grumpyoldguy said:

I think he's probably talking about remastering with more dynamic range compression, and possibly other "optimizations" so that when the FLAC algorithm is performed, the required bandwidth to stream is less than a rip from the CD would require.

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Exactly, but you have described it rather better than me. 
 
Tidal and other streamers are quite open that some of their downloads are remasters:
 

1. http://read.tidal.com/article/led-zeppelin-the-remasters
2. http://www.whathifi.com/news/remastered-led-zeppelin-albums-now-available-lossless-streaming
3. https://newrepublic.com/minutes/126515/beatles-coming-spotify-apple-even-tidal-but-not-rdio-rdio-dead
4. http://forum.amcorner.com/threads/herb-alpert-remasters-now-available-via-streaming.14737/
5. http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/music/prince-still-in-control-as-new-album-is-released-on-tidal

 
Just googling 'Tidal and remasters' produces over 1,500,000 results, but the above links show that Tidal are not the only streaming service using remasters - probably the record companies insist on remasters in many cases, for DRM reasons.
But if members search through the 1,500,000 results, they will find forums displaying the frequency curves for streamed and CD versions of the same music, demonstrating that for some CDs they do differ.
Many users of streaming services, mistakenly interpret 'CD quality streaming' to mean that the stream is an exact copy of the original CD - but it is not always the case.
The fact that those users rarely complain, is a sign that for most of them, the remastering does not raise an issue.
It seems to be mainly audiophiles, searching for the best listening experience, who mention that some of the remasters leave them underwhelmed.  

zolom said:

Thanks for the lead

Does it support bit-perfect (especially with Tidal streaming)?

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Sorry but I'm not sure...they do have a tech support team to whom you could forward your question, however.
how would you tell, btw?
is that the reading you get when you're playing your music...ie, in the onkyo hf app it'll show alac or 24/192 files.
is this what you mean?

miketlse said:

   
The sixth customer review does not sound very promising.
'I bought this about a month and a half ago and enjoyed it for a little while, however, over the last month it has become increasingly difficult to charge, at first not working from the computer, then having to charge from the wall (this doesn't always work) and generally malfunctioning whenever I need to charge it (which is pretty often). It's also worth mentioning that the metal finish rubs off VERY Quickly. Not too impressed for £75.

EDIT: Its now been two months since I bought this piece of crap and it's completely clapped out, waste of money!'

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I have one of these, and OOTB there are some issues.  There is no digital out, only line out.  Rockbox fixes a lot of the UI and performance issues though.

While I don't do Tidal, I can see where remastering is of benefit to the end user, esecially given that the vast majority of Tidal's customers are either listening on the go, or have it as background music on what we would consider less than adequate systems.

I actually do remastering myself with classical music that I want to listen to on my commute. The dynamic range of classical is such that quiet sections can be almost inaudable when in a mobile situation with all the background noise that seeps in.

So, I just load up the music into Logic, stick an EQ, a multiband compessor, and finally a limiter onto the track and adjust to taste. Normally I'll make the quietest sections around 6dB less than the loudest sections so I get a feeling of the intention of the music, but at the same time remaining perfectly audible. I then dump them down to 256Kbps AAC - no need for lossless or hi-res in a moble situation.

I wouldn't listen to my remasters in a home situation as they totally fail in that environment, but in a mobile envoronment they really work.

I remember in the UK, back in the old FM days, that a classical radio station called Classic FM used to do this and in the car the music sounded great, but on my system at home it was awful, whereas Radio 3 was unlistenable in the car, needing almost constant changes to the volume setting. However at home Radio 3 was superb - well as far as radio went.

x relic x said:

The issue is Apple's requirement to have Apple certification which is why the MFI chip from the CCK is required to output a digital signal. Chord won't release their proprietary tech for Apple to dissect and get Apple 'approval' (and rightfully so for Chord to refuse IMO) so this is the only way around it. I'm just keeping it straight for potential new owners of a Mojo.

Thanks for trying to help though.

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Relic my friend I have to respectfully dissent. Apple has the right to control its ecosystem and plenty of companies like Shure with the KSE1500 did get MFI certification from Apple.

If the issue is trade secrets that is easily solved with a non disclosure/confidentiality agreement. As a corporate attorney I have negotiated hundreds of such agreements between Forture 500 companies with far more proprietary information to protect.

spook76 said:

Relic my friend I have to respectfully dissent. Apple has the right to control its ecosystem and plenty of companies like Shure with the KSE1500 did get MFI certification from Apple.

If the issue is trade secrets that is easily solved with a non disclosure/confidentiality agreement. As a corporate attorney I have negotiated hundreds of such agreements between Forture 500 companies with far more proprietary information to protect.

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So you would trust Apple to not reuse Chords FPGA code, in a future Apple product?
 
From the viewpoint of a corporate attorney, it does not matter if Apple (or other big company) ignores the NDA, because there will be big fees to be earned by the corporate attorney, when the case goes to court.
 
For the small company like Chord, it is better to be cautious and protect their IPR, and not let Apple copy the IPR and remove Chords commercial advantage within a couple of years.

I think apple just does this so they can charge $30 for the CCK, which probably costs them 50 cents to make. Similar to Sony and their stupid memory sticks.

canali said:

Sorry but I'm not sure...they do have a tech support team to whom you could forward your question, however.
how would you tell, btw?
is that the reading you get when you're playing your music...ie, in the onkyo hf app it'll show alac or 24/192 files.
is this what you mean?

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Yes, the color on the mojo indicates upsampling on my S7E, while by using uapp bit perfect, there is no upsamplibg

doggiemom said:

I think apple just does this so they can charge $30 for the CCK, which probably costs them 50 cents to make. Similar to Sony and their stupid memory sticks.

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Maybe slightly harsh.
 
If you compare the two extremes:
 

• Microsoft designed windows originally for PCs based on the IBM PC model, where the PC was composed of many integrated modules, each built to a 'standard'. So if you had a PC built from 10 modules each of which could be sourced from 10 suppliers, you have a PC that can have 10¹⁰ combinations. Windows has to cope with all these combinations. The situation is made more difficult when plug and play devices, plus third party software (which does not always integrate well) is added into the mix. Microsoft/Windows gets the blame when things go wrong.
• Apple took the other approach, by greatly restricting the number of suppliers (eg just dual source for screens), greatly restricting the number of options that could be chosen by software, and rigidly controlling the types of devices that could be plugged into Apple devices. This restrictive ecosystem, greatly reduces the number of combinations that Apple devices/software must cope with, thereby ensuring more reliable products and software (user experience). there is also the knock-on benefit of less/cheaper customer support desks being needed.

 
So the Apple approach has many benefits from an engineering and business viewpoint.  This rigid control of the devices and software that are certified to work with Apple, does give Apple enormous advantages/power regarding the technical/coding knowledge that has to be handed over to Apple.
Inevitably this rigid control when applied to cables, does mean that they can charge whatever they want, but I think that it is wrong to claim that the price is the only motivation for Apple. 

spook76 said:

Relic my friend I have to respectfully dissent. Apple has the right to control its ecosystem and plenty of companies like Shure with the KSE1500 did get MFI certification from Apple.

If the issue is trade secrets that is easily solved with a non disclosure/confidentiality agreement. As a corporate attorney I have negotiated hundreds of such agreements between Forture 500 companies with far more proprietary information to protect.

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I'm just repeating what Chord has said on the matter. They don't want to disclose their internals to Apple, and that's their prerogative.

miketlse said:

 

spook76 said:

Relic my friend I have to respectfully dissent. Apple has the right to control its ecosystem and plenty of companies like Shure with the KSE1500 did get MFI certification from Apple.

If the issue is trade secrets that is easily solved with a non disclosure/confidentiality agreement. As a corporate attorney I have negotiated hundreds of such agreements between Forture 500 companies with far more proprietary information to protect.

Click to expand...

 
So you would trust Apple to not reuse Chords FPGA code, in a future Apple product?
 
From the viewpoint of a corporate attorney, it does not matter if Apple (or other big company) ignores the NDA, because there will be big fees to be earned by the corporate attorney, when the case goes to court.
 
For the small company like Chord, it is better to be cautious and protect their IPR, and not let Apple copy the IPR and remove Chords commercial advantage within a couple of years.

Click to expand...

 
One only need recall Apple vs Samsung to appreciate that where huge sums of money are concerned, it ceases to be about what is held to be 'Right' or 'Wrong', and more about who has the best lawyers and the deepest pockets to pay for extended legal battles (and skillfully pick legalistic holes in IP contracts, etc.). Smaller companies can't possibly defend themselves against multi-billion dollar corporations, if such corporations decide that profiting from proprietary technology is a higher priority than respecting the rights to it.
 
IMO, Rob is entirely sane to keep the culmination of his lifes work to himself. He's earned it the hard way, and rightly deserves to reap the rewards.
 
As for Chord hypothetically 'desiring' MFI certification, please remember that Chord do not own the IP for the code on the FPGAs. Rob does.
 
There are numerous DAPs and Android smartphones one can connect to Mojo. For those fructose addicts who feel unable to wean themselves from the Apple teat, there are 3rd-party single cables that will (most of the time) beat Apple at their own game.
 
 
.

x relic x said:

I'm just repeating what Chord has said on the matter. They don't want to disclose their internals to Apple, and that's their prerogative.

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I agree with that completely. Not to be obsequious but you and Mython are truly wonderful in answering any and all questions here on the Mojo thread. Thank you both.

spook76 said:

I agree with that completely. Not to be obsequious but you and Mython are truly wonderful in answering any and all questions here on the Mojo thread. Thank you both.

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Thank you my friend.

zolom said:

Yes, the color on the mojo indicates upsampling on my S7E, while by using uapp bit perfect, there is no upsamplibg

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bit perfect and upsampling..
 
guys this is one area i'm in need of clarification, please...
 
so say i'm using my ipodtouch 6 and mojo brick.
have both the onkyo hf and sennheiser captune apps.
i've ripped my cd and 24/192 files to the ipod touch....
when i'm playing on the onkyo app it'll tell me the quality...alac...or hi res 24/192.
is this all i should be concerned about?
 
basically i just want to have whatever i've ripped or transferred over to be played in the same resolution.
(or better of course, lol)

canali said:

bit perfect and upsampling..

guys this is one area i'm in need of clarification, please...

so say i'm using my ipodtouch 6 and mojo brick.
have both the onkyo hf and sennheiser captune apps.
i've ripped my cd and 24/192 files to the ipod touch....
when i'm playing on the onkyo app it'll tell me the quality...alac...or hi res 24/192.
is this all i should be concerned about?

basically i just want to have whatever i've ripped or transferred over to be played in the same resolution.
(or better of course, lol)

Click to expand...

Well, basically if you rip CD to 24/192 you are adding information that didn't exist in the CD so in a sense you are upsampling right from the rip, making it non-bitperfect. IMO, you should just rip to Redbook CD standard of 16/44.1 and let the Mojo take care of the file as it was natively mastered. Saves storage space too.

Oops! I realize I misread your post. Apologies!

I realize this doesn't answer your question about the player though.

P.S. How about that snow we've got, huh?