Yes, if I added tags to Tidal MQA files, that would enable me to use the Focus feature to identify them in bulk or create a special playlist, or if I looked at the Album View of a file, it would list all the tags, including an MQA tag if I gave it one.
As you know, that’s all after the fact. Also, aside from Tidal Redbook Flac files, the MQA Master formats vary from 24/48, to 96 to 192. I really want all MQA files to identify themselves in terms of sample and bit depth, in addition to the FLAC format.
I don’t know about you, but because most albums - Tidal or otherwise - are not available in anything but Flac 16/44, it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to eliminate them as a Tidal Favorite, and in turn eliminate then from my Library.
So I’m back to playing them to determine if they are MQA or Redbook, and identify the MQA’s sample/bit rate.
Tidal must already be “tagging” Master files with some sort of identification to ensure they are correctly assigned to the Master library the’ve created for us to browse. Anyway you look at this, seems like a small leap for mankind to identify all Tidal files with the proper sample/bit rate.
Thanks for reaching out to help. Hope someone is listening. Without a fix, it dilutes the benefit of having Tidal/Roon make the MQAs available in the first place.
It’s interesting that MQA talk about getting away from file sizes and numbers. An MQA file is just that and the files numbers should have no real meaning.
Certainly you encode from Tape at a high bit rate etc. But for new music recorded digitally with MQA in the studio this is no longer relevant as 24/48 will be the norm along with MQA de bluring.
This is as I understand things.
I admit to knowing little about Long-term plans for MQA bit/sampling rates. All I know now is MQA is currently fielding a variety of bit/sampling rates, depending on what was originally created for the recording. MQA will need to continue in a variety of sampling/but rates, even if going forward new MQA recordings are only in one. Today’s and past recordings are not likely to be re-made, so as long as people want to have the best quality MQA back catalogue, they will be interested in having and knowing bit/sampling rates.
Yes, I agree. Historic recordings will always be the best resolution practcal. An MQA file will be just that though, The analog studio sound. I know it’s of interest at what sample rate it was processed etc, but it shouldn’t matter to the ears.
Chris
I think we’re on the same page, but didn’t get this part. I was saying if there are both MQA and non-MQA in Tidal, to favorite the MQA and unfavorite non-MQA if that was your preference. This would be done in Tidal not Roon with the little “M” Tag. Still a very manual effort as you have to go to each ARTIST to see the multiple albums side by side.
I had to check this in case something had changed, but I don’t think it has. So Hotel Cailfornia played without DSP gets the blue light glowing on the DAC, and more importantly the sound is great. Switch DSP back on and the blue light goes out and the instruments all meld into each other that bit more.
So yes the MQA file will play when DSP is on but you don’t get the benefit of MQA.
That’s correct. MQA encodes material in a special way among the bits, anything that changes the bits prevents recognition and decoding, even volume change, so it plays in compatibility mode, which is 44 or 48k.
Hi Phil.
I’m sure you are not missing anything and I’m not sure why you and I are experiencing different things re: Roon MQA. May be there’s an answer in my set-up info. I have no idea if any of these observations would impact the Roon MQA differences you and I are seeing, but I offer them up to share my set-up;
My Roon Core is located in the Roon Ready device, not in a separate device.
I am using Roon DSP, but only Headroom Management and Sampling are enabled. Crossfeed, EQ and others are disabled. I have not tried turning these other DSP features on to see if they make a difference.
My music server (InnuOS Zenith SE Mk II) and DAC (Simaudio Moon 280D) are both MQA-ready.
Lots of differences but nothing that should impact the MQA side of things. Does your DAC light up blue when playing MQA (as in is it supposed to, and if so does it)?
Hi, Roon will always play the tracks … but with Roon’s DSP enabled it can corrupt the MQA signal and hence the MQA-DAC will not be able to decode it … thus it treats it as a normal PCM stream.
Does your MQA-DACs have any MQA status indicators?
Not sure u saw this, but yes my blue ‘star’ Lites up for these MQA files. The signal path also clearly identifies the files as MQA, as well as the bit/sample rate - up to 192.
All of this without making any changes to DSP. I have Headroom and Sample Rate Conversion enabled (compatibility only+Precise, Minimum Phase+5th Order+Native DSD), but nothing else. All sounds great.
Can I relax and enjoy this or you saying I am likely to begin experiencing problems?
In this case, “compatibility only” would not do anything because this file is already compatible. But if you play a DSD file, or a 352k file, and if your DAC can’t handle those formats, Roon DSP will change them down to something compatible, maybe 192 or less. So compatible-only is very useful.
And my guess is that your Headroom adjustment is set to zero.
If you change that to 1, you will find that the blue light disappears, 1 dB volume change alters the bits and it is no longer an MQA file.
Phil and myself where enquiring about your DAC.
However, what you are describing sounds like Roon’s signal path screen, rather than a MQA status indicator on the DAC itself.
I have not seen anywhere that says the 280d is mqa ready. I saw this
The first MQA-capable MOON DAC will indeed be the 780D, and as mentioned, a path to upgrade to the 780D v2 will be offered (which will offer MQA in addition to other features, providing an overall performance upgrade)
I verified on my system (Meridian 818), the DAC display shows MQA if headroom is Enabled but set to 0 dB.
If I set it to -1 dB, it shows PCM 48, no longer MQA.
Which is as it should be.
I don’t understand how you could anything else.
As Carl points out, Roon will show MQA in both cases, it shows what kind of file it is playing, not what happens in the DAC.
Thanks, all. So I was taking Roon at its word and thought what I was hearing was what it told me. But you’re right. after looking at the DAC, All MQA File’s are playing at 48 regardless of what Roon is telling me.
I also seems like the Simaudio isn’t yet equipped to unpack MQAs. Earliest would be Feb for an download path.
I presume that Roon is reporting MQA files as playing at the higher quality sample/bit rates because the Roon Core is within my MQA-ready InnuOS Zenith!