TOPIC:

Hello. I am a Tidal and Qobuz member and when I stream to the SHD the Volumio app shows 16/44 no matter what quality the file actually is.

Am I doing something wrong? I have tried streaming directly through the Volumio app and by Airplay but can’t seem to figure out how to get HiRez.

Can anyone help me here please?

Bests
Alex

Well if I turn on “resampling” it will play them at higher rates but I don’t want files resampled that don’t need to be......

Will leave it like this until learn more...

I am using a wired Ethernet connection and am not hooked up to a NAS. All music is directly being streamed from Tidal and Qubuz as of right now.

With Tidal I often get Volumio displaying higher than 16/44.1 if I play a Tidal Master but I don't think it means anything because the SHD can't do any MQA unfolding. This is with resampling Off, but with Tidal set to play the highest available quality. I deliberately avoid playing a Tidal Master unless it's the only version available though and on a non-MQA DAC my understanding is that this will be lower quality than a normal 16/44.1 ('red book') file.

I've not tried Qobuz yet to comment, although I plan to very soon.

Ultrasonic wrote:

With Tidal I often get Volumio displaying higher than 16/44.1 if I play a Tidal Master but I don't think it means anything because the SHD can't do any MQA unfolding. This is with resampling Off, but with Tidal set to play the highest available quality. I deliberately avoid playing a Tidal Master unless it's the only version available though and on a non-MQA DAC my understanding is that this will be lower quality than a normal 16/44.1 ('red book') file.

I've not tried Qobuz yet to comment, although I plan to very soon.

Yea no matter how I stream Tidal tracks whether they are Master or their regular 16/44 content Volumio shows 16/44 even with up sampling turned on to 24/96.

24/96 is what my Alcons Audio amplifiers convert all files to so really need the SHD to either play the files as they are supposed to be or do nothing at all so that the better processing of the amplifier can handle this. We are talking about a $12,000 Alcons Audio studio quality processor within the amp vs the SHD so need to figure this out ASAP.

If I play Qubuz either over Airplay or within Volumio it plays correctly as long as I have upsampling turned on. This in itself is not even correct but it’s working how I want it to. I have upsampling set to 24/96 in Volumio but Qubuz tracks are being played at their Qubuz native resolutions this way. Some play at 24/44, 24/88, 24/96, etc.... Even though the upsampling is set to 24/96 they are being streamed at 1-1 which is what I want.

Tidal on the other hand is playing “ALL” tracks at a 16/44 no matter what type of file the track is. I have Master quality set within the Tidal app so not sure what is going on here.

I didn’t realize that playing Master quality files would cause any issue as far as playing them through the SHD (non MQA) DAC. I thought the Tidal file would just be sent as 24/96 or 24/192 just not doing the final unfold. You are probably correct though as I am pretty new to all this. But if that is the case I need to make sure and use non Master files with the SHD and have a separate folder for Master files that uses a MQA DAC.

I will try to mess with it again today and see what I can figure out, if anything. Between Volumio being a POS and the odd behavior of the SHD in general this may be short lived in this system lol. Not living up to its specs that’s for sure then add in it’s not even ROON capable at the moment.

Bests
Alex

My comment about MQA being a bad thing assumed you were using the DAC in an SHD. As you're using a digital output I'm not sure how this will be handled.

I don't think you should be using resampling at all though.

Ultrasonic wrote:

My comment about MQA being a bad thing assumed you were using the DAC in an SHD. As you're using a digital output I'm not sure how this will be handled.

I don't think you should be using resampling at all though.

Right. That’s how I took it. The plan was to get a good high quality DAC for the Alcons analog inputs so that I could see which sounded best, totally digital vs analog but that’s not going to happen with the SHD if can’t get it figured out.

I do not want to use any resampling at all. That is why I started the thread. It’s acting like it was downsampling everything to 16/44 until I turned on upsampling. Now it’s acting like it’s just passing the signal along with Qobuz but still downsampling Tidal.

Maybe I need to email them since nobody has jumped on here with an explanation.

Bests
Alex

Is it actually possible to get anything genuinely higher that 16/44.1 via Tidal without MQA compatibility that the SHD and SHD Studio lack?

www.mqa.co.uk/how-it-works

Although Volumio displays higher for me I don't believe it.

Ultrasonic wrote:

Is it actually possible to get anything genuinely higher that 16/44.1 via Tidal without MQA compatibility that the SHD and SHD Studio lack?

www.mqa.co.uk/how-it-works

Although Volumio displays higher for me I don't believe it.

According to Tidal HiFi is supposed to be 24/44 and Masters 24/96.

I will read up on using digital signals instead of analog with MQA.

Are the Masters files in the mobile apps even supposed to be MQA? I haven’t used my laptop to see what the interface looks like compared to the mobile one on my iPhone.

Bests
Alex

Well now I’m seeing conflicting information regarding HiFi being 16/44 not 24/44.

I hate the internet when it involves misinformation. It’s everywhere one looks.

So if that is the case then Tidal within my phone should at least send some form of Masters to the SHD though, correct? First unfold should be 24/96 is my understanding then it turns into something along the lines of 18/44 or something similar which we as consumers will never see because that is just the lossless part of the information.

Either way my SHD is not working properly because I have to choose resampling for Qobuz to play properly. Who knows what’s going on with it.... lol?

Bests

Alford78 wrote:

According to Tidal HiFi is supposed to be 24/44 and Masters 24/96.

I think you missed a word out there. According to what? As per my link above I think what you get is very much hardware dependent.

I'm trying Qobuz at the moment and just thought I'd say that I see different sample and bit rates OK. This is with the sound quality set to 'Highest possible' which I assume you've checked @Alford78?

Ultrasonic wrote:

I'm trying Qobuz at the moment and just thought I'd say that I see different sample and bit rates OK. This is with the sound quality set to 'Highest possible' which I assume you've checked @Alford78?

So you don’t have to switch any resampling within the MiniDSP? I have to select 24/96 in the Volumio app in order to see anything above 16/44 which shouldn’t be the case if it were just passing along the signal at its native rates.

I honestly don’t know what else to even do being that I can’t find an email for tech support here.

Thanks for your clarification though. Guess something isn’t quite correct with my unit.

Bests
Alex

Alford78 wrote:

So you don’t have to switch any resampling within the MiniDSP? I have to select 24/96 in the Volumio app in order to see anything above 16/44 which shouldn’t be the case if it were just passing along the signal at its native rates.

I honestly don’t know what else to even do being that I can’t find an email for tech support here.

Thanks for your clarification though. Guess something isn’t quite correct with my unit.

Bests
Alex

You contact support via the Support link at the top of the page. Click on Contact Us and then 'New Support Ticket'. Note the text in bold at the top of every forum page does cover this .

No I have not got any resampling enabled.

Ultrasonic wrote:

Alford78 wrote:

So you don’t have to switch any resampling within the MiniDSP? I have to select 24/96 in the Volumio app in order to see anything above 16/44 which shouldn’t be the case if it were just passing along the signal at its native rates.

I honestly don’t know what else to even do being that I can’t find an email for tech support here.

Thanks for your clarification though. Guess something isn’t quite correct with my unit.

Bests
Alex

You contact support via the Support link at the top of the page. Click on Contact Us and then 'New Support Ticket'. Note the text in bold at the top of every forum page does cover this .

No I have not got any resampling enabled.

Lmao.

I hadn’t read that! If it was a snake.....

But I have used the portal for a ticket with no reply . Maybe they are just backed up. It’s only been a week or so since I filled it out.

I'm sorry, first post here. Are you still trying to use Airplay/Airplay2? Do you realize it maxes out at 16bit/48kHz?

kirkville.com/how-apples-airplay-streams-audio/
geekout.io/index_files/The_truth_about_A...y_audio_streams.html

I wish I had more. You could run the Tidal App on your Mac/pc and it will output at master quality if it is configured as such via USB to your dac.