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In Reply to: RE: Best way to set up Tidal & Dragonfly Black on a Mac? posted by zacster on January 28, 2017 at 07:25:54
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.
Edits: 01/28/17Follow Ups:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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