Recommendation for Tidal connect streamer with HDMI output

[BDYB]

Well the story is simple. I am pretty happy with my Denon AVR. Unfortunately, it does not have Tidal connect. Heos app is a useless crap. And finally, Spotify still hasn't delivered their CD quality streams. So the goal is to achieve convenience of the Spotify with my hardware and enjoy Tidal controlled from the Tidal app on the phone/computer.
So a perfect solution would be some small (and cheap) device that all it has to do, is to be controlled from a phone, pull streams from Tidal servers and send it over HDMI to a receiver. The point of HDMI is CEC - switching input/turning on the receiver and controlling the volume on the receiver. As you can guess, don't need a fancy DAC in a streamer
From my research, the closest thing to my dream, would be RPi with a ripped binary allowing Tidal connect. The thing is that it is kinda old news with no updates.
I have tried to use Chromecast (both dedicated and built into TV), and for some reason there is a audible difference between this and streaming the same song directly via Heos. Unfortunately, direct playback on the receiver sounds way better :/
My hope is that someone can point me to something that I missed. or maybe confirm that RPi can do what I want.

 

[norcalscott]

I never tried HDMI output with this setup when I had it, but a RasPi running Volumio may function just the way you need. The downside is that you need to pay the Volumio subscription to get Tidal Connect (as far as I am aware) and that may not be worth it to you. (I used to pay for it but decided it was not worth it once they raised prices to ~$7 per month). It did work pretty well however. The other option, and what I use now is to use a cheap Windows box of some kind and just run the Tidal app natively. I am using an old Dell laptop for that, although I feed a DAC from that with USB, but I assume the audio could be routed to the HDMI port. Phone control in this scenario may take some creativity, however - I've heard it can be done with Unified Remote application but have not tried that either.

 

[Rmar]

Well the story is simple. I am pretty happy with my Denon AVR. Unfortunately, it does not have Tidal connect. Heos app is a useless crap. And finally, Spotify still hasn't delivered their CD quality streams. So the goal is to achieve convenience of the Spotify with my hardware and enjoy Tidal controlled from the Tidal app on the phone/computer.
So a perfect solution would be some small (and cheap) device that all it has to do, is to be controlled from a phone, pull streams from Tidal servers and send it over HDMI to a receiver. The point of HDMI is CEC - switching input/turning on the receiver and controlling the volume on the receiver. As you can guess, don't need a fancy DAC in a streamer
From my research, the closest thing to my dream, would be RPi with a ripped binary allowing Tidal connect. The thing is that it is kinda old news with no updates.
I have tried to use Chromecast (both dedicated and built into TV), and for some reason there is a audible difference between this and streaming the same song directly via Heos. Unfortunately, direct playback on the receiver sounds way better :/
My hope is that someone can point me to something that I missed. or maybe confirm that RPi can do what I want.

Not sure if you have solved you case or not, but NAD makes an "end point" for Tidal (about $350). Connect the end point via Toslink or SPDIF coax to your DAC, then on to your Denon AVR. You will be able to control your Tidal playlist (and everything else about Tital) from your phone. I've tried it and it works very well. You'll of course need a DAC because the NAD CSI is an endpoint only. Hope that helps some.