Strange sound problem...

Diethard Wehn

• January 13, 2024 15:49

My equipment: Node 2i, headphone amp, Audeze LCD-2 headphones. Normally I use Roon as control software. Source: FLAC 44/16 or higher from local NAS or Tidal (HiFi/MQA) via Roon.

I had been absolutely happy with that equipment for some years, till I found some songs to sound a bit "muddy", not so much with bass or percussion, but mainly voices. So not that transparent sound that I had before.

I tried BlueOS instead of Roon, another Node, another amp, and even another good (Sennheiser) headphone - it was always the same impression. So at least I thought it would be due to my ears...

In Facebook I read a post of somebody who compared Tidal Connect and BlueOS. So I tried Tidal Connect, which I hadn't used before and - wow! - there was that transparent and clear sound again that I was missing!

And now? Can't explain the difference. The music comes via the very same path to the node (WLAN - no there is no difference to LAN), whether I use BlueOS or Roon or just Tidal Connect. What's the difference? The only thing I could imagine is that Tidal Connect does not use the BlueOS software.

Any ideas?

0

• Official comment

  

  Seppi Evans

  Hi-Res

  • January 13, 2024 19:40

  Tidal Connect now plays back at upto 24/192 which is a better rate than via BluOS. Tidal introduced higher bitrates but as yet it’s not supported directly with the BluOS App.
• 

  Diethard Wehn

  • January 15, 2024 08:05

  Thanks, Seppi - but that's definitely not the problem. It's hard to tell the sonic difference between 44/16 and e.g. 24/192, but there is a huge difference between playback via Roon or Bluesound compared to Tidal Connect. Still no idea what causes this worsening of sound. It has been great for years, since I bought the Node 2i.

  0

Please sign in to leave a comment.