[DBaldock9]

Is it just me or does Shuffle not work? It seems to keep playing the same songs over and over again. I make my own playlist of say 50 songs and I can hear the some songs 4 times and some songs none at all. The bit perfect mode is really good, but the inability to shuffle makes me keep looking at other apps, and this is an ongoing issue for years now.

Is this a playlist you created within the UAPP app, or one that you imported?
Do all of the songs play, if you start the playlist with Shuffle turned Off?

 

[seanjoe]

hello everyone,
which DAPs do MQA natively other than shanling m3x ? thanks..

 

[dingyibvs]

Is this a playlist you created within the UAPP app, or one that you imported?
Do all of the songs play, if you start the playlist with Shuffle turned Off?

Created within the UAPP app, and yes, all songs play if I turn Shuffle off.

 

[rlw6534]

hello everyone,
which DAPs do MQA natively other than shanling m3x ? thanks..

Most newer DAPs support full MQA unfolding. Are you asking about a specific scenario or hardware? I'm not sure what you mean by "natively".

 

[blotmouse]

I'm not sure what you mean by "natively"

Maybe they mean the newer Sabre ESS chips that support HW encoding on chip? I know the ES9068AS does it in the high end, not sure about the lower end variants? 9068AS was the first, others should follow, but only ESS, afaik.

 

[rlw6534]

Maybe they mean the newer Sabre ESS chips that support HW encoding on chip? I know the ES9068AS does it in the high end, not sure about the lower end variants? 9068AS was the first, others should follow, but only ESS, afaik.

Yeah, ESS has a few DACs with built-in MQA with ES9281A, ES9219C (M3X) and ES9068AS advertised. I believe that many other DAPs are also doing hardware MQA (full decoder) - it's just not integrated in the DAC chip (i.e. separate hardware chip before the DAC). It's my understanding that full MQA decoding can't be done with software. I don't think the result is any different, however. My thoughts are that either method is kinda "native"...

I wasn't sure if the question had more to do with USB DACs or something else... Some devices can output MQA via USB AFAIK, though probably not the integrated DACs (which would be bypassed for USB)... Or maybe he was asking about renderers vs decoders... Interesting stuff.

 

[CANiSLAYu]

hello everyone,
which DAPs do MQA natively other than shanling m3x ? thanks..

http://www.mqa.co.uk/playback-devices

 

[seanjoe]

Most newer DAPs support full MQA unfolding. Are you asking about a specific scenario or hardware? I'm not sure what you mean by "natively".

thanks for your reply.
I'm new with all these stuffs. I want a DAP with a full MQA decoding not rendering. Now, I'm using my samsung galaxy fold and Ifi Zen dac V2 playing Tidal Master. the light indicator on ifi zen dac turned blue, sometimes green. is this means I have full decoding ? based on the manual book, blue means Master Studio and green just MQA. but, my samsung indicates 44.1 or 48khz. pardon my english and thanks.

 

[blotmouse]

thanks for your reply.
I'm new with all these stuffs. I want a DAP with a full MQA decoding not rendering. Now, I'm using my samsung galaxy fold and Ifi Zen dac V2 playing Tidal Master. the light indicator on ifi zen dac turned blue, sometimes green. is this means I have full decoding ? based on the manual book, blue means Master Studio and green just MQA. but, my samsung indicates 44.1 or 48khz. pardon my english and thanks.

Full MQA unfolding is a blanket term for full MQA rendering and decoding. When you run UAPP (without MQA license) it will do the software rendering to either 88.2 or 96. Supported hardware dacs do the additional unfolding/decoding to the final target rate or their ceiling limit, whatever is highest. And only when you purchase the additional, in app MQA license for UAPP.
But make sure your DAC is supported or it won't matter or help unfold further than the free initial software render.

This talks about the blue vs green lights and other MQA matters.
https://bobtalks.co.uk/blog/mqa-philosophy/mqa-authentication-and-quality/#

 

[DBaldock9]

Created within the UAPP app, and yes, all songs play if I turn Shuffle off.

That sounds like it's probably a bug.
You can report it to the developer (Davey W.), by sending him an email - support@extreamsd.com

 

[seanjoe]

Full MQA unfolding is a blanket term for full MQA rendering and decoding. When you run UAPP (without MQA license) it will do the software rendering to either 88.2 or 96. Supported hardware dacs do the additional unfolding/decoding to the final target rate or their ceiling limit, whatever is highest. And only when you purchase the additional, in app MQA license for UAPP.
But make sure your DAC is supported or it won't matter or help unfold further than the free initial software render.

This talks about the blue vs green lights and other MQA matters.
https://bobtalks.co.uk/blog/mqa-philosophy/mqa-authentication-and-quality/#

thanks for your clear reply.. good day, sir..

 

[rlw6534]

Full MQA unfolding is a blanket term for full MQA rendering and decoding. When you run UAPP (without MQA license) it will do the software rendering to either 88.2 or 96. Supported hardware dacs do the additional unfolding/decoding to the final target rate or their ceiling limit, whatever is highest. And only when you purchase the additional, in app MQA license for UAPP.
But make sure your DAC is supported or it won't matter or help unfold further than the free initial software render.

This talks about the blue vs green lights and other MQA matters.
https://bobtalks.co.uk/blog/mqa-philosophy/mqa-authentication-and-quality/#

UAPP and MQA can be confusing as there are different behaviors with USB and Direct Mode (high res DAP) and whether or not the device is a MQA decoder or renderer and "supported" by UAPP. In theory the paid MQA add-on in UAPP is only needed if the device is non-MQA or a MQA Renderer and is NOT needed for full decoders. The add-on performs the first unfold of MQA files in software and sends the stream to the DAC either directly (for DAPs) or via USB. The add-on also authenticates MQA so you get the green or blue dot in the UAPP interface. Only if the device is a MQA renderer, are further unfolds done (MQB). All of this assumes bitperfect in the settings.

For full MQA decoders, the MQA add-on is not needed. The DAC should perform all decoding and rendering as long as the stream is unaltered by UAPP. In this case UAPP doesn't authenticate and you don't get a green or blue dot in the interface.

For "supported" devices, UAPP should display the correct bitrate of the DAC. For USB DACs, UAPP can guess the actual rate (selectable in settings). in other cases UAPP will just display 44.1 or 48 kHz (which is the actual rate of the MQA encoded stream) or 88.2 or 96 kHz (the 1st unfold from the add-on) because it doesn't know what the downstream DAC is actually doing. That does NOT necessarily mean that you aren't getting a full decode. You can use the LED color or device bitrate or MQA indication in the status bar to determine what is happening (if your device has this feature).

It appears that you can disable the MQA add-on by deselecting bitperfect in the settings which can, in some cases, allow for full decoding of MQA at the DAC for "unsupported" devices that are full decoders (i.e. Shanling M6 Pro 21) which are otherwise limited to the first unfold from the add-on. This should change once the device is "supported".

Note that I believe all of the above information is correct based on my experiences with several devices. If someone knows better, please jump in.

 

[BobSmith8901]

UAPP and MQA can be confusing as there are different behaviors with USB and Direct Mode (high res DAP) and whether or not the device is a MQA decoder or renderer and "supported" by UAPP. In theory the paid MQA add-on in UAPP is only needed if the device is non-MQA or a MQA Renderer and is NOT needed for full decoders. The add-on performs the first unfold of MQA files in software and sends the stream to the DAC either directly (for DAPs) or via USB. The add-on also authenticates MQA so you get the green or blue dot in the UAPP interface. Only if the device is a MQA renderer, are further unfolds done (MQB). All of this assumes bitperfect in the settings.

For full MQA decoders, the MQA add-on is not needed. The DAC should perform all decoding and rendering as long as the stream is unaltered by UAPP. In this case UAPP doesn't authenticate and you don't get a green or blue dot in the interface.

For "supported" devices, UAPP should display the correct bitrate of the DAC. For USB DACs, UAPP can guess the actual rate (selectable in settings). in other cases UAPP will just display 44.1 or 48 kHz (which is the actual rate of the MQA encoded stream) or 88.2 or 96 kHz (the 1st unfold from the add-on) because it doesn't know what the downstream DAC is actually doing. That does NOT necessarily mean that you aren't getting a full decode. You can use the LED color or device bitrate or MQA indication in the status bar to determine what is happening (if your device has this feature).

It appears that you can disable the MQA add-on by deselecting bitperfect in the settings which can, in some cases, allow for full decoding of MQA at the DAC for "unsupported" devices that are full decoders (i.e. Shanling M6 21) which are otherwise limited to the first unfold from the add-on. This should change once the device is "supported".

Note that I believe all of the above information is correct based on my experiences with several devices. If someone knows better, please jump in.

"It appears that you can disable the MQA add-on by deselecting bitperfect in the settings which can, in some cases, allow for full decoding of MQA at the DAC for "unsupported" devices that are full decoders (i.e. Shanling M6 21) which are otherwise limited to the first unfold from the add-on. This should change once the device is "supported"."


This was something I also thought could be happening with my M6 Pro 21 when I played Masters tracks in Tidal with bit perfect turned off in UAPP with the MQA plug-in.

On those tracks, bit perfect turned off, the full 16X unfolded sample rates of 705.6 and 768 show up in the Pro 21's sample rate indicator in the upper right. At the same time, one gets the warning that "MQA requires bit perfect" while the MQA symbol is changed to black in the player.

The only other thing that I thought could be occurring is the machine is simply oversampling 16 times with the MQA thing not in play. Not sure that even makes sense but...Sound-wise, these tracks sound great.

Thanks for confirming and great post!

 

[rlw6534]

"It appears that you can disable the MQA add-on by deselecting bitperfect in the settings which can, in some cases, allow for full decoding of MQA at the DAC for "unsupported" devices that are full decoders (i.e. Shanling M6 21) which are otherwise limited to the first unfold from the add-on. This should change once the device is "supported"."


This was something I also thought could be happening with my M6 Pro 21 when I played Masters tracks in Tidal with bit perfect turned off in UAPP with the MQA plug-in.

On those tracks, bit perfect turned off, the full 16X unfolded sample rates of 705.6 and 768 show up in the Pro 21's sample rate indicator in the upper right. At the same time, one gets the warning that "MQA requires bit perfect" while the MQA symbol is changed to black in the player.

The only other thing that I thought could be occurring is the machine is simply oversampling 16 times with the MQA thing not in play. Not sure that even makes sense but...Sound-wise, these tracks sound great.

Thanks for confirming and great post!

I'm not an expert by any means. I have been a long time UAPP user and have experienced most of these issues at one time or another. When the M3x first came out I worked with Davy for a day or two to get full support enabled. That experience helped with understanding how UAPP behaves relative to MQA.

The main thing is to get the best quality that our devices are capable of producing. I'm not necessarily a huge MQA fan but I do want it to work correctly....

 

[garysohn]

I'm not an expert by any means. I have been a long time UAPP user and have experienced most of these issues at one time or another. When the M3x first came out I worked with Davy for a day or two to get full support enabled. That experience helped with understanding how UAPP behaves relative to MQA.

The main thing is to get the best quality that our devices are capable of producing. I'm not necessarily a huge MQA fan but I do want it to work correctly....

I'm a fan of the apparent remastering that I've read goes along with the MQA. I guess that is what I am responding to when I prefer the MQA file on Tidal. If I listen to various Etta James songs, for example, I will always prefer the MQA version. To me there is usually no comparison. Is that how this works? Do I have this right?