Tidal Connect comes to Cambridge Audio music streamers

(Image credit: Future)

Cambridge Audio has announced a firmware update to bring Tidal Connect support to its music streamer line-up.

The update is already available for the Edge NQ, CXN (V2), 851N, CXN (V1) and StreamMagic 6 (V2), and will arrive for the CXR120 and CXR200 from 7th April.

Given that the oldest model receiving the upgrade came out in 2014 (that makes it well into middle-aged in tech-years), it's a nice touch that Cambridge is rolling out the new feature to their entire current offering.

To this end, Tidal integration will be removed from the Cambridge Connect app and the front panel of the streamers (although will continue to work through the StreamMagic app).

While one of the benefits of Tidal Connect is passthrough of hi-res (MQA-powered) Tidal Masters, this won't be available with Cambridge streamers as MQA implementation requires a hardware modification. You can, however, workaround this incompatibility by connecting a USB-A-to-USB-B cable between a PC/laptop and the network player to enjoy MQA content through the Tidal desktop app.

Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing live events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West End, as well as original musicals composed by Mark Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells.