Tidal MQA streaming with limited resolution only?

Hi folks!

It seems to me that it is not possible to stream and playback any Tidal MQA tune at a higher resolution than [in:] 16/44,1 kHz and [out:] 24/44,1 kHz. See screenshot.

How comes?

Hi @Audi100,

Those are the MQA tracks that remain which are sent to us by Tidal. If you play the same Track on Tidal app, you will see it as MQA.

Hi Antoine,

I do receive and playback MQA with Audirvāna. That is not the problem.

The problem is the resolution. I used to see much higher values than 24/44,1 kHz when playing back MQA, like 88,2 kHz or 96 kHz. Why is that no longer the case?

It seems to be a general problem with TIDAL.

I have the same issue, that I do not get full resolution from Tidal with Audirvāna 3.5 anymore.

Any statement from the staff?

Hi @Mr.No,

We are talking with Tidal about this subject. When I have an official statement, I will answer on the corresponding topic here:

https://community.audirvana.com/t/tidal-max-for-v3-5-users/39178

Just received an Audirvāna e-mail ad like: »Enjoy lossless HiRes with Tidal Max in Audirvāna Studio«

Matches just my sense of humour …

With the activation of TIDAL MAX within Audirvāna Studio, nearly all former Hi-Res MQA tracks are now only made available by TIDAL as Hi-Res lossless FLAC files (up to 24/192 kHz).

Most remaining MQA tracks are CD quality (16/44.1 kHz). When the device selected as the audio output is not an MQA Decoder, as per MQA specifications, the MQA software decoder in Audirvāna upsamples the signal to 24/88.2 kHz and sends it to your device.

It can seem confusing, but when this device is an MQA Renderer, it returns the information back to Audirvāna that the recognized signal is 44.1 kHz MQA. This is what is displayed in the final step of the audio processing chain in the audio settings.:point_down:

Most remaining MQA tracks? So what about the other MQA tracks, which are not CD quality (16/44.1 kHz)?

@Audi100 - Perhaps this is the explanation you’re looking for?

MQA is almost dead (even with Tidal). Better get used to it.

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Well, it »explains« to me that there’s a number of Tidal MQA tracks left, which have a higher resolution than CD quality (16/44,1 kHz). I would like to know some examples for that.

I doubt Audirvana has insight in the specific flac/mqa choices of Tidal. Also, Tidal is still in a transition with MQA->Flac and probably the situation looks quite different in a couple of months time. My guess is that Tidal will have almost everything replaced with flacs by then.
Don’t ask/blame the messenger. It is how it is. Maybe Tidal can give you a list?

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Tidal is pointing me to the Audirvana Support. They pretent it is a not their problem, as Audirvana is the playback app that delivers limited resolution MQA.

Though apparently, at least from the information Tidal has provided, that must be a very small number, since “nearly all” former hi-res MQA files according to them are now provided as hi res FLAC.

Would you guess it is a too small number to name some examples for that?

If I had to guess, since it’s Tidal’s content I would think they would be the ones who might know something about which specific files were involved.

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How could Audirvana or anyone on this forum possibly name examples? Only Tidal knows. You are barking up the wrong tree.

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Does it matter? why not just select the artist you want to listen to? If the file resolution is higher than cd, nice for you, if not, you still get to hear the music you enjoy…

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Just by posting the title and artist of at least one of those MQA tracks, which they still can playback with Audirvana in high resolution. Antoine indicated that those tracks definitely exist.

Who is ‘they’? Tidal? Well… there you have your answer… (they should be able to tell you which track(s)).
Try to be pragmatic/logical here. Don’t turn this into a matter of principle. There are more important things to worry about than a dying MQA. Like said before in this thread. Just enjoy the music.

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