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Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?

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Posted on January 28, 2017 at 07:25:54
zacster
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Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 I'm not sure I have this right. My Midi settings are for 96khz output, my Tidal is set with Passthrough MQA unchecked. Is that correct, at least until the Dragonfly supports MQA directly? It is showing Magenta on the DF for all music, iTunes, Spotify and Tidal.

And how do I get the bitrate/format from Tidal? Is there a way to only see hi-res files?

In any case, it sounds very good on my iMac. I still need to try on my iphone7, iPad, or crappy Lenovo work computer.

I got lucky with ordering the Dragonfly, most stores are out, but I found one and it came next day. I wasn't expecting to have this until Monday.

 

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RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 28, 2017 at 20:13:45
oldmkvi
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Posts: 10583
Joined: April 12, 2002
 Try the Pass through, it should partially decode MQA at least.

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 28, 2017 at 20:51:53
AbeCollins
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Posts: 46302
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 You generally want the settings in Audio Midi Setup to match the resolution / sample rate of the music you are playing. In the case of Tidal I will assume that to be 16/44.1 2ch.

Since Audio Midi Setup does not automatically set the sample to the music that is being played, there are many software players available on Mac that will (in addition to offering many other features). I'm not sure how they interact with Tidal/MQA.

Unless the various music being played from Tidal is at various sample rates for different tunes, just set Audio Midi Setup as described above.

Sorry, but I can't help you with Tidal & MQA. Not sure how to best accommodate it as I'm not a Tidal subscriber.


 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 02:59:34
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 I started playing around a bit with it. At 44.1 I would only get CD quality output, even on the hi-res. At 96 I definitely hear an improvement on the "Master" tracks. I'm thinking it should be either 88.2 or 96. It doesn't help that I can't find where Tidal displays the bit rate for the track.

I would hope that it would be able to dynamically alter the output based on the bitrate. And whether I should let the software unfold the first layer is still unclear, but Masters sound better with the MQA passthrough OFF as that way it does it in software, and lets the DAC interpret that as 24/96.

Tidal, MQA and USB DACS were not even on my radar until last week. I was content with streaming whatever straight out of my iPhone, Echo Dot or iPad into my system, usually Amazon or Spotify, or TuneIn radio. When I wanted quality I spun the vinyl.

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 08:23:57
AbeCollins
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Posts: 46302
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
You might just leave Audio Midi Setup at 88.2 or 96 even for 44.1 streams, unless it doesn't sound right that way.

I know that players like Audirvana Plus and Pure Music will automatically change the sample rate setting to match the file based music being played (so you don't have to do it manually in Audio Midi Setup).

And I believe Audirvana Plus and Pure Music integrates with Tidal. However, I'm not sure if/how these players deal with MQA.



 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 08:46:40
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
 If you turn on passthrough the Tidal player will do no decoding. You would only turn on passthrough if you have a dac with MQA decoding built in
Alan

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 09:27:14
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 I did read somewhere just now that Tidal uses 48 for all MQA files, and unfolds to 96 in software, but not sure if that applies to the CD quality. There is so much confusion on all of this. If this is to go mainstream they are going to have to make this a lot easier. You would think that Tidal would have a quick "best settings" guide on all this. Mac or PC, external DAC vs. Internal, MQA vs. non-MQA external DAC. There aren't that many combinations. At least get the basics right. Same would go for iOS and Android, but there are even fewer options there, and it isn't ready for portables yet anyway.

And did we need to compress the streams in the first place? I can stream 4k and 5k video to my iMac without any problem. There is plenty of bandwidth.

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 10:39:07
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 Thanks, that's the conclusion I came to. When Audioquest comes through with the firmware for MQA I'll try it with passthrough ON.

I'm using it with my second system now, some kind of class D board and my FrugalHorns. Sounds pretty good. I have to bridge the 15 feet between my iMac and my main system somehow. The 27" iMac is just too big to move, and there is no place to put it by the system anyway.

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 15:24:06
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
 For that distance which I have the same problem I use a Tripplite active USB cable. Not very expensive and sounds great. Mine is 16'
Alan

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 29, 2017 at 17:53:28
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 I think the answer may be to repurpose on of my kids' old macbook pros. They all just got new MBPs and the old ones would do fine as a music server. I put solid state drives in all of them at one point.

 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on January 30, 2017 at 07:42:44
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46302
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
And did we need to compress the streams in the first place? I can stream 4k and 5k video to my iMac without any problem. There is plenty of bandwidth.

I agree on the bandwidth from a consumer perspective. However, narrowing the bandwidth for the source provider will save them (not you!) money.



 

RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac?, posted on February 4, 2017 at 12:08:45
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2179
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
 If I turn on the setting "Use Exclusive Mode" in the Tidal app for the Dragonfly, the midi settings change based on what is playing, which is what I wanted. Cool.

Playing the 2L "The Nordic Sound", I get 88.2 in midi and the DF turned orange from the magenta that it showed for 96. Going back to almost all other masters then shows 96 again. Playing a non-MQA HIFI file showed 44.1. So all this works.

Still not sure when I would want to use "Force Volume", nor do I understand how the DF's analog volume control works. Does Tidal or midi send out the volume level to the USB port?

 

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