StreamingTidal MQA with Roon [undecoded] to an MQA DAC

Audio Gear Talk MQA
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Meridian deals with protection of IP rights in their hardware already, e.g. when you feed high res from a disk player through HDMI the M hardware won’t export high res digital data over an open SPDIF connection, it will play it or send it over their own encrypted connection. Similarly, Meridian decodes MQA and plays it on the DSP soeakers but won’t export the decoded stream.

I think this protection of rights has been behind the agonizing over software decoding, or even of hardware decoding in a streamer with a digital output. A sealed environment keeps owners happy, but doesn’t meet customer needs. Meridian finessed that, but such environments are a small market.

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@femanburch - You’ll probably need to use an external USB DAC to see sample rates over 48kHz after software MQA decoding on Mac OS X. For example, here’s what I saw when playing the 2L album:

When I tried playing these just with my Mac’s internal sound card, the highest I saw was 48kHz also. With an external USB DAC, I see 32-bits (integer) and either 88.2kHz or 96kHz after software MQA decoding.

63

It says “access to thousands of master-quality albums”; however, I still only see 199 under the “Masters” section of “What’s New”.

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64

My DAC is 24/384 capable so the Tidal app software decoding on OSX is definately maxing out at 24/96.

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On Windows too

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There are plenty of others not listed under the Masters tab. For instance The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead. You’ll have to do some exploring :slight_smile:

67

You are obviously a mathematician, not a marketer or a politician.

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My tests of Tidal “Masters” (MQA) content – all works as expected.

Roon on NUC feeding Meridian 818 over network, feeding Meridian DSP 8000: MQA Studio authenticated indication, various bit rates up to 192 kHz. MQA hardware decoded, Roon just sends bitperfect.

Same components using USB: same result.

Roon on NUC feeding MicroRendu over network, feeding Geek Pulse over USB: 44 or 48 kHz, because the Pulse is not MQA aware and Roon does not software decode MQA.

Tidal Windows desktop app feeding Geek Pulse over USB, with software decoding enabled in Tidal: bit rates up to 96 kHz shown on the Pulse.

(EDIT: Joni Mitchell Blue plays at 192 on the Meridian, 96 with Windows software deciding, as stated above.)

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As I understand it, the limitation on unprotected (no HDCP) hi-res output (anything >16/44.1) was based on the certification requirements for SACD and DVD-A players. While I don’t have an HDMI DAC or HT receiver to test it for myself, my understanding is that you should be able to output hi-res from SACD or DVD-A over HDMI to/from devices that support HDCP.

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There are definitely more titles than what are showing up under “Masters”. e.g. the Willie album in the screenshot I posted above.

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I found that “Shotgun Willie” album as you suggested. There’s the “normal” version and the “MASTER” version, which does sound significantly better. I re-checked, and this album does not appear to have been included in the 199 listed under “Masters” in the “What’s New” Albums section. Strange. I wonder if there’s a way to find these besides just lucking upon them…

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Right. But HDCP is not used in audio devices.
So the question was always if MQA was going to block software decoding (and limit its appeal for high end customers and the computer audio market), or limit it to closed ecosystems like a Meridian (small market), or try to push a protection standard on the market (impossible), or convince the publishers to give up on solid protection (difficult).

Seems as if they open it up. Promising.

73

Hello,

Safe to assume that Roon’s own TIDAL What’s New page in Albums, would also show Masters selection, in upcoming Roon updates?

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Hmm, in FAQ they say smth about 30k. In Master section like you said we have 200 albums… (but thats “whats new” section). Def. in search we need filter (mqa/master)

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I would imagine this is just the beginning and a lot will change quickly with the roll out.

76

David, the frequency dropdown in the OSX Audio MIDI Setup is an output setting that I do not believe has anything to do with the input value, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the frequency of the Tidal stream?

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DrTone, on the DAC lights, on Mac OSX with an old Meridian Explorer I can make frequency lights come on as I choose by selecting the sample rate for the output to the device in Audio MIDI Setup, and I believe the operating system up or down samples as required. Not sure how this works in Windows, but on a Mac I don’t see how you can tell what you are getting out of the Tidal desktop application.

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With the Tidal app set to exclusive mode you can open the midi setup and just watch the sample rate change as you play mqa or non mqa when doing software decoding. Or if you have a dac that shows sample rate watch it there.

Setting the sample rate in the midi application is something you should never ever have to do. You always want your software taking care of sample rate switching.

Setting a fixed sample rate in the midi setup is just telling Core Audio to convert everything to that sample rate before sending it to that device. Now if the software happens to be output that rate there is no conversion.

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Perhaps, but the sampling rade does change depending on which track I play. Normal “HIFI” tracks show up as 44.1kHz while “MASTER” tracks either show 88.2kHz or 96kHz. The out value seems to be tracking the input.

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DrTone and David, think I figured it out. Tidal app is decoding to 96khz (or maybe 88, as applicable). In Tidal app set DAC to Use Exclusive Mode, then operating sound system settings are left out of it, and for Master albums so far I am getting two lights on old Meridian Explorer (and for non-Master 48 KHz). When I also tick Passthrough MQA it drops to 48 KHz. So software decoding in Tidal app is taking it to 96KHz. Ordered an Explorer2 yesterday …