“The TIDAL Arkas is designed to be the perfect digital music content controller for TIDAL high end systems. The approach of the Arkas was simple: build the perfect musical data file transport with TIDAL performance and reliability. In general, the TIDAL Arkas concept can be compared to the build of a super sports car: as little weight as possible, by removing all but what is absolutely necessary, combined with the most power possible – to get the best performance and keeping up with the pace.
Maybe an unusual description, but transferring this analogy onto the Arkas, this simply means we decided to build no file-storage system inside and only the core relevant technology around an extremely potent power supply, and combined it with a unique file transport output. All digital half-life components like music data storage, NAS/music server systems and hard drives, are intended to be outside the TIDAL Arkas.

Lotus Comments:

“Tidal’s long awaited standalone digital music streamer, the Arkas, sets new industry boundaries as a digital source. Described as the ‘Porsche GT3 RS’ of the audiophile streaming world by its maker, the Arkas dispenses with a lot of the heavy architechture seen in this area for a no frills purist approach where sonic performance and futureproofing is uppermost.

The Arkas is replete with a large amount of newfangled technology in the way it handles streaming services and it also turns it’s back on more complex streaming and music management softwares which incur a significant penalty to sound quality. The Arkas is truly befitting in performance terms of the Tidal badge and it’s inclusion in a Tidal system. It is everything we expected and hope for, and more,

When employing AES or USB connectivity the Arkas sits at the frontier of audio quality for a digital front end but when used with the all important i2S Tidal Link digital connection direct into the 2020 Camira Dac, the it takes a huge leap into the far away cosmos and finally brings digital performance up to the same level as the very best analogue front ends. In Jörn Janczak’s own words, “USB 30%, AES 40% …. ‘Tidal Link’ 100% !”