Tidal Connect and meadow birds
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Grimm Audio’s Tidal Connect integration on the MU2 sounds much better than playing the same music from Tidal using Roon. Ahnoni and the Johnsons’ “Sliver of Ice” sounds layered, and Ahnoni’s distinctive voice demands attention, carefully embedded in the sound of the instruments around her. There is more nuance in the vocals and instruments audible via Tidal Connect than when playing Tidal via Roon. The difference is not insignificant.
Upon inquiry, it turns out that Grimm Audio wrote the software themselves. They use what Tidal provides in terms of software components for selecting music from the Tidal library and for the queue, but once the music stream arrives, it is Grimm Audio’s software that handles the playback. This is how streaming should sound. So it is possible!
Polder Sunrise, the bit-perfect test album
The album ‘Polder Sunrise’ can be downloaded from the Grimm Audio website. This album contains tracks with different bit depths and sample rates, such as CD quality 16-bit 44.1 kHz, 24-bit 96 kHz, etc.
You copy the files from the album to the location where you play them from with your preferred software and you can then inspect on the MU2 whether the files arrive in the MU2 bit perfect throughout the entire chain.
The album contains recordings of meadow birds, which is funny if you live in the Dutch rural country yourself and think, “Hey, I know those, I hear them outside too.” Please note that the check only works with this album and only on the MU2 and MU1. It is specially encoded and is recognized by the software in the MU’s.