I’m sorry Anders I disagree. If I select a file (favorite) from the “master” section of the Tidal desktop app a file that has MQA software folding. That “favorite” goes to my ROON application and I can play it as an MQA file. Unfolded once in the Tidal software or put it through my Explorer 2 for further "unfolding. At this time ROON is just passing on the “Tidal unfold” if you will. We hope at some point in the future that ROON will “unfold” MQA files but ROON is not a streaming service and as such will need a different “antenna” ie. streaming service to play future content.f
Roon doesn’t “Need” the Tidal desktop app. Tidal is fully integrated into the Roon interface such that by using Roon you have the Tidal library to play via Roon.
The only difference has been, for a few weeks now, the Tidal desktop app offers decoding of certain Master (MQA) titles. These are new albums added to the Tidal library at the same time Tidal updated their desktop app to offer decoding that Roon doesn’t, yet.
Though Roon’s developers are somewhat tightlipped about when it will happen, it is widely expected by Roon users that Roon will have the same kind of decoding in the Roon/Tidal integration that Tidal’s app alone offers now.
It is also presumed by many that when and if Roon offers decoding similar to what the Tidal desktop app now has, Roon will also have an MQA bypass option to bypass any internal decoding and send the unfolded undecoded MQA stream to an MQA capable DAC.
Edit: Having reread this and considering your statements. You are correct. Right now Roon “Needs” the Tidal app so users can find and Favorite Masters which then can be played by Roon to an MQA DAC. Lol. Hopefully, this will change soon.
[quote=“Richard_Thorpe, post:41, topic:18650”]
That “favorite” goes to my ROON application and I can play it as an MQA file.
[/quote]Yes … but the file is output still as an encoded MQA stream * to the DAC.
[quote=“Richard_Thorpe, post:41, topic:18650”]
Unfolded once in the Tidal software … at this time ROON is just passing on the “Tidal unfold”…
[/quote]That is not correct, Roon sends the MQA encoded stream (from Tidal cloud) bit perfect * to the DAC there is no unfolding in the signal path from the Tidal cloud to DAC.
The Tidal application plays no part in Roon’s signal path.
*This will change in a future release of Roon as it is planned for Roon to support MQA Decoding (aka unfolding).
This is incorrect. Roon does not need or use the Tidal desktop app. Tidal streams within Roon.
Think of Tidal as a broadcasting station. It sends out a variety of files or channels. Roon is like a TV set that picks them up and plays them. At the moment Roon doesn’t unfold the MQA channel, it plays it folded up or sends it bit perfect to an MQA DAC.
In addition to being a broadcasting station Tidal also make a TV set called the Tidal desktop app. That set currently unfolds MQA in a generic way. It is not necessary to have the Tidal desktop app in order to use Tidal with Roon.
Roon will unfold MQA in the future, perhaps in a similar way to the Tidal desktop app, perhaps differently. But it will not use or depend on the Tidal desktop app. You will continue to be able to use Tidal with Roon without having the Tidal desktop app on your computer if you choose not to.
I don’t know what you mean by “disagree”. It is not a matter of opinion.
The Tidal app is not involved in Roon playback of Tidal content, MQA or otherwise – it can’t be, I know this because the Tidal app is not installed on my Roon computer.
I’m not clear on what you mean by “Roon is not a streaming service”. First, it actually is, but in an irrelevant sense: Roon streams music over the network to several devices around my house. But with regard to Tidal, Roon is a streaming client, i.e. it receives content that is streamed from the Tidal service. And it does this on its own, without involving the Tidal app.
And when it sends bitperfect content to an endpoint, MQA or otherwise, it does this without involving the Tidal client.
There is the issue of discovery of MQA content, where the Tidal app is (a little bit) better than Roon. But that is optional. I have several Tidal albums in my Roon library that I discovered directly from Roon. (E.g. search for an artist in Roon, go to the area that shows a Tidal albums, if you see an album that exists in several copies you can play a moment from each and see what Roon shows in the output path, if it is 24/48 it is MQA.)
The Tidal app is unrelated to Roon playback. It today has a capability that Roon lacks, software decoding, but when Roon gains this capability it will certainly not do it through the Tidal app because Roon needs to decode non-Tidal MQA content.
I give up, calling ROON a streaming service is just wrong. English can be tough and complicated.
1 Like
Richard: I think you are confusing the sending and receiving end of streamed content. Tidal is a sender/broadcaster of content but it also has a desktop application that receives that content and readies it for playback on your system. Roon is not a sender/broadcaster (except to the extent that as Anders points out above, it can act as a streamer within your own network sending content to Roon enabled endpoints). But in the way you are using it with Tidal, it is mainly a desktop application that receives its content from elsewhere. That elsewhere can be your NAS, a hard-drive on your computer, or it can be Tidal.
When you are using Roon with Tidal, it receives the files that Tidal broadcasts as being part of your account. Today it streams them as is. In the future Roon will do unfolding of MQA files. But the desktop version of Roon does not interact with the desktop version of Tidal (and Tidal doesn’t even need to be open on your computer for Roon to stream Tidal content).
On the other hand, if you are using the desktop app for Tidal it receives the same stream it sends Roon, but the Tidal app is capable of unfolding MQA files it receives from the streaming service.
If you download an MQA file from say HDTracks and save it on your computer, Tidal today cannot play that file because it only plays the content it receives from its streaming counterpart. The new version of Roon will, however, be able to play (and unfold) both MQA files on your harddrive and those received from the streaming end of Tidal.
Hope that makes sense.
How would you define it?
Thank you for you reply
I would call ROON a database program
That’s certainly at least 30% of what it is! Why don’t you consider it a streamer?
Because it won’t “stream” from the internet, you need Tidal or the like to “stream” misic files from the internet.
Is there any streaming player that doesn’t need a subscription service to stream from the internet?
I’m not sure, others here would know. I’m only interested is “CD” quality or better so I believe it costs to stream at that quality.
Thank you Carl for clearing this up!
1 Like
If you’re not sure then by your definition you are not sure that there is such a thing as a streamer.
It will be hard to understand the answers on this forum if you are not sure of the basic concepts and terminology.
1 Like
just like it can decode aac256. Do we really need anoter snake oil?
mqa at 22.30 ‘MQA is a lossy codec sold to the so called audiophile market’
Read this. It’s far more balanced even though he is not a believer in hires audio. He is only looking at the compression aspects of MQA and confirms that it does what it claims so it’s not snake oil.
If you don’t believe in the benefits of HiRes audio that’s a whole different dicusssion.
gmt I’n not sure what other streamers are out there I like Tidal.