Tidal Connect on Raspberry (how-to)

[dma]

Guys, if you have decent audio system - let's stop CHEAT YOURSELF !

Put on bit perfect stream from tidal on your audio then use that tidal-connect fancy workaround on raspberry pi and make comparison.

When I start to use approach discussed here - I noticed that sound became clearly bass prevailing and slight muddy. Switching back and forth between volumio  and  tidal connect on raspi show that all that delicate charm of Hi-Fi is gone on that raspberry pi tidal connect. Dont know if it is tidal-connect can for thst or just it's unperfect realization in that case but difference is clear audible...

 

And don't think I'm a big fun ov Volumio - rubbish interface with buggy linux which you cannot configure like normal linux because they altered it in unrecognizable way probably because want to take as much control on project as possible. And that year they doubled price for that programmer shame :)

 

[MrSteven]

Thank you so much for these awesome instructions.

 

After many attempts I just installed the latest volumio and just installed https://github.com/shawaj/HiTide

 

I also selected the output device direct in volumio. I have an  IQaudIO DAC Plus. Before I tried to set the output device with nano myself (Linux is not my strongest skill) and the SQ was very bad.

Sometimes the easiest attempt is the most successful way….

I love volumio but I find it a bit too expensive, I only use Web Radio or Tidal Connect…or my beloved turntable, but for that I do not need a raspberry 😉

[MalcolmP]

I haven't found any SQ issues running this app on top of Volumio.  I have a Allo DigiOne Sig and the SQ is very good plugged the SPDIF on my Naim atom.  SQ often surpasses that of the internal streamer on the Atom which is no slouch so I don't think there any SQ issues with this app.

 

Re Volumio yes it is ridiculously expensive if you just want to run Tidal and listen to some radio stations (exactly what my needs are in fact).  I like Volumio for one reason only, it has the best SQ of all apps I've tried on the Pi.  Other than that I don't like the software, it used t be very buggy albeit better in recent releases but still a long way from perfect.  But my main gripe is the control which app (at least on iOS) keeps disconnecting and is a total waste of time.  And they have the cheek to charge your for this.

 

For this reason my Allod Digione Pi at the moment is gathering dust.  I bought an iFi streamer which has the same, no I would say better SQ than the Allo Digione.  It has everything I want, Tidal streaming, radio stations and sounds very good indeed.  Only one drawback it uses the dreaded Volumio under licence but at least its free.  No ridiculous licence fee and at least their app doesn't have the constant disconnection issues! 

 

If anyone know how to run this tidal connect app as well as have an interface that allows the streaming of radio stations then please let me know

[kitus]

Hello,

 

first of all, thanks for the writeup. I managed to get tidal connect deployed on my Volumio with little effort. Thanks a million!!!

 

Anybody knows if there is anywhere one can configure the sampling parameters? I want to ensure I'm configuring the best possible audio resolution as suggested here: https://techsupport.cambridgeaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000285118-How-do-I-connect-my-Macbook-iMac-to-the-EDGE-A-

 

Quote

To achieve the best possible sound quality you will need to navigate to Audio MIDI Setup (Finder>Applications>Utilities>Audio MIDI Setup). Within 'Format' you will be able to select which sample rate and bit depth to use. We would recommend selecting the highest available.

 

[Dopus]

I have a weard problem now. Tidal connect works great from Windows Tidal client. But in my S22 samsung android phone. the tidal connect is selectable, but will not start playing the song. Strange.

Anyone have an idea of what is wrong??

[kitus]

Hi everyone,

 

running Volumio side by side with tidal connect. Tidal is installed following the guidance found in this thread. I works ok but I notice that after a few days of having volumio sitting idel during the week, once I try to have tidal connect play music, the sound does not come through. The workaround that I've found so far is, I go to Spotify and force Spotify Connect to stream any song, then I stop doing that and go back to Tidal; it then works.

 

Anybody?

 

thanks!

[kitus]

On 8/29/2022 at 1:54 PM, dma said:

Guys, if you have decent audio system - let's stop CHEAT YOURSELF !

Put on bit perfect stream from tidal on your audio then use that tidal-connect fancy workaround on raspberry pi and make comparison.

When I start to use approach discussed here - I noticed that sound became clearly bass prevailing and slight muddy. Switching back and forth between volumio  and  tidal connect on raspi show that all that delicate charm of Hi-Fi is gone on that raspberry pi tidal connect. Dont know if it is tidal-connect can for thst or just it's unperfect realization in that case but difference is clear audible...

 

And don't think I'm a big fun ov Volumio - rubbish interface with buggy linux which you cannot configure like normal linux because they altered it in unrecognizable way probably because want to take as much control on project as possible. And that year they doubled price for that programmer shame :)

 

Hi there! One question: what is your setup to get your system on bit perfect on tidal?

[jfbaquero]

I installed everything on a Raspberry PI on Raspberry OS, the service seems to be working. I am a newbie, and it might seem as a stupid question, I want to control TIDAL form the TIDAL app GUI not form the terminal. Can someone give me some insight how to install the TIDAL GUI APP and get it running in Raspberry OS (32 bit)? Is there a way of putting an ICON on the desktop to open the app?

 

 

[kitus]

42 minutes ago, jfbaquero said:

I installed everything on a Raspberry PI on Raspberry OS, the service seems to be working. I am a newbie, and it might seem as a stupid question, I want to control TIDAL form the TIDAL app GUI not form the terminal. Can someone give me some insight how to install the TIDAL GUI APP and get it running in Raspberry OS (32 bit)? Is there a way of putting an ICON on the desktop to open the app?

 

 

Make sure your smartphone is on the same network and open the Tidal app. Then just click on the speaker icon and check if the name of your newly defined receiver appears on the target devices

[jfbaquero]

Dear Kitus, thanks. I don't want to depend of my Smartphone app. I want to be able to install and use the TIDAL app directly on the Raspberry OS, I have seen pictures of this elsewhere. The first post in this thread show the TIDAL APP GUI running.  I have been using the TIDAL web player through Chromium in the meantime, but this is not ideal.

Regards

[xthesaintx]

2 hours ago, jfbaquero said:

Dear Kitus, thanks. I don't want to depend of my Smartphone app. I want to be able to install and use the TIDAL app directly on the Raspberry OS, I have seen pictures of this elsewhere. The first post in this thread show the TIDAL APP GUI running.  I have been using the TIDAL web player through Chromium in the meantime, but this is not ideal.

Regards

There is no native Linux based tidal desktop client. The screenshot in the original post was the macos client.
 

This is a thread on setting up the tidal connect service on raspberry pi, it's an interface only you need to control it via a desktop or mobile app. 
 

Usually the pi is headless and connected to a DAC then amp and speakers or headphones. The pi is not used as a desktop computer in this case (no screen).
 

You'll have to look elsewhere for desktop music apps for the raspi, the onboard dac is awful.

[jfbaquero]

Dear xthesaintx,

Thanks for the information. I am using an ATOLL DAC200 and a TOPPING DX3 PRO dacs connected to the PI 4000 via USB. I found a TIDAL APP for Linux called TIDAL-HiFi but it seems to only works on a 64 bit OS. I am using the 32 bit Raspbian OS because in can use TIDAL. Netflix, Youtube etc... on Chromium. I made a PiCorePlayer server on other SD cards, TIDAL works through LMS (Logitech Media Server) I use a screen with a GUI called Javelin. I works pretty well, but the GUI for TIDAL is awful.

Regards

[hitoridekimasu]

Hi, I’m facing problems to make the TIDAL Connect service work in a Raspberry Pi 4 running a completely fresh latest Volumio 3 image.

 

 

Devices configuration: 

 

 

Service configuration:

 

 

The problem found is this:

 

volumio@volumio:~$ sudo systemctl status ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service
● ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service - RasPi Streamer Tidal Connect Service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-10-10 10:43:14 UTC; 5s ago
 Main PID: 1461 (tidal_connect_a)
    Tasks: 14 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service
           └─1461 /usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/bin/tidal_connect_application --tc-certificate-path /usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/id_certificate/IfiAudio_ZenStream.dat -f jrdetorre RasPi Streamer --codec-mpegh true --codec-mqa false --model-nam

Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x6 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2  CARD 0}
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: ALSA lib pcm_usb_stream.c:486:(_snd_pcm_usb_stream_open) Invalid type for card
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: ALSA lib pcm_usb_stream.c:486:(_snd_pcm_usb_stream_open) Invalid type for card
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: Cannot connect to server request channel
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: jack server is not running or cannot be started
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
Oct 10 10:43:14 volumio tidal_connect_application[1461]: STARTED TidalConnect services.

 

 

 

I managed to configure the right device after getting the service status error defining the right naming and device number:

 

Could not find device: 'TEAC USB AUDIO DEVICE: USB Audio (hw:0,0)'. Fallback to default device
Valid devices are: 'bcm2835 HDMI 1: - (hw:0,0)' 'bcm2835 Headphones: - (hw:1,0)' 'TEAC USB AUDIO DEVICE: Audio (hw:5,0)' 'sysdefault' 'lavrate' 'samplerate' 'speexrate' 'upmix' 'vdo

 

Therefore, the initial problems with the wrong device do no longer appear.

 

I tried uninstalling libcurl4 and installing libcurl3 again, but it remains the same.

 

I can find the TIDAL Connect port in the TIDAL Android App, but when I try to send the stream to that, it does nothing and it comes back to the local device.

 

Any clue on what I'm doing wrong will be very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[hitoridekimasu]

OK, I see, I have a problem with the certificate:

 

Oct 12 18:49:44 volumio tidal_connect_application[3666]: [2022-10-12 18:49:44] [error] handle_transport_init received error: TLS handshake failed
 

It won't work till we have a certificate accepted by the TIDAL App

 

Cheers!

[kitus]

On 4/18/2021 at 4:53 PM, franz159 said:

Please note that when you start the service, "it locks the audio device in exclusive mode", so that if you attempt to access the device in some other way (e.g. with MPD) you will get an error as long as the Tidal connect service will not be stopped.

 

Hi @franz159! could you explain how you go about this lock on your daily usage? I have really learnt the hard way what exclusive mode feels like from a user experience perspective. I literally need to reach out for my laptop, ssh into the raspberry running Volumio (and HiTide side by side) and deal with "ps" "kill" and the like. Tidal Connect is lovely but it really doesn't play well (at least with my Volumio instance). I wouldn't mind paying Volumio's subscription to get native Tidal Connect on Volumio, but I just think that they have gone way to far with their pricing.

 

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

[Ilan]

Dear friends,

Sorry for my newby question.

I don't know much about Linux..

 

I did “aplay -l” and received this answer:

volumio@volumio:~$ aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 0: bcm2835 HDMI 1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1]

  Subdevices: 4/4

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1

  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2

  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3

card 1: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]

  Subdevices: 4/4

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1

  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2

  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3

card 2: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi], device 0: HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro HiFi wm8804-spdif-0 [HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro HiFi wm8804-spdif-0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

 

I don’t know what to write on my "/usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/pa_devs/devices" to work correctly.

 

The same question regarding the file "/lib/systemd/system/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service" 

Can someone guide me?

 

Thank you very much!

 

Ilan.

[Dopus]

On 9/14/2022 at 7:38 PM, Dopus said:

I have a weard problem now. Tidal connect works great from Windows Tidal client. But in my S22 samsung android phone. the tidal connect is selectable, but will not start playing the song. Strange.

Anyone have an idea of what is wrong??

I found the solution. Downgrading the Tidal android app to v 2.64.2 fixed it for me. Tidal connect now works on my phone also (with the v 2.64.2 app innstalled) and from my PC.

[Belinteo]

Dear all,

I read your very interesting (at least for me and you all) discussion and I applied all the suggestions/instructions to my RPi 4b with Debian.

I am pretty new to RPi but as an ex-C++ developer I am quite nerd and able to learn quickly.

 

I managed to get TIdal Connect Streamer running, with External SMS USB DAC connected. When I use the Tidal Android App and select my new "Belinteo Tidal Streamer", the connection does not stay on. Basically, it connects and disconnects immediately.

Please check my configs below:

aplay -l

 

device:

 

ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service:

 

The result of the systemctl status:

 

Pls consider that I just installed PiHole (on the same machine). Nothing changed, except the new 4 lines "TLS handshake Failed" which where not there before. Anyway, the behavior of the Tidal App did not change.

 

Do you have any suggestion?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Belinteo

[Dopus]

On 11/28/2022 at 12:22 AM, Belinteo said:

Dear all,

I read your very interesting (at least for me and you all) discussion and I applied all the suggestions/instructions to my RPi 4b with Debian.

I am pretty new to RPi but as an ex-C++ developer I am quite nerd and able to learn quickly.

 

I managed to get TIdal Connect Streamer running, with External SMS USB DAC connected. When I use the Tidal Android App and select my new "Belinteo Tidal Streamer", the connection does not stay on. Basically, it connects and disconnects immediately.

Please check my configs below:

aplay -l

 

device:

 

ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service:

 

The result of the systemctl status:

 

Pls consider that I just installed PiHole (on the same machine). Nothing changed, except the new 4 lines "TLS handshake Failed" which where not there before. Anyway, the behavior of the Tidal App did not change.

 

Do you have any suggestion?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Belinteo

 

Have you tried downgrading your Tidal APP on your android device (if that is what you use)m to v 2.64.2

 

I had a working setup that just stopped working. The Tidal connect was available but when i tried to connect. it connected but did not play  the music. Turns out its a compability problems with the newer vertions of the android app. Someone on another forum suggested downgrading til Tidal app v 2.64.2. Worked for me.

[Dopus]

The tls handshake issue is discussed in this thread at the rasberry pi forum:

 

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=297771&sid=826ee368409968c44b4a210a63b544b3&start=150

 

The problem has to do with security certifikates. It looks like the problems started with v2,65 off the app. So anything below that should be ok. I use the 2.64.2 and that one workes great.

The android app APK  v 2.64.2 should be easy to find online

 

[Belinteo]

Dear,

I managed to downgrade the app and now everything works perfectly. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Is there any plan to update the Tidal Connect Streamer to avoid this issue? The new Tidal app has some very interesting features...

 

Thanks a lot in advance

Belinteo

[mynab]

Hello, thanks all for those instructions. Have been able to setup Tidal Connect successfully on my Raspberry Pi 4.

 

One caveat though is sound control. I output sound to my AMP which integrates a USB DAC. By default volume cannot be controlled but I was able to create a softvol also device and can use it to control volume when playing through mplayer for instance.

 

pcm.volume {
  type softvol
  slave.pcm "output"
  control {
    name "SoftMaster"
    card 0
  }
}

 

I can then control volume using alsamixer for instance.

 

But this device does not show up in the Tidal devices (even having run the device detection script). And volume remains not adjustable when playing Tidal content even using the speaker_controller_application.

 

Anyone having a solution for this?

 

Thanks!

 

[Belinteo]

Dear experts,

Now that I managed everything to work flawlessly, I decided to give a second task to my RPi4b.

I installed PiHole and I am currently using it for at-home browsing. Very useful IMO. 

Obviously, now Tidal Connect Streamer stopped working. :-(

 

Unfortunately, with a large list of "blocked sites" I added I also probably included something which works as a bridge between Tidal Connect Streamer and my mobile (using Connect). Do you know which is the "server" or the bridge in this case? It would be a mess to look into the single 10k+ lines of filtered websites looking for something which is completely unknown...

 

Thanks a lot in advance and Happy New Year!!

Belinteo

[mizwdev]

Ok will go for Volumio 3 free now latest, I've Tidal Connect working with a working certificate on Raspberry PI OS, let's say there are more suported devices with firmware you can unzip with 7-zip and take that certificate :-)

[mizwdev]

Ok, I've Moode 7.6.1 with latest Tidal apk on Android working via USB with my Topping E50. MQA Stream and Studio are working fine. I also own a Wiim Mini, but issue is with optical, which is not fully MQA. I asked them if it was possible to work on USB output with a audio/power splitter, but no. This sounds much better with USB attached to DAC.

 

I used this install https://github.com/vcucek/ifi-tidal-moode

 

This is my start.sh

user@audio:/opt/tidal-connect $ ls
bin  id_certificate  lib  licenses  Makefile  README.md  select-device.sh  start.sh  tidal-connect.service
user@audio:/opt/tidal-connect $ cat start.sh
#!/bin/bash

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/lib
DEVICE="E50: USB Audio (hw:2,0)"
./bin/tidal_connect_application \
        --tc-certificate-path "./id_certificate/my_cert.dat" \
        --netif-for-deviceid eth0 \
        -f "AUDIO Streamer" \
        --codec-mpegh false \
        --codec-mqa false \
        --model-name "AUDIO Streamer" \
        --disable-app-security false \
        --disable-web-security false \
        --enable-mqa-passthrough true \
        --playback-device "$DEVICE" \
        --log-level 1