I've been using Volumio for a couple of years and have a number of RPI model 3's dotted around the house. Up to now I've used them for listening to web radio and Spotify connect as a free user. I recently invested in a Topping DX3pro DAC and wanted to try Tidal so I upgraded to the paid version.
In my experience it's just good enough in terms of reliability etc to justify paying for. I've been playing around with the multi room feature and the analogue input feature (I have a DAC with an analogue input which allows me to send an analogue source to other streamers in paid mode).
My experience of these features since upgrading has been very negative. I find that the grouping/multi room feature just causes crashes. For eg, I play an LP or a tape into the DAC with the analogue input and I can hear it on the output of that DAC but when I group another streamer, nothing happens. Then when I try to remove a device, it just crashes and won't respond to the button press.
Other times I've had it working, for eg Tidal playing on the lead device but then when I've grouped another device, the audio is constantly stuttery on both devices.
Switching between sources, for eg between Spotify and Tidal causes all kinds of issues.
Generally, I'm just seeing a lot of black screens and loading screens and pressing buttons that won't respond and the whole experience has got a hell of a lot slower.
The basics, like just using Spotify/tidal connect work generally ok when I'm not trying to switch between sources or use multi room. It's still pretty slow and cumbersome though...
Am I being unreasonable in expecting a paid for product to just work?
I'm not sure if it's down to the hardware. To upgrade all my Rpi's to the latest models would be expensive. What are other people's experiences with this?
I think probably just go back to the free version and do without Tidal for now.
In my experience it's just good enough in terms of reliability etc to justify paying for. I've been playing around with the multi room feature and the analogue input feature (I have a DAC with an analogue input which allows me to send an analogue source to other streamers in paid mode).
My experience of these features since upgrading has been very negative. I find that the grouping/multi room feature just causes crashes. For eg, I play an LP or a tape into the DAC with the analogue input and I can hear it on the output of that DAC but when I group another streamer, nothing happens. Then when I try to remove a device, it just crashes and won't respond to the button press.
Other times I've had it working, for eg Tidal playing on the lead device but then when I've grouped another device, the audio is constantly stuttery on both devices.
Switching between sources, for eg between Spotify and Tidal causes all kinds of issues.
Generally, I'm just seeing a lot of black screens and loading screens and pressing buttons that won't respond and the whole experience has got a hell of a lot slower.
The basics, like just using Spotify/tidal connect work generally ok when I'm not trying to switch between sources or use multi room. It's still pretty slow and cumbersome though...
Am I being unreasonable in expecting a paid for product to just work?
I'm not sure if it's down to the hardware. To upgrade all my Rpi's to the latest models would be expensive. What are other people's experiences with this?
I think probably just go back to the free version and do without Tidal for now.
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