Tidal on PC, Android and Marantz: facts and questions

Hi everyone, I'm a new idal subscriber since a few days (July 24, when Tidal officially removed MQA completely), and I've been on Qobuz for years. Tired of promises on the Qobuz side to implement Qobuz Connect on Marantz/Denon, I took advantage of two new Tidal features: the total switch from MQA to FLAC and the Marantz firmware update to support Tidal Connect directly from the Android app (without going through Heos, which is nothing more than an app similar to Bubble UpNp).

I listen to streaming music (in HiRes) on three different systems:

1. Marantz amplifier connected to internet (wired on giga fiber) with internal HiRes DAC

2. Amplified speakers with internal HiRes DAC connected to the Windows PC via USB

3. Android 14 phone via headphones connected to the phone with external HiRes DAC (specifically Hidisz Sonata HD DAC, which has no LED or display to provide info on bits/KHz)

As I said, for years I used Qobuz (mainly cos Tidal was using MQ) but each of the three systems mentioned above had its drawbacks:

1. Marantz: no Qobuz Connect, not even via HEOS, so I was forced to use Bubble UpNp: from the Qobuz app I chose the music (albums, playlists etc.), I shared with Bubble UpNp, the latter would open and communicate with the Marantz.

2. Windows: Qobuz on Windows supports WASAPI exclusive, with the drawback that I obviously had to pause Qobuz to listen to something else

3. Android: obviously the only solution to bypass the Android mixer was USB Audio Player PRO, since Qobuz on Android 14 does not support the new bitperfect feature

With Tidal things are a little better, and here I come to the questions:

1. Marantz: not much to say, Tidal Connect works perfectly.

2. Windows: Tidal for Windows supports WASAPI Exclusive, so the "other sounds" problem remains. In theory I have ASIO drivers for my amplified speakers, I installed them and Tidal supports them, but even the ASIO drivers work in practice in exclusive mode, so I wonder: is it worth using the ASIO drivers or is WASAPI EXCLUSIVE okay? Aare substantial differences?

3. Android: up to version 1.122 if you connected the DAC to the phone, a Tidal prompt would appear (similar to that of UAPP) that asked for exclusive access to the DAC by Tidal, answering yes basically Tidal worked like UAPP. From version 1.123 this question disappeared: does anyone know if by chance Tidal has implemented the bitperfect functionality on Android 14 making the question obsolete?

Thanks to all

8 minutes ago, thegios said:

so I wonder: is it worth using the ASIO drivers or is WASAPI EXCLUSIVE okay? Aare substantial differences?

This one will come down to the quality of the ASIO driver. Many are terrible and outdated. Some are stellar.