Hi Colin and all - Happy New Year !
Its 44/16 unfolds to 88 and plays fine after editing the MTT files.
It is a technical thing; You can't "unfold" to double the rate without adding a bit (I am referring to the bits in bytes). Thus would you do that, then level information is chopped off. This is not easy to grasp ...
When the 16/44.1 is transferred to 24/88.2 (sorry about using my own bits/sampling rate language), then you'd say that a sufficient amount of bits have been added (namely
. But this has to be approached from the other side : how can the 16 bits contain information about MQA while not FIRST consuming bits for that.
This is how a 24/44.1 is different, because the required headroom for level information is still only 2x for 2x more sampling rate. Very indirectly I am now saying that a 88.2 native file, only needs to be 17 bits and not 24 as how it is presented to us. But *that* is because how bits and bytes and converters work - they jump by the 8 (one byte) although 4 would also be possible. But not 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 etc.
From MQA which really unfolds it is known that only 17 bits real data are used. Maybe mr. MQA / Bob Stuart was not really stupid, and he apparently knows a few things.
Now to the conclusion :
When 16/44.1 would be liable to fold, then first at least one bit has to be removed from the 16 bits, if not three or whatever the reality is.
When 16/.44.1 would be encoded as MQA, in those original 16 bits (from the orginal album) at least one bit is not original any more. And since it is encoded MQA
and since this is not only obtained in the FLAC file any more (as you discovered, like me - something like over a year ago), then it *has* to be the file itself which is molested. And since 16 bits is not already all that much it is, well, molested.
Apart from these more vague conclusions, the main conclusion is that when 16/44.1 MQA is transferred to 24.88.2, nothing unfolds as such -
it is upsampled only.
Maybe now it is clear better why I simply avoid these 16/44.1 - they are fake as fake can be, plus technically worse.
Additionally to all there's this :
The official MQA decoding standard as of the last 2 years (don't pin me down on that period of time) is that no MQA denoted album will ever play at 44.1 or 48. It will only play at double the base rate (the rate in the file). The only player which does not comply to that is XXHE. So the only player where you can still see the truth (whatever that's worth) is XXHE. You could also say that from the start I did my stinking best to show all the various truths within MQA (try that with Roon or the Tidal app etc. and you will get nowhere).
The kind of verdict of this little story is that nobody is able to see any more what's 16/44.1 because ALL is upsampled to begin with, whether it is justified or not. Thus, whether you let "unfold" your 16/44.1 MQA to 24/88.2 or let e.g. XXHighEnd do that, it is no less than upsampling - and it is up to you whether you apply that or not (sampling rate slider). However, what happens with MQA now, is that good 16/44.1 albums are transferred to (processed with) MQA fake stuff, and next they are upsampled. A more worse situation does not exist. Better would be your beloved 16/44.1 being upsampled by good means to 24/88.2, or what we are used to : to 24/705.6.
Last thing : *Because* XXHighEnd's MQA does not contain an unfold from 16/44.1 to 24/88.2 (it really hasn't), all what would be happening is that by the means of your tweaking of the .MTT file, XXHighEnd sets the sampling rate to 2x the original, and it will upsample herself to that, prior to your sampling rate slider being involved and upsampling further (like to 705.6).
Maybe it starts to be clear somewhat how it virtually has become impossible to make something out of all this mess, with Tidal in the background also changing things (and a next dimension being that FLAC file which *was* some last resort which its header data - but which got killed).
It is not undoable (for me), but it requires reasoning around false logic and untruths, coincidentally Bob S. in the front row with that again.
I will (kind of) repeat : there is no logic in what to do with a 16/44.1 (or 16/48) because whatever the logic, it is a lie. And thus in my version over here I just don't present them for search result. That avoids the problem, right ? ehh ... Yes. But because Tidal is changing about all (or at least a LOT) to 16/44.1 MQA, the albums now become unavailable. And it is me who decides that for you. :-( Understand ? this does not feel good at all and it implies infinite postponing of an update (of XXHE) I sure could have.
But one day I will do it anyway ...
Kind regards,
Peter