Simon Price
TIDAL is initially releasing Tidal Connect for BluOS app compatible devices, which will include brands such as Dali, Monitor Audio, and Lenbrook group companies; Bluesound and NAD, in other words all those using the BluOS streaming interface.
This means that instead of having to interact with Tidal via the BluOS app, the choice now exists to interact with your BluOS device via the Tidal app itself, providing you have either a Premium or ‘HiFi’ (MQA tier) subscription. No more than for reasons of hand friendly mobile convenience. Your playlists on the Tidal mobile app come across automatically to BluOS for HiFi uses, so no concern is there for having separate playlists on devices. For grouping zones go to BluOS first.
Tidal Connect follows the same naming as Spotify’s Connect, where Spotify connectivity to your audio devices has to be integrated within its own app for those brands to be Spotify certified. The new features will be provided in a software update – BluOS version 3.12.2 and BluOS Controller versions 3.12.0 (from 20/10/20)
Tidal supports high resolution MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) as well as the Dolby Atmos music catalogue. Gapless playback, unlike Chromecasting ,where the BluOS or Tidal apps are merely acting as a controller to direct the online music streams to your playback source.
The BluOS webpage indicates that you have to be in the Spotify app with a song playing before you can see the Connect icon in the Tidal app. This appears to be a reference to how Spotify is operated, rather than a necessity to access Spotify first, for obvious reasons, since some users are reporting no issues currently linking with Tidal Connect. However I’ve been trying to get this to work without success so far (update in the future when working)
The webpage instructs you to open the TIDAL App on your iOS or Android handheld device (or Windows or MacOS controller), press the TIDAL connect icon in the bottom left corner of the TIDAL App and then select your output device player. See here
