I contracted Volumio and Tidal. Is it correct that when I play from Tidal in Volumio it indicates a quality of 44.1K and 16 bit?
It depends on your subscription level in tidal.
I have HiFi Plus, its ok?
HiFi Plus is the highest tier which should give you access to MQA albums, surround or spatial audio, and, now, apparently, pure Hi-Res FLAC files.
If you’re accessing Tidal through the Volumio UI:
If the album’s highest resolution version is HiFi, you’ll only see it as 44.1 kHz 16bit.
If an album or song has an M icon next to them, these are “Masters” or MQA files. When playing them, you’ll probably see them as 48kHz 24bit , with your DAC doing the decoding if capable.
If you’re accessing a Surround version of an album, it will appear as 44.1 32 bit (without the kHz), and will only reproduce as stereo.
And if you’re playing a pure hi-res FLAC file, playing them should tell you the FLAC’s bit rate as well (as a combination of kHz + bits, like 192kHz 24bit, for example).
If you’re using Tidal Connect, HiFi quality albums will only appear as 44.1kHz 16bit. Master (now Max) quality albums, depending on which Tidal app you’re using, should appear with either the 48kHz 24bit identifier which signals MQA, or other bit rates as FLAC.
Hopefully I got this right and it helps!
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Based on this information I don’t seem to be able play anything higher then 48kHz 24bit (guessing this is MQA via a non-MQA DAC [Toppin E30]) or 44.1kHz 32bit (guessing it is picking up the ‘surround’ file types) when trying to play known 192kHz or 96kHz Flac via Volumio (either via Tidal Connect or directly; seems to pick up 48kHz 24bit with Tidal connect and often 44.1kHz 32bit when playing directly inside Volumio Tidal app). In the Volumio settings for Tidal I have MQA turned off and quality set to ‘highest possible’. Is this a problem with Volumio/Tidal interaction or maybe my source information for Flac is not good (TidaL Max Quality Spreadsheet - Google Drive)? And to confirm I am a Tidal HiFi Plus subscriber. I have tested with 96kHz files on an external HD so I know it’s not a DAC issue (Topping E30 can handle Flac files up to 192kHz/24bit). Any advice welcome 
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In Volumio’s UI, I think that if your DAC doesn’t support MQA then it won’t matter if the MQA switch in Settings is turned on or off. I may be wrong, but I think the toggle just indicates wether or not to pass these file as they are to the DAC, as Volumio doesn’t do any decoding of it itself.
And yes, it isn’t a DAC issue. What you mention, considering the linked Google Sheets, seems closer to another post here: https://community.volumio.com/t/tidal-hi-res-flac-available-now/
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Cheers, yes had seen the other post but not wrapped my head around it obviously. Sounds like a waiting game then to see if Volumio and/or Tidal can be updated to get the Tidal flac’s playing ‘bit perfect’ (if that is the correct terminology)
Only if Tidal deliver bit perfect flac’s, as they appear to drop MQA
MQA itself went into administrative mode (filed for bankruptcy)
I tried some of the titles in your spreadsheet on both a non-MQA capable DAC in Volumio (USB and I2S), and through Tidal’s desktop app connected to an MQA-capable DAC with passthrough enabled and then disabled. An interesting thing happened:
The titles were Queen II, by Queen, and Enema of the State, by blink-182.
The Volumio UI shows multiple versions for both titles:
Enema of the State has 4 entries, one of which is a surround mix (44 32bit) and all the rest are FLAC files with no MQA.
Queen II has 3: the 2011 remaster, the 2011 remaster Deluxe Edition, and the original release. No MQA indicator either.
The Tidal app only shows 1 release for Enema of the State (without a surround-sound capable DAC connected), and 2 releases for Queen II: the supposed original release, and the 2011 deluxe version. And all at “Max” quality.
Through the Tidal desktop app, all of these play at 88.2kHz PCM.
But through Volumio, they all play at 44.1kHz 16bit.
From what I gather, Volumio is already playing bit-perfect, passing what it sees on the servers directly through to the DAC.
Could it be a matter of different servers/repositories/endpoints for Tidal’s apps?
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