Tidal MQA / Masters streaming using Optical Output

[pauldrayton]

Hi,

I currently stream Tidal directly into my Naim equipment using the in-built streamer but this does not support MQA or Tidal Masters as it is known. I want to use the DAC in my Naim as I believe it to be of a higher grade compared to other boards that you can add to the likes of Rasberry Pi 3 etc. but happy to be proved wrong.

I am new to this so looking for anyone that has done this successfully using Optical Out from either the CUBox or Cubietruck devices?

Many thanks

Paul

[janui]

Hi pauldrayton,
Looks like your planning to use TOSLINK optical links in the audio route. This was developed for CD-quality audio transmission, that is 44.1KHtz 16bit. There is also a coax version of TOSLINK, which has much better transmission quality than the optical version.
While CD quality is good, you may want to consider higher sampling frequencies or wider bit depth. Using I2S DAC's this can be achieved at relatively low cost and will eliminate the components required for an optical link. The other route to higher quality is by using USB DAC's, these are generally much more expensive.
The development work for Rune on platforms other than the Raspberry PI has stagnated. For this reason I would think twice about using the the CUBox or Cubietruck hardware.
janui

[pauldrayton]

Thanks Janui.

It would be really helpful if some of this information had made it onto the Rune "Devices" page as they still looks like they are all being developed.

I picked up a CUBOX on eBay for £33, wish I hadn't bothered now but good to have a play as was cheap.