I have just received the Limetree Bridge through the post. The box it was delivered in was pretty small but turned out to be capable of holding 36 of these components as the Bridge itself is tiny. It is supplied with a fancy looking LAN cable which is a long flat strip of plastic and a power supply which looks cheap but the instructions state that it is "medical grade". It also comes with a wifi antenna which I have not connected. Setting up is a doddle: plug in ethernet socket, the power cable, download the app, put in the Tidal username an it's playing music. I also have connected a hard disc which has a few hi-res music files on it via the USB connection.
I have a Chord Qutest DAC and the only possible connection to this from the Bridge is a Toslink cable. I had a Wireworld Supernova 7 from my previous streamer which is rated up to 192kHz. The specs for the Bridge state that the Toslink output only delivers up to 96kHz so this cable should more than capable.
I am running the app on my android phone which was never ideal with my previous streamer (I must get a tablet) and continues to be a pain in the rear end. I will not comment on the ease of use of the app until I get a tablet but it isn't a joy to use on the phone. The main issue though is that it keeps disconnecting. The first time I used it this was happening every few minutes. I have the Bridge plugged into one of those internet extenders that goes through the mains wires and also my phone was using the wifi from this too. Changing my phone's wifi to the main house router seems though to have solved this problem, so far.
After I had ordered the Bridge I spent a couple of evenings listening to the sound of my old streamer (a BS Node 2) and comparing it to my CD player (Linn Genki) both of which were going into the Qutest, and my record player (LP 12). The CD player sounded my more solid and life-like than the streamer and both were blown away by the record player (if the records were good enough, which is another story entirely).
My initial impressions of the Bridge was that the emptiness of the sound from the streamer had gone. I am only playing tracks at CD quality through Tidal but the there is an immediacy to the music that wasn't there before. The bridge definitely sounds more "hi-fi" than the Node ever did. After a few hours of being plugged in it really began to shine. Before I would rather opt to listen to a track if I had a CD copy of it; now I won't bother. There is an option to attach a computer CD drive to the Bridge (apparently these can be bought for £100 or so) and this might mean that I can lose my CD player and free up a bit of space...
According to the manual the Toslink ouput is supposed to only go up to 96kHz but my DAC is showing that the Bridge is playing at 176.4kHz and could even transmit 192kHz, though at this higher frequency the music would crackle if the Toslink was not physically supported behind the Bridge and was pretty temperamental.
In short, I am very happy with this piece of kit hopefully will remain so for the foreseeable future.
I have a Chord Qutest DAC and the only possible connection to this from the Bridge is a Toslink cable. I had a Wireworld Supernova 7 from my previous streamer which is rated up to 192kHz. The specs for the Bridge state that the Toslink output only delivers up to 96kHz so this cable should more than capable.
I am running the app on my android phone which was never ideal with my previous streamer (I must get a tablet) and continues to be a pain in the rear end. I will not comment on the ease of use of the app until I get a tablet but it isn't a joy to use on the phone. The main issue though is that it keeps disconnecting. The first time I used it this was happening every few minutes. I have the Bridge plugged into one of those internet extenders that goes through the mains wires and also my phone was using the wifi from this too. Changing my phone's wifi to the main house router seems though to have solved this problem, so far.
After I had ordered the Bridge I spent a couple of evenings listening to the sound of my old streamer (a BS Node 2) and comparing it to my CD player (Linn Genki) both of which were going into the Qutest, and my record player (LP 12). The CD player sounded my more solid and life-like than the streamer and both were blown away by the record player (if the records were good enough, which is another story entirely).
My initial impressions of the Bridge was that the emptiness of the sound from the streamer had gone. I am only playing tracks at CD quality through Tidal but the there is an immediacy to the music that wasn't there before. The bridge definitely sounds more "hi-fi" than the Node ever did. After a few hours of being plugged in it really began to shine. Before I would rather opt to listen to a track if I had a CD copy of it; now I won't bother. There is an option to attach a computer CD drive to the Bridge (apparently these can be bought for £100 or so) and this might mean that I can lose my CD player and free up a bit of space...
According to the manual the Toslink ouput is supposed to only go up to 96kHz but my DAC is showing that the Bridge is playing at 176.4kHz and could even transmit 192kHz, though at this higher frequency the music would crackle if the Toslink was not physically supported behind the Bridge and was pretty temperamental.
In short, I am very happy with this piece of kit hopefully will remain so for the foreseeable future.
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