CD, YES! "ickStream", what a name!?, I have installed the plugin, but I have yet to use a software, Squeezesoft/Squeezlite, render.
I was about to order an Aurender N100 myself, when I discovered the Digital Audio Review article mentioning ickStream. Good luck with the N100, I am optimistic.
I have some cut-out with TIDAL and SONOS, it's rare. TIDAL recommends at least 2Mbps and sometimes my 4GLTE phone service can not keep up in the most unusual areas. For example: I drive through a mountain pass and desert daily, both locations where even Cell service goes dead. So it's no surprise that TIDAL doesn't work in those locations, but what kills me is that in some of the built up urban areas TIDAL fails (I get an error msg) but Spotify works just fine.
as far as the differences:
ABX High Fidelity Test à la Tidal
Quick background- Tidal put out an A-B, Blind test for listeners to decide if they could tell the difference. Well the internet being the internet, there was a discrepancy found in the original test.
So some one had to fix it..
You can choose to do 5, 10, or 20 trials of each track, and if you do 10 or 20 trials it will give you per-track results as well as overall results (as p < .01, p < .05, etc.).
There can be a bit of glitching when switching between A, B and X. Unfortunately thats just a limitation of the Web Audio API. It's worth reading the instructions - there are hotkeys for everything so you don't need to be clicking buttons with your mouse (and so can have your eyes closed and concentrate)
.
Also, FireFox and Chrome only.
If you want to try this at home with Foobar2000 or some other player here are the test tracks.
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/blake_30.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/blake_30_lossy.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/daftpunk_30.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/daftpunk_30_lossy.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/dixiechicks_30.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/dixiechicks_30_lossy.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/eagles_30.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/eagles_30_lossy.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/killers_30.flac
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/tracks/corrected/killers_30_lossy.flac
Full disclosure: Also my first trial test, the results showed that
I was merely guessing. However on the TIDAL test page (test.tidalhifi.com) I got all 5 right.. My quibbles is that I didn't get to pick the songs I know. It's a test, so I don't really get worked up about that. lastly, it's not measuring everything and ABX tests are not the end all be all.