XXHighEnd

Anyone tried Chaka Khan - Echoes of An Era.

For me each track plays ok until near the end but jumps to next track prematurely. Does not happen with any other album.

https://tidal.com/browse/album/281764

Colin

Hi Colin,

I’m having the same problem with Tidal streams which I prepared today. Earlier streams do not exhibit such problems neither does music ripped from CD’s.

I wonder if it’s something to do with Tidal...

Best regards,

Arvind

Are these MQA albums (or tracks) ?

Hi Peter,

I was playing a couple of MQA albums, when I noticed this problem. Will try non MQA albums too once I prepare streams.

Best regards,

Arvind

Hi Peter,

Non MQA albums don’t exhibit this problem. However as I mentioned earlier, MQA streams prepared prior to today also do not exhibit this problem. It seems to be a problem with Tidal MQA albums recently streamed.

Best regards,

Arvind

The Chaka Khan - Echoes of An Era I mentioned at start of this topic is MQA but I have downloaded several recent MQA albums which play OK.

I will try dowloading again

https://tidal.com/browse/album/281764

Colin

Hi Arvind,

Yes, that is what I expect. The problem may very well be this :

Lately, Tidal is converting all the existing normal Redbook albums to MQA. This is as fake as it can be, but it is also not formally supported. Thus, this is not MQA of any good quality at all, and you can see it by them being 16/44.1 and not 24/44.1 (or 24/88.2 or 24/96). Because this is not MQA really, XXHighEnd does not know what to do with it properly. I have been working on it already, but it is a bit of a tough problem. PLUS (mind you !) you just don't want these at all**. OK, so what I have been working on, is that you can see that they are fake (but also that they will play anyway).

**): With the notice that the old RedBook has been removed and they the ID of them is still the same (!!!).

If you re-Prepare these and you had the normal Redbook version from earlier, you will lose that version and it will be replaced by the MQA fake sh*t.

I think that at this moment you will be able to recognize them largely by the label telling 44.1. Thus the album in the picture below with be fake MQA by a vary big chance (but you will only know definitely after you have it in the playlist and will see that it is 16 bits).

Hard to check anyway at this moment, because of that result of one album only, at this moment. Sorry for that ...

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the clarity. Really unfortunate though. Seems like an alternate to Tidal would be the eventual solution.

Best regards,

Arvind

The Chaka Khan album is one claiming to be MQA44 but plays at 1411 bit rate. If I switch off MQA Decoding the tracks play to their end so the problem is clear now.
I do have MQA44 albums that play correctly at 2116 bit rate so its only the bit rate that identifies the problem albums.

Colin

Oh Colin, I never even thought of that "solution". Prize of the day ! (make that month).

Don't ask me whether the album sounds worse than normal RedBook. It may ... Maybe someone can check. You would need a local copy for that and a 44.1 which says it is MQA but shows 16 bits (or indeed the 1411 number). Never think that you can Prepare the MQA and next compare with a previously Prepared Redbook, because you will lose the latter (as stated in my previous post).

Regards and thanks !
Peter

Hi Peter

Most of so called 'Master' albums I have downloaded recently have the problem of jumping prematurely to next track so we take to not really be MQA.

Some of these are 48K/24 bit EG:-
https://tidal.com/browse/album/175754495

Is it possible to add a button on the Playback screen to allow MQA decoding to be switched on/off without having to go into Settings each time, would also help if MQA status could be shown in unattended play.

Best Regards
Colin

Hi Colin,

The number of hours I worked on this (last early this morning :)) starts to be countless. The solution (as per your proposal) seems to easy, but it is about the recognition of what's what. And per the initial changes I applied last November (yuk) I myself don't even have any indication any more (see below, all show without sampling rate).

In the (impossible) mix is the changes Tidal applied to the search data, but at least that I could finish yesterday. This is how I today *have* to proceed with the MQA stuff, because currently it is completely useless. Plus, I don't want to take it out all together. And oh, what I sure *am* considering is not presenting the MQA16 stuff. As if it does not exist in Tidal. I mean ... *if* I would be able to show the 16 bits separately from the others, I'd still have the issue of what you report about : something is not treating the data as should (because of the illegal situation). Also this all includes the special search facility so you are able to avoid the MQA16 stuff (I half finished that earlier on), but looking at myself ... I would always used that. Thus leave them out all together seems a good solution to me ...
:scratching:
Peter

These new unmarked MQA tracks would not play for me unless I unchecked the Decode MQA box. I have now just started deleting all the files on the first page of the folder structure - the MTT, MQA Data,  ect. leaving only the stream folder.

This seems to work without issue now and the bit rate comes up at 24, 48000 and plays like a normal FLAC.


Best,

David

Hey David, thank you for this !

Sadly I can't recognize what you are saying. I could try to literally mimic what you are doing, but therefore I must, well, know what you are literally doing.

Meanwhile I am fairly close to finishing this up, most 99% probably by not suggesting the 16 bit MQA albums as MQA (so they won't decode but you also won't like to play them because most probably it's Redbook CD mangled with).

Still I like to mimic your situation, David !
Peter

I just manually delete these files under the Streams folder.

(http://)

Well, IMO that can't be correct for a general procedure. It may play, but without MQA Decoding always.
Although MQA Ltd will tell you that this is fine, it is super super poor. :evil:
Only if the resulting file plays as 16/44.1 (or 16/48) it could be "doable", although still not the real thing it was ever (the CD).

Peter

Thanks David,

I tried your suggestion. Actually I created a new album folder & copied the contents of the Streams folder to it. Chose the Dave Holland album that is 24/48 and prematurely jumps with MQA decoding turned on. From the folder (streams) it plays fine.

https://tidal.com/browse/album/175754495

So for me this is a better solution than having to switch off MQA for the problem albums.

Sound quality seems ok, could download a track from Quobuz to compare its available there 16/44 & 24/96.

Colin