I donāt feel picked on ā just misunderstood. The issue that wonāt let me access the MQA version of a TIDAL album that I find in Roon when I press the Other Versions button has its roots in a problem that has existed way before TIDAL started streaming MQA files.
Let me reiterate: If I have a version of a TIDAL album in my Library that isnāt a Super Deluxe/Remastered/Special Edition version, I canāt access my version of the album in TIDAL through Roon by using the Other Versions>View album in TIDAL function. Roon always takes me to whatever Special Edition it has predetermined is the best version choice for that album in TIDAL.
The inability to access an MQA version of an album in TIDAL from within Roon is just the latest manifestation of what I consider to be a longstanding bug.
Maybe, maybe not. I seriously doubt that TIDALās decision to stream MQA at this time was a surprise for the Roon devs. If TIDAL MQA support in Roon was a priority for the developers, then they have been working on it along with all the other 1.3 goodies. If it wasnāt a priority, then we will likely see better Roon/TIDAL/MQA integration in a later release.
Select the music in the Master section of Tidal desktop (favorite star) the play the MQA in Roon either software only or through your MQA enabled DAC works like a dream donāt need 1.3.
Get up from the couch in the music room where you sit with your iPad, go into the office where the PC is, wake up the PC, start the Tidal appā¦
Do the thing, find the right album and Favorite it.
Walk back to the music room, pick up the iPad, force a Tidal sync, enjoy the music.
I wonder what else they have by this musician? Walk back to the office and browse in the Tidal app, with its different UX and less powerful metadataā¦
Anders just do it once "favorite " everything it all goes to ROON, sit back and enjoy. BTW possibly the Tidal āmasterā sounds better than the ROON decode? have a listen adios ROON save money.
So far the Tidal MQA software decoding using the Windows Desktop app doesnāt sound as good as Roon + HQPlayer (or without) on the same non-MQA DAC.
Played on Roon (no MQA DAC): the Tidal CD-quality version vs the Tidal MQA (downsampled to 24/48) gives a slight edge to the 24/48 files in overall spaciousness
The Tidal Desktop app with software MQA decoding doesnāt sound anywhere as beautiful as even the standard CD-quality version on Roon. It does sound better than the CD-quality version via the desktop app, but thatās possibly just the upsampling
There is also major difference in volume where Roon is louder, so that may bias things, so I will need to do more comparisons later. We havenāt even scratched the surface yet, but this is still a huge milestone where Hi-Res is available at scale. A year from now we will probably all be used to it, but these things are still awesome to see, just like when HDTRacks started selling DSD.
I agree. Weāre streaming hi-res! Thereās some hoops to jump and some āconfigā to do and, as always, some nitpicks. But itās hi-res and a lot of it sounds really good. Better than most of my CD rips.
Make sure you have exclusive mode and force volume checked and that you donāt have MQA passthrough checked so you are getting Tidal to decode the MQA files.
Do them in a batch, I did. Also go to Masters in Tidal, click on an Artist and the click through their albums and see which one indicate master as you play a few seconds.
I did not have exclusive mode checked - it makes A/B switching between apps harder, but I will and retry it. Force volume can only be ticked before selecting Exclusive Mode, so not sure if it works. I never had MQA passthrough checked. Iāll play with it tonight!
An aside: Anyone else notice this? When switching back and forth between Tidal and Roon, it seems like Tidal takes control of frequency and bitrate and doesnāt relinquish it. If I play a Master track on Tidal, pause it then go to Roon and play a CD-quality track, my DAC still indicates that Iām playing a 96/24 file. If I play a Master file in Tidal and then switch to a Hi Fi file in Tidal, the DAC indicates that the stream is 44/24ābit depth doesnāt reset. If I then switch back to Roon and play a red book file, I get the same indication: 44/24. When I check Audio Midi settingsāIām using a MACāthatās what I see: Even though I check the box to bypass OS audioā
Correct. That is what āUse Exclusive Modeā means, though it would be nice if the client released control once you hit the āstopā playback button.
You must exit the Tidal client (not just stop playback) to release control back to the OS or to other players.
Hm - doesnāt happen here. As soon as I exit Tidal (or any other exclusive mode player), they release the DAC and itās available for any other program.
This used to be a problem with earlier versions of OS X, but havenāt seen it recently and not with macOS Sierra.
Wish I had a music room. 
