Al Jarreau Damaged Album

Al Jarreau’s album The very Best of is unlistenable. It emits sounds that can damage the system.

Hi,

I’m curious, what is the of the source of the music?

  • CD rip
  • Download
  • Tidal
  • Qobuz
  • KKBox
  • Something else

If ripped, how was this performed?
You could try re-ripping.
(I use dBPoweramp which has never let me down.)

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I am referring to the version available on Roon

All of the above sources I listed could be available via Roon, which one specifically are you playing.

Can you post screenshots of the Roon application when you are playing a track from this album…

  1. The album page
  2. The signal path

From that image, it looks like you are playing the MQA version from Tidal …

Can you post a screenshot of Roon’s signal path.

Also a couple of follow up questions…

If you play the Qobuz version do you have the same issue?

If you play a different Tidal MQA album, does it exhibit similar issues?

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The Qobuz version sounds fine, some tracks show very high recording standards. As it is a compilation, mixes and mastering vary greatly, with at least one track seemingly being based on an almost monaural recording.

Sounds like some several bits of sub information of an MQA version which is not declared as such. Maybe someone having Tidal might want to confirm this.

As MQA masterings vary regarding the additional, ´folded´, information, this would not necessarily tell a lot about the specific album´s problems. I would rather try to enable software MQA decoding or listen to the very same album on a fully MQA-capable chain. This should bring clarification.

I had similar cases from Tidal as well, although experienced rather some strange, white-noise-like elevated noisefloor instead of signals that can damage the system. In all cases tracks were not declared to being MQA. This uncertainty made me finally walk away from Tidal completely and use solely Qobuz with roon.

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The problem is on the Tidal version. The Qobuz version is ok

While I was answering you, I was also thinking that the Tidal subscription should be abandoned

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In any case I disabled the MQA function

That’s where I was heading, but taking it step at a time to get feedback from the OP as it was not clear if it was just this album or related to a wider generic audio device setup.

From the signal path I can that Sorgente track is not MQA encoded (or at least not properly).

So it should not matter if the MQA decoder on Roon is enabled or not.

I think you have your answer, listen to Qobuz version.

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I’m playing this release, and it’s playing absolutely fine on the first track, but then skips with some strange audio* similar to cue on a tape deck. Then We’re in This Love Together plays.

I should add that this is without MQA decoder enabled. Similar issue when I change the settings.

No MQA source shown in the signal path, so I’m guessing the MQA signalling may be corrupt.

Listen to Breakin’ Away instead … it’s a cracking album.

*This won’t harm the system.

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