MQA volume is higher than other flac on Tidal

Hi Guys! newbie here, is it normal that the volume MQA is higher than the other songs on tidal. Its annoying whenever im playing my playlist when it comes to MQA the volume just jump higher. Can you help me how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

heres the debug info
Audirvana Mac Version 3.5.38 (3568)
macOS 10.13.0 with 8192MB RAM

SIGNAL PROCESSING:

Polarity Inversion:
	Globally: ON
	Per track: ON
Effects plugins NOT ACTIVE

UPSAMPLING:
SoX not in use
SoX filter parameters
Bandwidth at 0dB = 99.5
Filter max length = 30000
Anti-aliasing = 100
Phase = 66

AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: by album
SW volume control: OFF

LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 1 folders

ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
TIDAL: Connected as HIFI

=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================

CoreAudio audio path, buffer I/O frame size: 512

Max. memory for audio buffers: 5120MB

Local Audio Engine:
Exclusive access: Enabled
Integer mode: Enabled

Preferred device:
iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio Output
Model UID:iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:20B1:3008
UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:iFi (by AMR):iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:00000000:1

Currently playing in Integer Mode:
Device: 2ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Signed Integer, 8 bytes per frame 96kHz

Active Sample Rate: 96kHz
Hog Mode is on

Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: 384kHz
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: OFF

Selected device:
Local audio device
ID 0x41 iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio Output Manufacturer:iFi (by AMR)
Model UID:iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:20B1:3008 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:iFi (by AMR):iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:00000000:1

8 available sample rates up to 384000Hz
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
Audio buffer frame size : 58 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: No
Virtual: No
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: Yes
MQA Renderer device
DSD capability: DSD via PCM 1.0
Device audio channels
Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2
Channel bitmap: Ox3, layout:
Channel 0 mapped to 0
Channel 1 mapped to 1

Audio channels in use
Number of channels: 2
Use as stereo device only: No
Simple stereo device: Yes

1 output streams:
Number of active channels: 2, in 1 stream(s)
Channel #0 :Stream 0 channel 0
Channel #1 :Stream 0 channel 1

Stream ID 0x42 2 channels starting at 1
16 virtual formats:
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz

16 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz

Local devices found : 3
Device #0: ID 0x34 Built-in Output Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:3 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutput:8,0,1,2:0
Device #1: ID 0x3d HDMI Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:3 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutputDP:8,5,1,0:0:{D94D-2905-01010101}
Device #2: ID 0x41 iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio Output Manufacturer: iFi (by AMR) Model UID: iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:20B1:3008 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:iFi (by AMR):iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio:00000000:1

Hello @olespaul,

This is due to the mastering of MQA file, the Replay Gain has been put during the mastering process and you have a full unfold of the MQA file with your MQA Renderer, this is why you have some volume leveling change between a track that is MQA and another that is not MQA, we can use replay gain on the non MQA file but not on the MQA file to not break MQA flow.

2 Likes

Hi Damien3,

Understood why but is there any nice solution to this issue? In my case MQA volume is 5-10x louder and I have to lower the volume immediately after starting to play. This is very annoying and I almost gave up using Audirvana for Tidal master quality and instead use Tidal app. I have to say this is a critical issue if your platform is known for the ability for uses to listen to the highest quality music files with ease.

1 Like

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