Consider the impossible alternative…
It’s a reflection on how poor some ISP connections are which is esp. prevalent in rural areas.
Well mine is a pretty solid 9.5 MB download and it won’t work for me.
As stated earlier…try using a VPN…ISP’s employ all sorts of “Traffic Shapping” [i.e. throttling]…and many times throttle based on the Address of the Service…Net Neutrality be damned
It should be noted that most ISP’s have Whitelisted Ookla and Speedtest IP Addresses to access the full rate of your broadband connection…but will then throttle when you try to access a different address…thus leading to the type of confusion seen here…e.g. your 9.5Mbps is about 5 times the required broadband speed to required for MQA Masters [assuming you don’t have 3 kids playing 3 by 3Mbps Netflix streams at the same time]
Have you tried streaming MQA Masters thru the Tidal app…even just to the Desktop / Laptop speakers just to see if the Tidal Master stream will come thru??
For information to all suffering with this problem.
After a week with no internet due to the high winds and thunderstorms in “sunny” Spain, I have just been reconnected and found that my MiFi dish was pointing at the wrong aerial. All though my speed test was giving a reading of 10 MB download it seemed that there may have been issues with it. I tried the MQA playback today and had no problems.
I would therefore suggest anyone else with this problem should check their internet connections very carefully.
Nick
Nice. could you please report again if you start having problems again.?
I´ve been able to play some MQA files with no problems 1 day, and the rest of the week is not possible, it seems like something intermittent in my case.
For those having DSP problems. I had ongoing problems when using DSP - they played for few seconds then stop and move on to next track.
I switched off file analysis (under library in settings) after my whole library had been re-analysed and this seemed to solve most of my problems. Now DSP 24/176 upsampling works with both local and Tidal. (Under music path the processing should show over 1.0x otherwise your music source does not have the processing power). Still can’t get MQA files to play and it’s not a bandwidth issue.
MQA will only play of its Bit Perfect. The DSP may be changing this.
TIDAL: A networking or connectivity problem is interfering with TIDAL playback.
Same problem here if I attempt do do anything on the computer running my Roon Core. Facebook messages, Google searches, etc. all cause stuttering, followed by out song skipping. Meanwhile Tidal preforms flawlessly, very frustrating.
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Just to clarify as I wasn’t clear that I am not using DSP on MQA music streaming from Tidal. MQA music will not play at all. Its not a bandwidth issue.
Can you play MQA titles thru the Tidal app itself, even just to your computer speakers??
I have a dedicated linux music server which does not run the tidal app. I control the music from a Roon control on lap top and iPhone.
Can you try it on a Laptop or Desktop using Windows or MacOS??
Will try at that later Ronnie, as my setup doesn’t make this easy at present. I have been advised to change the DNS settings, but my router will not allow this and changing in Linux is not for the faint hearted. Thanks for your input.
Are you able to play regular non-MQA Albums thru the Roon app??
The basic purpose of my proposal above is to see if you can get the required 1.5 to 2Mbps from Tidal to play the MQA tracks…and I know that Speedtest and Ookla may be telling you that you have the bandwidth, but a test is best to see if your ISP is implemeting Throttling thru DPI etc
Yes I am playing non MQA, non DSP music all the time, with no problems. (I also watch HD movies etc, so bandwidth would not be the issue here).
I can see that you’re pretty set on that idea…but you must understand that you MAY be under a false impression here…just because your ISP is allowing ~3Mbps thru to your router for Netflix et al, does not mean that it will allow Tidal thru at the ~2Mbps necessary to play MQA titles…[if you wish, look up net neutrality; Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and ISP’s wanting to charge Streaming Services for increased bandwidth to carry their services]
Consider that the only difference between the regular 16/44 Tidal FLAC file and the 24/48 MQA FLAC file is that one is delivered at a higher bit rate [~1Mbps versus ~1.6Mbps.] Roon sees both files as FLAC files and is not trying to decode or anything else with the MQA file…and as you’ve seen, there are thousands of users here playing MQA tracks without issue, so the issue is not with Roon being unable to "“process” the MQA file
So the easiest way to see if Tidal MQA is capable of being delivered to your home is to try it thru the Tidal app itself…and that will help the Roon guys diagnose what the underlying issue is here
Just to step in here as the OP I was also streaming HD movies on my BB connection with no problem at but all my problems were solved when my MiFi was changed to a different aerials. The download and upload speeds were exactly the same and the latency was the same but that was what cured the problem.
Thanks Nick
It can be confusing when Speedtest / Ookla are telling you that you can download e.g. 10Mbps [or more]…and Netflix / Apple / Youtube all work fine at 3-5Mbps…but then for some reason, you can’t stream Tidal at 1 to 1.6Mbps
And as you’ve seen, there can be several reasons why this can happen…none of them obvious at first glance…some to do with equipment at receiving end [in your case]…some to do with Routers / Switches internally within the house…some to do with ISP policies on streaming services above 1Mbps
Nothing is simple in this business then, :)… thanks for clarifying Ronnie. So to be clear, are you saying MQA requires more bandwidth that regular flac Tidal files? and/or that my ISP may be throttling the MQA files only? I thought one of the main features of MQA was that it didn’t need high bandwidth?