Big MQA News (Really - Tidal and Software Decoding, etc...)

[nightenrock]

Then it's not set up correctly.

 

The Tidal software decoder restores the original sampling rate (up to 24/96). So if it was originally in Redbook format, it will play back at 44.1kHz, other possible rates are 24/48, 24/88.2, 24/96.

 

If you have an MQA-capable DAC, of course, you will get the original sample rate, which could be anything from 44.1 up to 384k.

 

If you're getting 24/192 for everything, sounds like the exclusive mode setting in Tidal is not set properly, and your operating system itself is upsampling everything to 24/192.

 

Ok, after some tweaking what's really going on is that everything in Tidal is playing at 24/48 for me. Even the ordinary 16/44.1 files. Does anyone know if Tidal Masters MQA decoder supports El Capitan on a Mac?

[mm67]

Try turning off MQA pass through when sending to the Explorer2.

 

It is claimed that the output of the SW decoder is still a valid MQA stream, and when sent to an MQA DAC, will cause the blue light.

 

Please tell us what happens.

 

With Explorer 2 it seems to make no difference if MQA Passthrough is enabled or not, albums are unfolded to same resolution either way

[bcwang]

With Explorer 2 it seems to make no difference if MQA Passthrough is enabled or not, albums are unfolded to same resolution either way

 

I believe someone mentioned seeing with the explorer 2, the checkbox is ignored. I can check this when I get home to see if the explorer 2 is getting a 48k or 44.1k signal when the checkbox is unchecked. Tidal does detect it as an MQA dac so it could easily do this.

[mm67]

See:

 

MQA Decoding Explained | AudioStream

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

Quote from there :

One thing to note: if the original MQA file is 24/48, 24/96, or 24/88.2, it will pass through the software decoder and be 'unfolded' to its original resolution. This brings up the interesting fact that people who love their DAC and its proprietary digital filter may very well be able to have their cake and eat it too, especially when streaming MQA content from Tidal HiFi.

 

If the original file is 24/48 then this claim doesn't seem to be true, software decoder always unfolds it to 24/96

[austinpop]

If the original file is 24/48 then this claim doesn't seem to be true, software decoder always unfolds it to 24/96

 

Yeah - could just be a corner case that Tidal the SW decoder doesn't handle well.