Tidal adds "Masters' to Android

[AMR/iFi audio]

Folks, if anyone's interested, we just posted a handy MQA + Tidal tutorial on one of our own portable machines. 

 

 

[AMR/iFi audio]

10 hours ago, Cebolla said:

 

Are you saying that any Android device that can output audio via USB to the iFi xDSD DAC, can get the xDSD to bit perfectly receive the audio that has been decoded to the MQA Core (first unfold) by the official TIDAL Android app, when playing TIDAL's Masters MQA file tracks?

 

If not, can you list which Android devices are able to do this and/or what specification of Android device is required?

 

It's a bit complicated due to Android smartphones vary in what they send out and we're not able to check each separately. As listed here:

 

http://support.ifi-audio.com/kb/faq.php?id=129

• Android device that can run Android 4.1 or above.
• USB host mode has been enabled by the Android manufacturer.
• Android device running Android Open Accessory (AOA) protocol version 2.0.

...are all a solid start. Bitperfect data is a must as well. One of our crew has fairly new Samsung, which upsamples all audio internally, which is a problem. The man uses Audio Player Pro, which overrides this upsampling and he's dandy. 

[AMR/iFi audio]

19 hours ago, lucretius said:

 

The Tidal Android app does not send bit perfect data via USB (using a Samsung Galaxy S8; other apps on this phone do send bit perfect data).

The Tidal app is up-sampling all tracks (MQA and non-MQA to the highest output of the DAC connected to the phone. I tested this with 3 DACs:

(1) Dragonfly Red DAC (MQA renderer)

(2) Marantz HD-AMP1 amp/DAC (non-MQA)

(3) Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (MQA decoder and renderer)

All tracks, MQA and non-MQA alike played at the following sample rates noted on the DACs:

(1) 96k

(2) 192k

(3) 192k*

*Strangely, the DAC is indicating 192k and 22 bit (not 24 bit).

I tried changing the streaming quality in the app (e.g. from Master to HiFi) and no matter what I set it at, the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ indicates 192k and this includes when playing non-MQA material. Similar results on the other DACs. Further, the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+, which is an MQA decoder and renderer, is not detecting an MQA stream.

 

Unfortunately, there is no setting in the app to turn off MQA decoding and pass the bit perfect data through.

 

Have you seen this?

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.extreamsd.usbaudioplayerpro&hl=en_US

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 1/31/2019 at 2:51 AM, lucretius said:

 

The Tidal Android app does not send bit perfect data via USB (using a Samsung Galaxy S8; other apps on this phone do send bit perfect data).

The Tidal app is up-sampling all tracks (MQA and non-MQA to the highest output of the DAC connected to the phone. I tested this with 3 DACs:

(1) Dragonfly Red DAC (MQA renderer)

(2) Marantz HD-AMP1 amp/DAC (non-MQA)

(3) Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (MQA decoder and renderer)

All tracks, MQA and non-MQA alike played at the following sample rates noted on the DACs:

(1) 96k

(2) 192k

(3) 192k*

*Strangely, the DAC is indicating 192k and 22 bit (not 24 bit).

I tried changing the streaming quality in the app (e.g. from Master to HiFi) and no matter what I set it at, the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ indicates 192k and this includes when playing non-MQA material. Similar results on the other DACs. Further, the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+, which is an MQA decoder and renderer, is not detecting an MQA stream.

 

Unfortunately, there is no setting in the app to turn off MQA decoding and pass the bit perfect data through.

 

We own several Android devices i.e. Huawei, Xaomi etc. All but the Samsung play MQA and Hi-Res just fine at the correct sampling rates. Samsung internally up-samples audio with its driver, its nothing related to TIDAL. If it was TIDAL, then all Androids would have the same issue, since MQA is required to have a bit-perfect stream.

 

You've used 3 DACs but the same Samsung, meaning its upsampling to the highest supported sampling rate of what said DACs can do.

 

USB Audio Player Pro overrides the internals of Samsung allowing to take control of the stream making it 'bit-perfect' - with the TIDAL plug in and MQA purchase you can still get MQA via Tidal with a Samsung.

 

For that sole reason we used an Huawei for our video demonstration, and using a Samsung for UAPP Tidal MQA video which is coming soon.

 

Here is a clip from UAPP app store:

 

"High quality media player supporting USB audio DACs and HiRes audio chips found in the latest phones. Play up to any resolution and sample rate that the DAC supports! All popular and less popular formats are supported, including wav, flac, mp3, m4a, MQA and DSD. This app is a must-have for every audiophile, bypassing all audio limits of Android. Whether you use our custom USB audio driver for USB DACs, our HiRes driver for internal audio chips or the standard Android driver, this app is one of the highest quality media players around."

 

We also wrote an article a few years back that highlights the same but on Sony phones - https://ifi-audio.com/licking-the-lollipop/ 

 

Sony are into their audio.

 

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 2/2/2019 at 8:34 AM, lucretius said:

 

Yes. I have USB Audio Player Pro. It's great.

 

👍