Tidal AAC (High) content bitrate not displayed in 1.4 (build 294)

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1

Hi,

just wanted to report that Tidal High (AAC 320kbs) bitrate is displayed as AAC 44.1 kHz 16bit 2ch, although I’d expect something like AAC 44.1 kHz 320kps (as is reported by naim app)? This is roon 1.4 (build 294).

39

Is this a known issue?

Greetings from Black Forest

2

I do not recall that as a change in Roon 1.4. AAC, MP3, etc., do have underlying sample rates, just like PCM. So, that is what Roon is reporting in the signal path, which indicates any changes in bit depth and sample rate from beginning to end in Roon.

AJ

3

Are you saying it is working as designed? I was expecting to see the different bitrate as for instance shown in naim’s app when playing the same track directly via naim app (44.1 kHz 320 kBit/sec).

With Tidal Hifi I was used to quality being shown as purple and FLAC 44.1 kHz (or 48 kHz for Master) and 16 bit. After downgrading to Premium I was expecting to see the actual lower bitrate. I noticed that quality changed to yellow and AAC was reported correctly. But I was confused as sample rate and resolution (correctly?) stayed the same.

Guess it is maybe a feature request then to see the actual bitrate of a lossy format and not just the colour code (purple vs. yellow)? Apologies if that has been discussed already…

I’ve changed the topic title accordingly…

4

I just double checked, and Roon displays bit rate for lossy files – if they are local files. Tidal may not apply, since Roon is not able to perform audio analysis to Tidal the same way that it does to local library files.

AJ

5

Hmm, and if streamed directly (not via RAAT) the naim streamer decodes the stream, has access to the metadata and can report the bitrate found in the stream?

Would it be possible for roon to read the bitrate from the stream’s metadata? I don’t know the format (yet), so this might be a stupid question. I’m assuming the stream’s metadata contains the sample rate, resolution and bitrate?

Still seems to be a feature request, and not an error report. Would it make sense to move this topic to the Tidal section of the forum?

Ah, and thanks btw Andrew for looking into this!