How to config Audio MIDI Setup for Tidal

Dec 29, 2021 at 10:17 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 1

reznik6044

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I'm trying to configure my Audio MIDI setting on my MacBook Pro to the correct quality output. (Note, I didn't even realize you needed to do this until today ?!?!). I'm streaming FLAC from Amazon Music HD and MQA from Tidal.

By default it was set to 2 ch 24-bit 48.0 kHz... I got a new DAC that shows me the bit rate coming through and I couldn't get the bit rate to come through at full quality. So after some research, found out there is an Audio MIDI setting app on Mac! ...I set the format to 2 ch 24-bit integer 192.0 kHz and my DAC finally showed audio coming through at the proper bit rate/quality. All is good in the world again, until...

When I switch to Tidal, it kicks back down to 2 ch 32-bit integer at 44.1kHz! Note: I'm streaming MQA - Master Audio. The DAC does show MQA active, but the bit rate is down to 44.1 kHz (WFT?) I tried everything I can think of in the Mac Audio MIDI setting, but nothing works.

Finally, I found the settings in the Tidal app itself that allow me to turn OFF Exclusive mode and it doesn't send MQA to the DAC and the bit rate finally shows 2 ch 32-bit 192.0 kHz and Hi-Res Audio lights up.

What am I missing here? Isn't MQA the desired format to stream in from Tidal? I was under the impression that MQA was supposed to come through at 24bit/192kHz.

I'm not looking for a debate of MQA vs. FLAC - I'm just trying to figure out what's the correct way to maximize the sound quality.

Thanks in advance!!
 

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