[naughty]

so to let you know what i am on about up above i'm going to try external links to my screenshots

Play store installed on my M11

you install play store on the M11 and this is what you find in the library section of the play store ie these are some of the apps installed on my phone but as you can see it doesnt seem to want to allow you to install UAPP

And this is why

BUT eventually i managed to install UAPP after being given a link to the APK - so finally ...... UAPP and Neutron and also Poweramp (all full paid versions from the app store installed on M11 .... only UAPP i got an apk link from Extream - the others i just used the library to install them)

now you try and activate MQA for tidal and it tells you that you are working via the android layer thus the Hi-Res direct driver is not working - it will work if you use an external DAC/AMP but you buy a DAP because it contains all that built-in or so my logic dictates ie i don't want to carry too many additional external devices

this what you see when you play via the DAP on UAPP - see the text in the yellow rectangle

DSD on UAPP in the DAP - downsampled to 44.1khz using the Android layer

however move to my phone where the HiRes driver works perfectly and you see this - firstly its saying Direct and then the sample rate is not 44.1khz but its playing at 352.8khz which is the native rate of that specific file since it is playing via the Direct driver ie you are now fully utilising the DAC chips onboard the M11

all we now need is for app to become compatible with the device is for them to make the direct driver work with the DAP and i'm sure this is not a quick overnight fix - so i reckon though they will eventually do it so we just have to stay patient and we will have the software running properly on our devices

 

[salla45]

however move to my phone where the HiRes driver works perfectly and you see this - firstly its saying Direct and then the sample rate is not 44.1khz but its playing at 352.8khz which is the native rate of that specific file since it is playing via the Direct driver ie

all we now need is for app to become compatible with the device is for them to make the direct driver work with the DAP and i'm sure this is not a quick overnight fix - so i reckon though they will eventually do it so we just have to stay patient and we will have the software running properly on our devices

I am getting direct and correct bitrate on mine. Example below.

I used MY APK to rip the APK off my phone. Version 4.4.1, from way back when I tried to side load it mid last year when I first got my M11.

 

[salla45]

I am getting direct and correct bitrate on mine. Example below.

I used MY APK to rip the APK off my phone. Version 4.4.1, from way back when I tried to side load it mid last year when I first got my M11. It's possible that in recent builds UAPP has become actually less compatible with non-specific devices!

 

[LightBlue77]

Go to settings where hires dac vs android driver ca-n be chosen, then manually tap hires driver, it will warn you it isn't recognised but still set it. Then you'll see direct and green dot on mqa files, I'll post some pictures if necessary.

 

[LightBlue77]

Here it is. According to their website, blue or green dot wouldn't be displayed if there is no true mqa decoding.
https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/mqa

 

[doctorjuggles]

Hopefully someone in here can help on MQA on the Android-based Sony DAPs.
I have a Sony NW-ZX507 which I've been messing around with trying to see if I can get MQA to work through the Tidal functionality in UAPP (I have the MQA add-on for UAPP too).
Anyway, it's generally believed that Sony locks down access to the HiRes driver on their DAPs, so I'm wondering if what I've accidentally stumbled across is just a "pseudo activation".

In the settings on UAPP I selected “Internal HiRes audio” then clicked on “HiRes driver flags”. Within that I selected the bottom option of MQA “it warns it’s only available on selected LG models).

After that I restarted the app and then in settings again at the top the “Internal audio driver” option appears and allows you to select the original Android driver or the HiRes Direct driver. Once I selected the HiRes direct one, it now shows that it’s playing MQA at whatever bitrate and sample rate is present on the file (it works on local MQA files too).

Prior to this change, MQA wasn't selectable, neither was the "Internal audio driver" option. Is there a simple way to know if I'm getting the pure MQA signal (other than listening tests)?

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

One such approach is to record a test file and see it through on a spectrograph.
Had this experiment three years ago to a number of Apps (13) to see how they produce a 24-192 sound file on my LG V20.

For example:

This was Jet Audio. See that it peaked only at around 16-18K?

This is was Neutron Player (before they have a "highres driver"). See it peaked around 23k?

And this was Player Pro w/o DSP. See it extended all the way to the top?

 

[doctorjuggles]

Thanks mickey, happy to try this but is there a quick setup guide? I’ve downloaded Audacity, do I just use the stereo out of the DAP into the stereo input on the laptop? What do I need to do then? (Sorry, it doesn’t seem to look like your examples at all when I’ve done my first attempts)

Also, for whatever it’s worth, I’m definitely getting the blue and green lights in UAPP when I play these files

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Yeah that is what I did. Used Audacity. Stereo out from DAP to laptop. Hit play on DAP and record from Audacity. And see from its spectograph.

 

[Dannemand]

Hopefully someone in here can help on MQA on the Android-based Sony DAPs.
I have a Sony NW-ZX507 which I've been messing around with trying to see if I can get MQA to work through the Tidal functionality in UAPP (I have the MQA add-on for UAPP too).
Anyway, it's generally believed that Sony locks down access to the HiRes driver on their DAPs, so I'm wondering if what I've accidentally stumbled across is just a "pseudo activation".

In the settings on UAPP I selected “Internal HiRes audio” then clicked on “HiRes driver flags”. Within that I selected the bottom option of MQA “it warns it’s only available on selected LG models).

After that I restarted the app and then in settings again at the top the “Internal audio driver” option appears and allows you to select the original Android driver or the HiRes Direct driver. Once I selected the HiRes direct one, it now shows that it’s playing MQA at whatever bitrate and sample rate is present on the file (it works on local MQA files too).

Prior to this change, MQA wasn't selectable, neither was the "Internal audio driver" option. Is there a simple way to know if I'm getting the pure MQA signal (other than listening tests)?

I am almost certain you are not getting MQA this way: That MQA HiRes Driver flag specifically tells UAPP to use the hardware MQA feature of LG phones containing an ESS DAC: It enables the lgmqadummy post-processing effect, which in turn enables hardware MQA on these phones. In those cases UAPP just passes the stream through (Direct path) but has no way to verify that MQA is being unfolded. So the displayed MQA logo and sample rate are just an estimate by UAPP, assuming that the LG components do their part.

I very much doubt that this would work on any other device, why UAPP says only for select LG models. But the app cannot prevent you from enabling that flag, and it will act as as if you were running on an LG phone.

Edit: But if you have the UAPP MQA add-on, it will perform 1x MQA unfold in software. I assume the Tidal app would do the same thing, although I don't know if the Tidal app can prevent the stream from getting bungled up by Android further down the chain. On LG phones both UAPP and Tidal app use the hardware MQA.

 

[CANiSLAYu]

Go to settings where hires dac vs android driver ca-n be chosen, then manually tap hires driver, it will warn you it isn't recognised but still set it. Then you'll see direct and green dot on mqa files, I'll post some pictures if necessary.

Here it is. According to their website, blue or green dot wouldn't be displayed if there is no true mqa decoding.
https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/mqa

Yeah, the app is doing the first unfold (MQA core described on the site). FiiO has not yet enabled MQA for third party apps, so the player isn’t doing the additional unfolds to the full resolution if the file is above 88.2 or 96.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Yeah that is what I did. Used Audacity. Stereo out from DAP to laptop. Hit play on DAP and record from Audacity. And see from its spectograph.

Tried all of this and I get the same spectro images whether I play through the official Sony app or through Spotify (including Tidal and UAPP apps) so I'm definitely doing something wrong.

I very much doubt that this would work on any other device, why UAPP says only for select LG models. But the app cannot prevent you from enabling that flag, and it will act as as if you were running on an LG phone.

I've disabled that now and just selected HiRes driver and restarted - still seems to be showing MQA is being initiated, but as you say, it seems unlikely with everything I've read.
Think I might sell this DAP, it's not fit for purpose.

 

[Interceptor69]

Tried all of this and I get the same spectro images whether I play through the official Sony app or through Spotify (including Tidal and UAPP apps) so I'm definitely doing something wrong.



I've disabled that now and just selected HiRes driver and restarted - still seems to be showing MQA is being initiated, but as you say, it seems unlikely with everything I've read.
Think I might sell this DAP, it's not fit for purpose.

Try the Hiby R5 or R6 Pro- they're both MQA certified.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Try the Hiby R5 or R6 Pro- they're both MQA certified.

Thanks buddy. My DX160 works fine for MQA, I’ll just stick to that. Thanks for the recommendation though

 

[CANiSLAYu]

Try the Hiby R5 or R6 Pro- they're both MQA certified.

You sure about the R6 Pro? None of HiBy’s marketing points it out like it does with the R3 Pro and R5. Additionally the R6 Pro isn’t listed on MQA’s website like the other two.