As the title says, all MQA tracks played through Audirvana are played at max volume eventhough I switched on Replaygain. Non-MQA tracks work as intended. I use a Dragonfly Cobalt connected directly to my Mac. Is it possible to fix this? As far as I can remember it worked fine before installing the latest version. Would love to hear if anyone has a solution.
Debug info here:
Audirvana Mac Version 3.5.29 (3559)
macOS 10.15.2 with 24576MB RAM
Registered to Marco Ligtenberg
SIGNAL PROCESSING:
Polarity Inversion:
Globally: OFF
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 = 65
AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: by album
SW volume control: OFF
LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 1 folders
AUTO: /Volumes/music/FLAC
iTunes/Music library synchronization: not synchronized
Library database path: /Users/wattman/Library/Application Support/Audirvana/AudirvanaPlusDatabaseV2.sqlite
ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
Qobuz: Connected as
TIDAL: Connected as HIFI
=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================
CoreAudio audio path, buffer I/O frame size: 512
Max. memory for audio buffers: 1688MB
Local Audio Engine:
Exclusive access: Enabled
Integer mode: Enabled
Preferred device:
AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0
Model UID:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085
UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0101004388:1
Currently playing in Integer Mode:
Device: 2ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer, 6 bytes per frame 44.1kHz
Active Sample Rate: 44.1kHz
Hog Mode is on
Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: none
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: ON
Selected device:
Local audio device
ID 0x5e AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0 Manufacturer:AudioQuest
Model UID:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0101004388:1
4 available sample rates up to 96000Hz
44100
48000
88200
96000
Audio buffer frame size : 27 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: Yes
Virtual: Yes
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: No
Not a MQA device, user set to MQA Renderer
DSD capability: Unhandled
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 0x5f 2 channels starting at 1
8 virtual formats:
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 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
8 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
Local devices found : 4
Device #0: ID 0x4f Built-in Output Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:122 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0
Device #1: ID 0x29 AudioQuest DragonFly Black v1.5 Manufacturer: AudioQuest Model UID: AudioQuest DragonFly Black v1.5:21B4:0083 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Black v1.5:AQDFBL0100006485:1
Device #2: ID 0x5e AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0 Manufacturer: AudioQuest Model UID: AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0101004388:1
Device #3: ID 0x2d Hue Sync Manufacturer: Philips Lighting B.V. Model UID: com_lighting_HueSyncEngine:0 UID: com_lighting_HueSyncEngine:0
UPnP devices found : 1
Device #0: ID 0x0 marantz SR6007 UID: uuid:5f9ec1b3-ff59-19bb-8530-00067812242a Location: http://10.0.1.212:8080/description.xml
ReplayGain doesn’t work on MQA because it would mess up the MQA.
That’s not true. As long as the volumereduction is bitperfect it works. Worked before in Audirvana. Roon does this too.
Software volume control is never bit perfect.
@system Can you give an answer? Thanks in advance.
John Darko posted this after talking to you:
For those concerned about the application of Audio Units and/or upsampling to MQA content, Plisson adds, “MQA DACs still get all the audio processing features of Audirvana Plus after the MQA unfolding. This includes upsampling to PCM/DSD and audio units.”
Also: “MQA decoders and renderers that implement the output gain control get the ReplayGain command from Audirvana Plus and thus handle the volume levelling without issue.”
I’m aware that Roon has special licensing deal with MQA that allows them to run processing (like room correction) after the first unfold, while maintaining MQA coding integrity.
My question is for Damien, your replies add nothing to this conversation. Damien himself said that replaygain works with MQA tracks in Audirvana. Thank you.
Here is the thread from few years ago:
Yes. And the answer Damien gave two years (!) ago was that replaygain was sent to the DAC. I also told you already that it worked before. So what does this contribute? Please close this topic, this is going nowhere. I’ll send an e-mail to Damien to ask him directly.
UPDATE: Seems only licence-related questions are replied to via e-mail. @system: Could you or anyone of your team please reply? @bitracer: Would you be so kind as to stop replying to this topic? Thanks!
It seems You’ve misunderstood. This is another example of how MQA messes things up.
Someone please close this thread please. Useless replies. Customersupport isn’t what is used to be I guess.
Welcome back.Hello @Makkoo, RG does effectively works with MQA files. Since you don’t have Software Volume control activated, did you put your Volume on your Mac or a DAC connected to your Dragonfly?
Hi Damien, I use exclusive mode, volume can be controlled from my my Mac. I always put output at 100% and control volume on the headphone-amp I connected to my Dragonfly Cobalt. Signalpath is as follows: Audirvana > Dragonfly Cobalt > Schiit Magni 3 headphone amp > Focal Elear headphones. I tried turning on software volume control and checked again, still all MQA files don’t play at a softer volume when replaygain is advertised as (for example) -10,6dB. This used to work. Could it be the Dragonfly Cobalt? I used the Red before, no problems…
And two months later still no answer or solution. RG does NOT work on MQA files.
Hello @Makkoo, have you tried to connect your headphone amp directly to Audirvana to run a test and determine if the DF is the source of the issue?
Hi @Antoine, I can’t do that that. If I connect directly to my headphone amp there won’t be any MQA.