I was a little surprised that the new PMG DAC also contains a streamer, given how the MK1 had a built-in streamer option and the MK II didn’t and now we’ve gone back to a built-in (which is not inconsistent with what seems to be an industry trend). Just wondering: I have an AirLens (which is not part of the trade-in) and if I were to get the PMG DAC, would there be any advantage to keeping it as a separate component?
Sonically, no, though the AirLens has the advantage of being separate and some folks have really thought that was better from a number of standpoints—among them Tidal Connect which the PMG built in does not have.
I do use Tidal Connect in certain situations, though I suppose it’s no big deal to use Tidal through Roon. Just curious why you don’t have Tidal Connect (it seems every streamer and its grandmother has it). Is it something you might add in an update? The larger question is why anyone would spend so much for a DAC and then play Spotify.
Why no Tidal? Would be a deal breaker for me.
I too cannot imagine why anyone would use Spotify when you have Qobuz avaialble, but I suppose it’s because they seem to have the biggest library of any of the services. For me, Qobuz is, and will always be my go to streaming service.
Tidal, for some unknown reason, ended their SDK for their app about a year ago. They no longer support hardware developers building their app into their hardware. I do not know why and it makes no sense to me as I would have thought the dea for any streaming service would be to earn as many subscribers and paying users as possible.
Oh well.
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The industry needs to come up with a standard protocol that all hardware developers can build to so any app can connect.
You’re right Brian, but there is no “industry” as you envision. There is no group or organization and there is no uniformity. It’s the wild west.
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For what difference it makes, in my experience Tidal has the widest catalog over Qobuz, and Spotify. My tastes run towards jazz, American, blues and avant-garde, so maybe Spotify has more pop music (I’m guessing). I know people sat Qobuz has better sound quality, but I don’t hear it. And it’s particularly odd that Qobuz finally has a Connect option and Tidal is dropping it.
I couldn’t agree more. Weird. Tidal is much bigger as far as I know.
I stream both Tidal and Qobuz, but lately I am trusting my AIFF CD rips over even alledgedly higher rez streaming tracks…