Open Beta Testing of new TIDAL and QOBUZ implementation, feedback wanted

You can log into Virtuoso on each one, but the paid features will work only on one at a time.
You have to deactivate devices, you are not interested on, from MyVolumio devices to skip from one “Virtuoso device” to another

Davide
techsupport@volumio.org

Hi,
…definatelly the 2.866 has a problem with starting up myVolumio service, there is an erro during start up. Restoring volumio to fallback version ( 2.865), there is no more erro with starting up myVolumio, and TIDAL appears, and works …
Thanks !

Volumio 2.868 with Hifiberry DAC2 HD hat on Raspberry Pi 4.
I was getting only 48kHz/24bit decoding for Tidal Masters. Switch MQA off in Sources settings and now for the same songs I am getting 44.1/32bit output.
The songs are supposedly 96kHz/24bit off of the Tidal Master album “Bryter Layter” by Nick Drake.

Should I be getting 96kHz from Tidal Masters? Is turning off MQA the right approach? Am I seeing 44.1/32 because that is what my DAC can do or is that a Volumio limitation/configuration?

I am new to Volumio and new to this forum. Please feel free to school me on what I left out or any other ways to improve my postings.

Does your DAC support FULL MQA decoding?

HI ,
I do not know what is with Tidal so much . Currently I have Qobuz , Tidal (no MQA DAC) and Spotify .
The best sound quality is given by Qobuz , easyli seen then Spotify . Tidal sucks, also my brother said so , maybe on MQA is different. Also Spoity is close to Qobuz so I guess I will remain with Spotify .
Sorry for of topic
Thanks

What are you aiming for with this post? Saying something sucks and this one is better than that one without giving any information, isn’t helping anyone.

In my opinion none of the streaming services are bad. Qobuz or Tidal is a matter of taste. Soundwise Spotify is technically (and also to my ears) far behind of the other two. But to some people it is really convenient. Qobuz is sounding great but has its caveats if you are into some kinds of music. Tidal sounds great to me as well and is my choice because I like the library, the sound and the interface (Artist radio is great for me). MQA is a nice addition but no deal maker or beaker to me.

Saying Spotify is sounding better than Tidal or close to Qobuz is only saying something about your ears. Or maybe about your equipment. Do you maybe just listen via Bluetooth, over WiFi?

Hi,
Sory for this, it was of course only a personal opinion during hearing qobuz tidal or spotify in the last 2 years. I am listening only on volumio hardwired to dac then amplifier. I also like spotify because of curated Playlist and artist radio.
Thanks and happy listen to good music
I also try to convince me that tidal is ok but eery time I listen it was just not good to my ears… I also love the artist radio feature but qobuz or spotify all the time sounds better. Maybe if I had a full. Mqa dac it was OK but…
Regards.

Hi, When using Tidal through Volumio I am not able to access any of the Tidal ‘Radio Stations for you’ despite adding it to my collection in Tidal. Any ideas?

I do not know if the Hifiberry DAC2 HD supports full MQA decoding. It is a relatively new board and I could not yet find any info on MQA support. I left a question with Hifiberry Support and will report back when I know more.

Assuming this DAC does not have full MQA decoding support, which would be better - enabling or disabling MQA in the Source settings? As detailed above, with MQA on a 96kHz/24bit source I am getting 48kHz/24bit output and without MQA Volumio reports 44.1kHz/32bit output. Also assuming these reported sampling rates and resolution are correct, it appears there is a tradeoff with MQA on my setup. My initial subjective reaction is to favor the 48kHz/24bit output (MQA enabled). But it’s hard to tell, really. I’m pretty happy with the quality of the audio. I just want to know what is going on and my post here was intended also to serve as feedback for further development.

With regards the comparison of these various streaming services, I want to check out Qobuz. I initially chose Tidal due to their larger library. As it turns out, I am a bit disappointed in Tidal’s limited selection of “Master” quality recordings. But, comparing services is not why I am here. They all seem to have their pros and cons.

The biggest from my pov dizavantqges of qobuz is that they do not have artist radio or my Mix… But they have Playlist curated by humans not by algoritm and you will find good music.
I use spotify then convert to qobuz… The Playlists.
I do not now why qobuz does not has this feature.

No, according to Hifiberry Support, none of their DACs support MQA decoding.

Regarding HiRes offerings, my experience is that Qobuz has much more when compared to Tidal especially in the Rock, Classic Rock genre. And of course you don’t need special hardware to play it. Volumio has no problem streaming 192/24.

Without MQA decoding, you won’t be able to take advantage of the extra quality ‘master’ tracks have to offer. A 96khz/24-bit ‘master’ track is actually streamed to you in 48khz/24-bit, which is what Volumio reports and what your DAC sees. It is only through ‘unfolding’ that you get 96khz. In other words, a 96khz ‘master’ track is not really native 96khz but one that is obtained by digitally processing a 48khz stream.

Personally, I prefer native high-res streams than those obtained through digital processing. If you are into photography, it’s like digitally creating a bokeh vs using a high-aperture lens in the first place.

Thanks Patrick. I’m seeing varying behavior with MQA decoding in Volumio on my system with a DAC that does not support it. Volumio reports some decoding to 48kHz/24bit but others that Tidal says are 96/24 decode to 44/16. If I disable MQA decoding in the Sources settings then it seems like everything Tidal says is 96/24 decodes as 44.1/32. It seems like turning MQA decoding off in the settings on a system without a DAC that supports it would be the preferred way to go.

I appreciate the off-topic comments comparing Tidal and Quboz. I am starting a Quboz free trial to do my own comparison. Thus far I would say that the Tidal user interface is far superior but Quboz does have some titles in hi-def encoding that Tidal does not. The biggest factor is that I can play Quboz 96kHz/24bit encodings at 96/24 on Volumio with my DAC. So, Quboz is winning both the library (maybe) and audio quality races but loses big time in the usability competition.

I should correct my Tidal/Qobuz comparison above. Qobuz does not win the best library competition. Tidal has many titles in high-res format that Qobuz does not. And vice versa. I think it will just depend on what you like and even then it will probably be split until both deliver significantly more in higher resolution format.

Tidal wins usability. Qobuz wins quality (for those of us that cannot decode MQA fully). Tidal probably wins quantity for most users, for now.

Volumio, if they can, needs to work this out with Tidal somehow. Tidal subscribers probably outnumber Qobuz and are not going to want to switch. Ditch MQA.

1 Like

Hi There!

Loving the new version of volumio, big improvement. But since a few days I have a very slowly responding app/interface. Both in browser (chrome on laptop) as in the Android app. I use Tidal exclusively

Whenever I try to change tracks, or put it on pause etc, it takes roughly 2-5 seconds for the streamer to react. Additionally, playlists seem to work improperly: when I try to put on song #23 on the playlist, I need to wait 5 second and then song #25 starts playing. When i try #27, #29 starts playing etc. It is always exactly 2 songs further.

Any idea what is causing this? Is it a known bug?

Thnx!

We are just working on playlist bug

For the other issue, on slow response, have you tried to play local files? Just to exclude internet connection as cause

Davide
Volumio tech support
techsupport@volumio.org

If I’m running Volumio Version 2.882 from April 24th do I still need to activate beta updates or is the new version of tidal integration already included?

A post was merged into an existing topic: Volumio 3 RC1 - Open Beta Testing

A post was merged into an existing topic: Volumio 3 RC1 - Open Beta Testing