We now have wind of the first wave of products to support Tidal Connect, the recently announced one-touch casting feature for the hi-res streaming service.
Following a software update earlier this week (20th October), BluOS-enabled devices from Bluesound, Dali, Monitor Audio and NAD now support Tidal Connect. That includes (but isn't limited to) the Bluesound Powernode 2i and Node 2i streamers, Dali's active speaker systems, the NAD C 658 streamer and Masters M33 just-add-speakers system, and the Monitor Audio IMS-4 streamer.
KEF has revealed that its all-new (and What Hi-Fi? Award-winning) speaker system, the LS50 Wireless II, now supports the feature too.
On a Naim forum post it has been confirmed that Tidal Connect support will be introduced in 2021 via a free firmware upgrade to the company's latest generation of streaming products – the Mu-so 2 and Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation wireless speakers; the Uniti Atom, Star and Nova systems; and the ND 5 XS2, NDX 2 and ND 555 streamers.
The official Tidal Connect announcement earlier this week also listed Cambridge Audio, iFi audio, Lyngdorf and StreamUnlimited as launch partners, so we can expect streaming products from those companies to support the feature too. We've asked brands for specifics and will update this piece accordingly.
So what is Tidal Connect, you ask? It's similar to Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect in that it lets users stream music to connected devices from within the app, in this case allowing the Tidal app to be the controller.
But, unsurprisingly considering the streaming service catalogue's wealth of audio format support, Tidal Connect is unique in its ability to cast MQA tracks (Tidal Masters) and Dolby Atmos Music. The feature is available to both Tidal Premium and Tidal Hi-Fi subscribers.
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