Ok, so I signed onto Tidal and connected my laptop to my Lampizator via USB cable. Same cable I used to connect my printer to my computer.
CD quality? Not quite. I'm thinking its the USB cable. Do you think substituting with a quality USB cable will do it or is USB inherently inferior to an RCA/SPDIF cable?
What about the server? Does the Node add something that that laptop alone is missing?
No stutter or dropouts so far, EJK
I have done some direct A/B comparisons of Tidal vs my own copy of a particular CD and the native CD was better, but not by much. I don't think I would have noticed the difference between them without the A/B comparison. The difference is along the order of what you lose when you copy a CD, which whenyou think about it, isn't that what Tidal is doing, copying CDs to thier servers?
I will say it is not a completely equal comparison since the Node is connected via a Toslink port vs a spdif connection between the CD transport and the DAC, but from my point of view it represents exactly how I will be listening so whether the difference is due to Tidal or the interface difference does not matter to me right now.
But as I have said in the past, the difference is small and in my mind a worth while tradeoff to get access to the Tidal music library. And anything that I like that much and am really concerned bout having the ultimate SQ from I will buy the CD, or even better the LP if I can find one. Keep in mind that I am looking at Tidal as a way to supplement and expand my music collection, not as a replacement for playing other formats.