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17
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Unwanted soft fade in
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on: April 21, 2018, 03:35:45 am
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Hi Peter, I have a separate question regarding playback's soft fade-in at the beginning of a track. It is a general issue, not specific to MQA. Many times the very beginning of first track is slightly cut off by soft fade-in. It drives me crazy. Because it makes the song sound like "testing" track, not a perfect presentation. Any way to fine adjust the starting point?
Best, Zheng
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20
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA Timing Blur question
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on: April 16, 2018, 05:38:56 pm
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Peter, you're a good man! First I feel guilty of spending your time and energy from your crazy busy life (judging from insane amount of stuff you have to deal with...) Your points are helpful and will guide me to carefully tread through the treacherous path of MQA AB tests. Couple of points to clarify: 1. Yes, iFi's implementation of LED scheme is totally unconventional and has nothing to do with MQA's proposed scheme (blue/green). In fact iFi's schemes are not even consistent between their own products -- their OFFICIAL MQA light is magenta with no mention of how to indicate MQA's blue/green lights. But on my iFi iDAC2 it is white because there's no magenta color LED on some legacy products. In short, iFi has one LED to indicate whether its a MQA stream or not. 2. My iFi iDAC2 DOES have a switch setting called "bit perfect" which according to iFi is NON Upsampling. But it still needs software MQA to decode first (either by Tidal desktop or XXHE as a 88 or 96 stream) 3. As a comparison I want to try to let XXHE decode MQA with all filters OFF and volume at 0 dBFS. 4. Can you tell me which are XXHE filter buttons. I know Arc Prediction or Custom is one. Anything else? Keep it short, Best, Zheng
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21
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA Timing Blur question
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on: April 16, 2018, 05:03:22 pm
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Hi Richard, This is so enticing! But again Tidal USA does not have this album. Could you send me a link to try again? Looks like I need to look into VPN to load up Tidal UK or something... Keep on sending me new recommendations of music. Best, Zheng
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22
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA Timing Blur question
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on: April 13, 2018, 06:10:12 pm
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Hi Peter, First I must say that your reply #1 is both fascinating and complicated. I think I am beginning to feel more clarified and appreciate the process of "deblur". But I am still digesting... Here are some of my observations/questions: 1. If deblur is realised when MQA track is decoded (by XXHE for example), does rendering process in a MQA DAC adds anything more (maybe "blurring" to correct over-deblurring, as you suggested) to the deblur information? I am asking this because I do hear something distinctively different when my MQA enabled iFi DAC lights up the white light which indicates a MQA track is being processed -- a darker background behind female vocal which adds more air and expressiveness, and bass is tighter and more involved. No. It happens in the ENcoding of the file. Thus, we have an album with its tracks (which are files as you and me know them) and they are processed through a software and this applies the "Deblurring" ------- 2. This is interesting observation: white light (MQA) on iFi DAC2 only lights up in these 2 conditions in my current setup: A) XXHE decodes, volume 0dB, 96=96 or 88=88, filters like Arc Prediction or custom ON. Or B) Tidal decodes, Full control of DAC, Passthrough OFF. If you switch off XXHE decode or Tidal decode, white light shuts off (meaning non-MQA track) What it tells me is that iFi DAC2 in current form only performs rendering. That is why no 192 or higher playback is possible yet as result of "unfolding". 3. This leads to my question that what is "rendering" entails? Add filters of course? Is it an integral part of the whole time domain process? IF so, without a true MQA DAC, we are only partially enjoy the benefit of deblur? Or better yet--by carefully using appropriate filters settings in XXHE, we can achieve the whole glory of most transient time-corrected results as intended by original studio MQA encoder?! This is certainly encouraging but I am still yet to find filters settings that will make non-MQA DAC present a similar result when the "while light" lits up on MQA DAC. But again it is subtle and can be very subjective. What's crucial in your question(s) above is that we do NOT need the MQA DAC to apply this "debluring" because it already happened. All the MQA DAC adds is a proprietary set of digital filters which any self respecting DAC has inside its cabinet. Excuse my very long mumbling Best, ZH
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25
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 12, 2018, 04:14:33 am
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Peter, FYI. I just forwarded the response from MQA to iFi tech team. Here is what I told them: Hi Alix, I contacted MQA support team and they responded promptly. I actually understand more of their point of view. For example, I always think why iFi demo wants us to turn Tidal passthrough OFF? In fact it should be set to ON so the iFi DAC can perform magic on the undecoded MQA stream. Once passthrough is set OFF, Tidal will decode, which will result in a PCM stream. If it is a PCM stream already, there is nothing iFi DAC can do about it, that is, no magic. Any MQA DAC needs a MQA stream to finish all the "unfoldings" implied by the original MQA encoded file. Once it turns PCM, the journey is done! This is how I understand it. Here is the response from MQA tech team:
------------------------------------ Hi Zheng,
Thank you for your support of MQA.
It sounds as if the iFi DAC2 is displaying the incoming digital rates and not the actual rendered, ie full content, rates. In other words, it could be that it is displaying the incoming rate of 24bit/96kHz and then doing the rest of the unfold to 192 but simply NOT displaying this as such. I would recommend checking in with iFi to see if that is the case.
It also sounds as if you have the Tidal desktop app configured to “Decode MQA”. We would recommend turning this off and then checking to see what the iFi is displaying, including if it shows “MQA”.
How does it sound?
Regards,
The MQA team -------------------------------------
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26
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 12, 2018, 03:49:38 am
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Peter, I just received response from MQA regarding strange behavior of Tital/iFi combo that we have discussed. It again confirmed that the confusion we feel is legitimate! Here it is: ZH Hi Zheng,
Thank you for your support of MQA.
It sounds as if the iFi DAC2 is displaying the incoming digital rates and not the actual rendered, ie full content, rates. In other words, it could be that it is displaying the incoming rate of 24bit/96kHz and then doing the rest of the unfold to 192 but simply NOT displaying this as such. I would recommend checking in with iFi to see if that is the case.
It also sounds as if you have the Tidal desktop app configured to “Decode MQA”. We would recommend turning this off and then checking to see what the iFi is displaying, including if it shows “MQA”.
How does it sound?
Regards,
The MQA team
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27
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 11, 2018, 04:17:41 pm
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Peter, This is strictly FYI. I got response from iFi regardiing Tidal-->iFi-DAC MQA decoding issue. Their answers in bold. I think it's a dead end as far as iFi tech support is concerned... ZH Hi Zheng,
Thanks for the update.
1. If I let Tidal do the software decode (as seen in video instruction), where does iFi MQA hardware decode come in?
- MQA is in 2 stages, decoder / renderer, so either hardware has both implemented or it has renderer whilst software does decoder.
2. I have both a MQA enabled iFi iDAC2 and a non-MQA Chord Mojo DAC. They both behave exactly the same following your video instruction of Tidal MQA setup - that is with "passthrough" OFF you get 96; with "passthrough" ON you get 48. Where is the advantage of using a MQA enabled DAC like iFi with firmware 5.3 update? Does a MQA DAC suppose to do more hardware unfolding to make some MQA albums to 192 or beyond?
- You need to speak with MQA.
So far all we see is Tidal's built-in software decoding without any participation of iFi DAC hardware decoding. Please give me some guidance. I am very confused!
- You'll need to see MQA's technology on their website as they are the vendors of this technology.
Hope this has shed some light.
Thanks. Alix
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28
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 10, 2018, 02:27:36 pm
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Hi Arvind & Peter, Out of curiosity I downloaded this album and played each track. I found no issues at all--all played with a 96 on input and MQA logo on with blue corner. Now I'm playing entire album unattended, it's still going strong. A delete and re-download might fix the problem for Arvind.
Nice album by the way. I remember I might have an old LP sitting in my wife's collection from college time.
ZH
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29
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 09, 2018, 06:57:29 pm
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To further annoy me is the fact that I also bought iFi USB power supply to work with iDAC2 so it does not draw power from PC's USB bus. The power supply is even capable of separating USB data and power with a USB Y cable. All their rhetoric does not make me feel confident about the company. ZH
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30
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: April 09, 2018, 02:37:47 pm
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Hi Peter, This is just FYI. I just posted more questions to iFi technician. Hi Alix,
Thanks for your patience. To be honest, this is getting me even more confused! Here are more questions:
1. If I let Tidal do the software decode (as seen in video instruction), where does iFi MQA hardware decode come in?
2. I have both a MQA enabled iFi iDAC2 and a non-MQA Chord Mojo DAC. They both behave exactly the same following your video instruction of Tidal MQA setup - that is with "passthrough" OFF you get 96; with "passthrough" ON you get 48. Where is the advantage of using a MQA enabled DAC like iFi with firmware 5.3 update? Does a MQA DAC suppose to do more hardware unfolding to make some MQA albums to 192 or beyond?
So far all we see is Tidal's built-in software decoding without any participation of iFi DAC hardware decoding. Please give me some guidance. I am very confused!
Best, Zheng Here is the video instruction that iFi is sending to everybody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-rMsoORSbw
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