Official TIDAL HIFI Streaming Issues Thread

[left channel]

1 hour ago, AMR/iFi audio said:

 

Depends on a DAC. He should hear at least something, right 😎 ?

 

You can never know what someone's going to hear. That's one reason people are so interesting. And why there are so many different DACs out there.

[kiwi2000]

Quote

 

I suggest you first start with the basics per my first paragraph: the Tidal app on the PC, connected to the Marantz via HDMI, with the app doing 1x MQA decoding. Maybe with a wireless keyboard like the Logitech K400 Plus. If that isn't enough of a remote control for you, the next step could be a software upgrade to the MQA-capable Audirvana+. 

 

Thank you for your perserverance. I have had that same old PC repaired it is now working.

Old PC to Marantz via HDMI. When connected in this manner I should see the PC screen on the TV monitor when the appropriate input on the Marantz is selected, then a wireless keyboard will control the image on the screen for track select from Tidal etc?

 

I guess WiFi Tidal from the new PC is not an option, https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/hp-pavilion-desktop-pc-natural-silver-intel-core-i5-8400-1tb-hdd-128gb-ssd-8gb-ram-win-10-eng/12547155.aspx?icmp=Recos_3across_tp_sllng_prdcts? 

 

I want a wireless keyboard for the new PC anyhow so I can try it out on the old PC I suppose. Thanks for all of the help I will connect the old PC and see what happens. Hopefully good things occur.

[left channel]

11 hours ago, kiwi2000 said:

Thank you for your perserverance. I have had that same old PC repaired it is now working.

Old PC to Marantz via HDMI. When connected in this manner I should see the PC screen on the TV monitor when the appropriate input on the Marantz is selected, then a wireless keyboard will control the image on the screen for track select from Tidal etc?

 

Yes, that's the plan!

 

11 hours ago, kiwi2000 said:

I guess WiFi Tidal from the new PC is not an option, https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/hp-pavilion-desktop-pc-natural-silver-intel-core-i5-8400-1tb-hdd-128gb-ssd-8gb-ram-win-10-eng/12547155.aspx?icmp=Recos_3across_tp_sllng_prdcts? 

 

I think you'll be fine without WiFi in the PC. WiFi would really only be useful for control of the Tidal app in the Marantz, which won't get you MQA or the benefit of seeing the PC app on the screen. And a wired connection to the Internet is usually better than WiFi for streaming overall.

 

11 hours ago, kiwi2000 said:

I want a wireless keyboard for the new PC anyhow so I can try it out on the old PC I suppose. Thanks for all of the help I will connect the old PC and see what happens. Hopefully good things occur.

 

Agreed, that keyboard will make either PC more fun. Good luck! Enjoy, and please let us know how it's working. If you decide to add to the system in any way, we'll be here with ideas for you. 

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 1/31/2019 at 11:24 PM, left channel said:

 

You can never know what someone's going to hear. That's one reason people are so interesting. And why there are so many different DACs out there.

 

I can agree with this.

[amuzaed1]

I only get 44.1 when streaming tidal master through my geek out 1000 usb dac.I got it plugged into my android 7 tv box using tidal app. Any suggestions to remedy this situation?

[audio.bill]

10 hours ago, amuzaed1 said:

I only get 44.1 when streaming tidal master through my geek out 1000 usb dac.I got it plugged into my android 7 tv box using tidal app. Any suggestions to remedy this situation?

Not sure if you may have missed this from Tidal's FAQ section on MQA playback:

• All you need is a TIDAL HiFi membership to access thousands of master-quality albums only through the TIDAL desktop application.
• When you are in TIDAL desktop application, click on the home button to the left-hand side and scroll down "Master Quality Audio Albums".
• To get the best quality, make sure to select "HiFi/Master" quality in “Settings" and then select “Streaming".
• If you don’t have the TIDAL desktop application, you can find it here.
• You can also use your Android device or Apple smartphones. 

Hope this helps! 

[Cebolla]

3 hours ago, audio.bill said:

Not sure if you may have missed this from Tidal's FAQ section on MQA playback:

• All you need is a TIDAL HiFi membership to access thousands of master-quality albums only through the TIDAL desktop application.
• When you are in TIDAL desktop application, click on the home button to the left-hand side and scroll down "Master Quality Audio Albums".
• To get the best quality, make sure to select "HiFi/Master" quality in “Settings" and then select “Streaming".
• If you don’t have the TIDAL desktop application, you can find it here.
• You can also use your Android device or Apple smartphones. 

 

What's TIDAL's FAQs answers referring to the TIDAL Desktop app have to do with getting a hi-res audio output through USB audio on an Android device running the TIDAL (ie, Android) app playing MQA Masters tracks ?

[Cebolla]

14 hours ago, amuzaed1 said:

I only get 44.1 when streaming tidal master through my geek out 1000 usb dac.I got it plugged into my android 7 tv box using tidal app. Any suggestions to remedy this situation?

 

Did you follow the instructions in the Android (Renderer) Mobile TIDAL Setup Guide link, posted by @AMR/iFi audio, just before your post?

Quote

Check out our Tidal MQA Set-up Guides below. 
Android (Renderer) Mobile

 

[left channel]

@amuzaed1 @audio.bill @Cebolla as far as I know the Tidal app for Android still does not support Masters/MQA via USB to an external DAC. For that you'll need the UAPP app.  I use UAPP for Tidal, Qobuz, Internet Radio, UPnP/DLNA, and local playback. With an MQA-compatible DAC, the MQA add-on option is not necessary. Website || Play Store || Head-Fi thread

[Cebolla]

If you play the video in the link you'll see that it is supposed to be possible - at least on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro used in the demo. So if it fails, then it'll be due to lack of general hi-res audio support via USB audio (so actually nothing to do with MQA) on the Android device itself.

 

I was trying to get @audio.bill to verify if his Android device (TIDAL app config, proper USB cable, etc) was even set up properly in the first place.

[left channel]

@Cebolla that's interesting and new information, thank you, but for most it may be the exception that proves the rule. The Huawei Mate 10 internal DAC supports 32/384. I can't find information on USB output, but with such high-end specs perhaps the Huawei developers also devoted time to a way around Android OS audio resampling for both internal and external DACs.

 

Most Android devices, even the LG V30 and its cousins, resample to 48 kHz. Others resample to 96 kHz or to 44.1, but they do resample, and that interferes with MQA decoding. Last time I tested this, the Tidal app was only able to bypass that for internal playback of MQA (while still allowing resampling of internal CD-quality playback and all external playback).

The Huawei devs may have customized the Android OS to get around that. Fascinating. But if this isn't available for most Android devices, that iFi video is not a realistic demo and may result in some angry customers.

[audio.bill]

1 hour ago, Cebolla said:

 

What's TIDAL's FAQs answers referring to the TIDAL Desktop app have to do with getting a hi-res audio output through USB audio on an Android device running the TIDAL (ie, Android) app playing MQA Masters tracks ?

I shared it to verify the required MQA settings and since it states it should work with an Android device. Sorry if you didn't find it helpful. 

[audio.bill]

1 hour ago, Cebolla said:

I was trying to get @audio.bill to verify if his Android device (TIDAL app config, proper USB cable, etc) was even set up properly in the first place.

I only use an Android device for remote control over my network, not like as a Tidal source.

[AMR/iFi audio]

Just a quick nfo:

 

MQA is now officially available for the Pro iDSD

 

As some of you good people know, Beta firmware v2.1MQA has been available on our website since 27 February.

 

The Beta version has now been confirmed as the official current firmware for the Pro iDSD.

From MQA:

 

“iFi Audio is announcing the latest firmware update for the Pro iDSD making it the first in the range to support full MQA decoding. The DAC can also be paired with any CD player to experience MQA-CD playback.”

 

You can download the firmware here (if you haven’t already!)

 

https://ifi-audio.com/downloads/

 

Also don’t forget our handy Pro iDSD Tidal MQA tutorials on YouTube.

• Via USB http://bit.ly/DecoderUSB
• Via SPDIF http://bit.ly/DecoderSPDIF

  Come and try it out at Axpona – The iFI team are located at Ear Gear Booth 8323.

 

[amuzaed1]

The mqa website says it's available on android devices. Also been suggested I try usb audio player pro by extreamsd.

[left channel]

1 hour ago, amuzaed1 said:

The mqa website says it's available on android devices. Also been suggested I try usb audio player pro by extreamsd.

 

The MQA website says it's fully available on specific Android devices, not all. The devices listed there have audiophile DACs and MQA firmware. Those devices are capable of the full 4x unfolding, but others can get the basic 1x unfolding from the Tidal app. However, on the majority of Android devices including all or most of those listed on the MQA website, the OS will still resample CD-quality tracks and all USB audio output. The resampling of USB output prevents MQA decoding by external DACs, which was the topic of the previous posts. UAPP is the best way around these problems.

[Cebolla]

20 hours ago, audio.bill said:

I shared it to verify the required MQA settings and since it states it should work with an Android device. Sorry if you didn't find it helpful. 

 

No, it's me that should be apologising for being overly critical of what seemed like an oversight. Especially, now that I've made an error for having mentioned you in that part of my last post you replied to - I had a brain fade & mixed you up with @amuzaed1 for some reason! So it should have been:

22 hours ago, Cebolla said:

I was trying to get @amuzaed1 to verify if his Android device (TIDAL app config, proper USB cable, etc) was even set up properly in the first place.

 

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 4/6/2019 at 3:50 PM, left channel said:

UAPP is the best way around these problems.

 

It works, yes.

[amuzaed1]

UAPP gave a significant improvement in sound quality even at 44.1.After the in app MQA purchase I now receive 96khz lights on my DAC :). Next upgrade will be MQA DAC.

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 4/9/2019 at 3:14 PM, amuzaed1 said:

Next upgrade will be MQA DAC.

 

[Abtr]

A recent update from Tidal (Windows app) changed my Streaming Audio Quality setting from Master to High (Best compromise between data usage and sound quality). I think that is criminal. 

[Geoff1954]

Criminal? I don't like it either. But just change it back. (This is not the first time a Tidal update has done this.)

[Abtr]

1 minute ago, Geoff1954 said:

Criminal? I don't like it either. But just change it back. (This is not the first time a Tidal update has done this.)

I never experienced this before in my 1.5 years as Tidal user. And I pay for Hifi/Master quality. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, Geoff1954 said:

Criminal? I don't like it either. But just change it back. (This is not the first time a Tidal update has done this.)

Ouch!

[Geoff1954]

So change it back. Or end your Tidal membership. But save charges of "criminality" for issues that merit it.
Have a good day.