Tidal adds "Masters' to Android

[lucretius]

4 hours ago, AMR/iFi audio said:

 

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. 

 

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.

[lucretius]

On 1/31/2019 at 4:26 PM, AMR/iFi audio said:

 

Have you seen this?

 

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

 

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