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These two Beolab 8 speakers can now link to TIDAL hi-res music streaming service with the launch of … [+]
Here’s a short piece of news that has caught my eye, mainly because I am a big fan of Bang & Olufsen and TIDAL happens to be my favorite streaming service. So, with that declaration out of the way, Bang & Olufsen and TIDAL are joining forces to bring hi-res music to users of Bang & Olufsen audio products.
From today, the Bang & Olufsen smartphone app will include fully integrated and easy access to hi-res, lossless and immersive spatial audio formats from TIDAL. The press release for the announcement also hints that more functionality and experiences will be added in the coming months.
The new Bang & Olufsen app now incorporates streaming from TIDAL, the hi-res music service.
“With the partnership, we are merging the best audio formats from TIDAL with high-end sound systems from Bang & Olufsen. We strive to bring the best music experiences to our customers, and the sound quality of music streaming is imperative to that journey. What we are delivering to our customers today is only the beginning, and we are looking forward to delivering even more in-app music experiences down the line,” says Christoffer Poulsen, SVP of Partnerships and Business Development at Bang & Olufsen.
“TIDAL is delighted to partner with Bang & Olufsen who share a legacy in giving fans music experiences with best-in-class sound,” added Dan Murphy, SVP of Partnerships and Business Development at TIDAL. “Listeners can now trust that they are experiencing music in high-quality audio formats when streaming TIDAL with Bang & Olufsen products. We understand the importance of sound quality for both artists and listeners and are excited to now make TIDAL easier to access in the Bang & Olufsen app.”
Enjoy hi-res music with your Bang & Olufsen gear by upgrading to the latest app from the Danish … [+]
Beyond the corporate spin, TIDAL does indeed offer loads of tracks in lossless quality and the collection includes more than 100m songs in studio quality using FLAC. Now this super hi-res audio is available directly in the Bang & Olufsen app. Music curators at TIDAL will be putting together a selection of Bang & Olufsen branded playlists available directly in the app.
There’s something that needs clarifying here, and that’s the limitation of wirelessly streaming music from an iPhone. Technology like Apple’s AirPlay tops out at 16-bit/44.1kHz resolution, which is lower than the maximum quality available directly from TIDAL when using a computer. However, TIDAL Connect technology is supported on Bang & Olufsen’s Mozart-based speakers which includes the Beosound A5, Beolab 8, Beosound A9 and Beosound 2. Those speakers have a DSP that can handle audio files up to 24-bit/192kHz by pulling them directly from TIDAL’s servers rather than routing them through an iPhone and downsampling with AirPlay.