good, is that tidal's support will be more sensitive to suggestions and requests that it did in the past. I experienced several evasive answers, to me and other users, especially versus Bluos but not only...