[gimmeheadroom]

I’m sure this has been asked before so I apologise in advance.
Is there a benefit to playing the MQA masters using a non MQA dac vs Sticking to HiFi? Or is the decoding process going to potentially cause problems in SQ?

The claim is that even without an MQA DAC you get some improvement in noise reduction due to the MQA filters. I didn't really understand what you're asking because if you include Hifi there are 3 choices here, not two.

1. MQA with MQA DAC: if the MQA supports full unfolding (many low-end ones do not) then you get the best possible outcome
2. MQA with desktop or phone app doing first unfold and playing over a non-MQA DAC: The sound is quite good. I compared the software unfold with one of my MQA DACs and I think the desktop app does a really good job. It can vary depending on how many unfolds there are but my feeling is you are still getting your money's worth without an MQA DAC. If you want to go the last mile, buy good (not cheap) hardware.
3. Hifi. This is a weird one. In many cases, hifi setting while playing a Master will cause the desktop app not to do the unfold but will send an MQA bitstream to your DAC.

TL;DR yes there is a benefit to playing MQA from the app, no the sound quality does not get worse.

 

[caleb66]

I’m sure this has been asked before so I apologise in advance.
Is there a benefit to playing the MQA masters using a non MQA dac vs Sticking to HiFi? Or is the decoding process going to potentially cause problems in SQ?

There might be benefits due to at least better mastering (not with Static-X though ). Although using the "Exclusive" mode is a must. If you prefer using shared mode you should stick with the "Hi-Fi" quality and set your soundcard or whatever DAC you have to 44.1kHz/24bit.

 

[crypticc]

I’m sure this has been asked before so I apologise in advance.
Is there a benefit to playing the MQA masters using a non MQA dac vs Sticking to HiFi? Or is the decoding process going to potentially cause problems in SQ?

this might help...


http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/MQA/bits/Stacking.html


now ask yourself. Would you rather have the full bits of your PCM used to store actual 16 bit PCM. OR would you rather the 3 least significant bits used to encode and compress a lossy view of either higher frequency or higher bit-depth (but that you don't consume)?

also see fourth Paragraph from bottom - the observation was that there was already noise shaping being done on well-authored content so is counter to the argument above that MQA filters is better than nothing.


the other pages +/- are also very insightful

 

[Left Channel]

I’m sure this has been asked before so I apologise in advance.
Is there a benefit to playing the MQA masters using a non MQA dac vs Sticking to HiFi? Or is the decoding process going to potentially cause problems in SQ?

When I play software decoded MQA though non-MQA Schiit DACs it sounds good to me, often the same as equivalent hi-res streaming from Qobuz.

 

[caleb66]

now ask yourself. Would you rather have the full bits of your PCM used to store actual 16 bit PCM. OR would you rather the 3 least significant bits used to encode and compress a lossy view of either higher frequency or higher bit-depth (but that you don't consume)?

MQA on Tidal uses a bit more bandwidth than Hi-Fi so we can assume it's not 88.2/96 kHz stream encoded in 16 bit but rather in 24 bit. So the resulting file would be more like 88.2/96 kHz in 16 bit resolution. That being said you can only gain sound quality and you might also get a better master.
You have to keep in mind that you will lose quality if you mismatch sampling frequency in your Windows settings with the music you play. That's why it's important to use "Exclusive mode" while playing MQA to avoid this problem.

 

[mimart7]

I'm hoping that some kind soul, can point me in the right direction.

I've had to do a fresh install of W 10. I've reinstalled Tidal. However, whenever the next MQA track is played, the volume drop dramatically, in Win 10. I know there is a fix, that i was able to find online. Can someone please help?

 

[mimart7]

I figured it out.

Volume Fix, Right click Speaker Icon (Right next to the time, or the System Tray). Open Sound Settings, Advanced Sound Settings, reset all.

 

[caleb66]

Disable normalizer in Tidal’s settings.

 

[Neweymatt]

Any idea why Tidal seems to default to play albums in random order?
This is a constant, consistent annoyance, it seems whenever I select an album to play, Tidal always randomises the tracks...

 

[rkw]

Any idea why Tidal seems to default to play albums in random order?
This is a constant, consistent annoyance, it seems whenever I select an album to play, Tidal always randomises the tracks...

I have never experienced this. Are you sure that you don't have randomize turned on in your player?

 

[Neweymatt]

I have never experienced this. Are you sure that you don't have randomize turned on in your player?

No, that's just it, I disable it, but many times when I play an Album it plays random. I say many because sometimes it plays normal sequentially...so I can't figure out why sometimes it plays Albums in random order.

 

[rkw]

No, that's just it, I disable it, but many times when I play an Album it plays random. I say many because sometimes it plays normal sequentially...so I can't figure out why sometimes it plays Albums in random order.

Is the problem repeatable, or is the same album sometimes random and sometimes not? I have come across a few rare cases where an album has a track list permanently in the wrong order. Besides those few cases, I listen to mostly classical music and it would be obvious if tracks play out of order (e.g. movements in a symphony or concerto), and I have not noticed it.

 

[Neweymatt]

Is the problem repeatable, or is the same album sometimes random and sometimes not? I have come across a few rare cases where an album has a track list permanently in the wrong order. Besides those few cases, I listen to mostly classical music and it would be obvious if tracks play out of order (e.g. movements in a symphony or concerto), and I have not noticed it.

Sometimes random, sometimes not, so very frustrating...

 

[Mkoll]

Is anyone having problems since the latest Tidal update for the Windows 10 desktop program? It has made the it so that songs will play, but if I skip ahead in the song (i.e. I click on the seek/track progress bar on the bottom to a chosen point in the song), the song will stop playing and I will get the loading/buffering icon that goes on endlessly. The song won't resume playback unless I go back to the beginning of the song and play the whole thing through. This only happens at the Hifi or Master quality setting mode. If I set the quality to normal or high, skipping ahead works as it should. Tidal was working fine before the latest update which broke it. I've tried reinstalling it to no avail.

 

[BobSmith8901]

Is anyone having problems since the latest Tidal update for the Windows 10 desktop program? It has made the it so that songs will play, but if I skip ahead in the song (i.e. I click on the seek/track progress bar on the bottom to a chosen point in the song), the song will stop playing and I will get the loading/buffering icon that goes on endlessly. The song won't resume playback unless I go back to the beginning of the song and play the whole thing through. This only happens at the Hifi or Master quality setting mode. If I set the quality to normal or high, skipping ahead works as it should. Tidal was working fine before the latest update which broke it. I've tried reinstalling it to no avail.

I'm on WIN 8.1 Pro but I'm noticing the same behavior on Master and HiFi. If I set it back to High or Normal I can skip ahead within a song and it'll pick it up normally. I'm sure it's the buffering of the higher load bit streams (at HiFi and Master) that's the cause but it should eventually buffer in enough of the stream to start again but it doesn't. I have pretty slow internet so that might also be a factor in my case. I honestly can't remember if this was happening before but I'll take your word for it that it wasn't.