ifi iDSD nano BL - firmware/MQA issues

[Tal00]

Hello. I hope that those who are perplexed by the nano’s refusal to unfold MQA and turn magenta when playing Master files on Tidal will find this post. I was unable to get MQA to work through the iPhone 10 no matter what. I contacted: Tidal, iFi, MQA and Apple. The were all useless. I even tried a different USB dongle from Apple just to make sure. At the end I figured it out myself. I’m a dentist not an IT guy so that is pretty sad for the “ technical support” groups at Tidal; iFi and MQA! The problem was....... that I played around with the volume balance setting. It’s under accessibility and he’s pretty deep in the menu section. But I’m hearing impaired in my right ear is much worse than my left ear so I wanted to boost up the volume a bit on the right. Apparently if that messes up the fit perfect transmission via USB and so messes up MQA everything else works fine with the R/L balance off except MQA. I hope this helps some folk around here . I hope you are all enjoying excellent quality music while in Quarantine please stay healthy and be safe.

 

[chad.is.rc]

Hello. I hope that those who are perplexed by the nano’s refusal to unfold MQA and turn magenta when playing Master files on Tidal will find this post. I was unable to get MQA to work through the iPhone 10 no matter what. I contacted: Tidal, iFi, MQA and Apple. The were all useless. I even tried a different USB dongle from Apple just to make sure. At the end I figured it out myself. I’m a dentist not an IT guy so that is pretty sad for the “ technical support” groups at Tidal; iFi and MQA! The problem was....... that I played around with the volume balance setting. It’s under accessibility and he’s pretty deep in the menu section. But I’m hearing impaired in my right ear is much worse than my left ear so I wanted to boost up the volume a bit on the right. Apparently if that messes up the fit perfect transmission via USB and so messes up MQA everything else works fine with the R/L balance off except MQA. I hope this helps some folk around here . I hope you are all enjoying excellent quality music while in Quarantine please stay healthy and be safe.

Thanks for the good advice. I have not tried using the DAC with my iphone yet, I normally just use PC. I will keep that in mind if I do. I am from Calgary myself, you stay safe as well during this unprecedented time in our lives, same to all of the people on this forum and your families. God bless.

 

[iFi audio]

I am from Calgary myself, you stay safe as well during this unprecedented time in our lives

Yup, being locekd down is the new normal.

Apparently if that messes up the fit perfect transmission via USB and so messes up MQA

Makes sense. Digital volume not set to max leads to bit loss.

 

[fedocable]

My two cents in case it helps anyone.
I was having the very same issue. After reading this post, I decided to take my chances and update my Nano BL to fw. 5.3c, even though my MacBook Pro only has usb c ports. Instead of connecting the Nano directly to the Mac with the provided cable, I did it through a hub with USB-A ports. The update took 1 second and was successful. Problem solved: now the MQA tracks play right from the beginning in Roon!
According to the firmware notes, the color code of the Nano should have stopped working after the update. But MQA is still marked by a magenta light, while all PCM formats now seem to share the white light. Also, I might be wrong, but it seems like the volume has gone down a bit.

 

[iFi audio]

According to the firmware notes, the color code of the Nano should have stopped working after the update.

MQA and DSD remain untouched by our GTO filter, it applies only to PCM files.

 

[zoriev]

Здравствуйте ! Подскажите, пожалуйста - появилась новая прошивка

Firmware XMOS - что это за прошивка ? Не могу найти на неё описание...​

 

[iFi audio]

Здравствуйте ! Подскажите, пожалуйста - появилась новая прошивка

Firmware XMOS - что это за прошивка ? Не могу найти на неё описание...​

We'll publish info about this firmware shortly, so stay tuned please!

 

[zoriev]

We'll publish info about this firmware shortly, so stay tuned please!

Какие нибудь новости есть ? Что делает эта прошивка ?

 

[iFi audio]

Какие нибудь новости есть ? Что делает эта прошивка ?

Are you asking here about Firmware XMOS? If so, it's essentially our firmware 5.3 with added PS4/PS5 support. Thanks!