What I deduce from this is that the 16-bit MQA issue has nothing to do with MQA, TIDAL or Redcloud. Rather, the issue seems to be related to the Bridge II.
Excellent detective work Watson!!
Seriously though, nice work Boot! I feel like this is the stuff that needs to be done to better isolate the issue. Ted has proclaimed all along it has to be a Tidal or Bridge issue. I think this pretty much narrows things down to the Bridge II.
Ok, ball is in PS Audio’s court. Hopefully it’s an easy fix.
Based on what Ted has said I think the thing to do is look at the 17th to 24th bits after unfolding to see if something is there. Not sure if that is even possible, but I sure don’t know how to do it. Assuming it can be done … If there is nothing there except zeroes than the DS is properly displaying, if there is something there other than zeroes then the Bridge is causing a problem. Seems simple, but probably isn’t.
Well, that is certainly beyond my pay grade and willingness to undertake. PS Audio is aware of the problem so it is of my opinion, now that the problem has been defined and narrowed down, that any further troubleshooting and resolution is the responsibility of PS Audio crew.
I saw on the forum topic link mentioned above that the 3.5.1 update is out today.
I needed to restart my DSD before it recognized there was an update available. It installed fine and it appears everything is working correctly now in terms of displaying MQA bit depth post unfolding when streaming from Tidal via Roon to the DSD.
Many thanks to PSA for get this fix through the pipeline and out to us consumers.
I did note one interesting thing which surprised me that is related to Tidal. On some master albums not all tracks are at the same sample rate. For example on the John Coltrane - Giant Steps reissue most tracks are at 192 MQA but track 3 is at 44. The 2L recordings at 352 are unfolding to half that rate 176/24 bits which is as expected with the Bridge II. They sound very good. It’s late so tomorrow I will try a comparison between the MQA and native FLAC on the exact same tracks and see what difference can be heard.
Updated Bridge II to 3.5.1 after restart and played ”Tidal Masters; New Arrivals”, display shows correct bit depth. New to me; DS displays MQA. in blue and MQA in green colour;
Daniel Rosenberg said
I did note one interesting thing which surprised me that is related to Tidal. On some master albums not all tracks are at the same sample rate. For example on the John Coltrane - Giant Steps reissue most tracks are at 192 MQA but track 3 is at 44.
Odd. How often have you seen this? Have others noticed this?
It seems strange Tidal or MQA would address different tracks of the same album differently.
Thanks, Paul and PS Audio! I updated to v3.5.1 from the mControl app (no need to power-cycle the DS this way). It installed on the first try and now MQA 192 streams are playing once again as 24-bit.
I’m grateful for the update, Paul. Like Daniel, had to restart the DAC for it to realize the update was available, and 3.5.1 installed easily.
On my PWDII, though the issue remains unchanged: albums that Roon IDs as 24/96 MQA display correctly on the touchscreen as 24/96 MQA., but albums that Roon show as 24/192 MQA will display on the touchscreen as 16/192 MQA.
I’m still having a ball listening to MQA music. It’s sounding really, really good.
I noticed on the rear panel picture of the DirectStream at the PSA site, there is a usb connection on the Bridge card. I presume updates were originally installed on this earlier card. I connected my audio usb connection when I did the Bridge update in case this usb is used. Following the How To Guide I got the new 3.5.1 update. After I downloaded the update did it go through the audio usb or the ethernet cable via the network? It got there but I wonder how?
It may not be new to this update but album art does not show for me on most MQA tracks, listened to maybe 10 today and only two showed. No problem with redbook or hirez. Anyone else seen this ?
Daniel Rosenberg said
I did note one interesting thing which surprised me that is related to Tidal. On some master albums not all tracks are at the same sample rate. For example on the John Coltrane - Giant Steps reissue most tracks are at 192 MQA but track 3 is at 44.
Odd. How often have you seen this? Have others noticed this?
It seems strange Tidal or MQA would address different tracks of the same album differently.
I have seen this happen with playlists of the same artist on Tidal, but not with an album. But then again, I don’t find myself staring at the display much so I could very well have missed it.
I had not noticed the green/blue MQA issue until it was brought up here. I keep the display on dim and don’t have a card to display album art. Updated from MConnect prompt with no problems. If the update was supposed to cure the blue/green issue, it has not for me. Noticed REM Automatic for the People at 24/192 displayed green MQA. Just now playing Tyminski Southern Gothic at 24/48 displayed green. That would appear that streaming rate is non-germane or something else is going on.
A good example of an album with varying bit rates is Buckingham/Mcvie. The first cut is 16/44 FLAC and the rest is varying rates of MQA.
I noticed the green MQA before this latest update. I believe my previous DAC, a Mytek Brooklyn would light up either green or blue depending on if it was MQA Studio or MQA Master. When I would see that on the Directstream Senior I thought it was by design, especially since only the blue had the dot after it.
I can confirm as well that I still see both green and blue MQA with the latest Bridge update.
That was my understanding of the difference as well. The “.” after the MQA denotes a full unfold, MQA Master. To be honest, I don’t see the color difference as a problem. I actually appreciate it since I can tell at a distance whether it is Studio or Master. If the “.” is the only visual difference, then it will be impossible for me to see whether it is Studio or Master without approaching the DSD.
I too noticed the green and blue color use with Bridge II firmware 3.3.3
Please confirm the meaning of “MQA Studio”. I have not heard that term before and could not find a reference to it on the web.
Are you saying that if there is only the first unfold (to 96 or 88) it is “MQA Studio” resolution or if there is not an unfold to highest possible resolution?
For example the DSD/Bridge can’t unfold a 352/24 all the way. It will stop at 176/24 which is still pretty high res. Is the result in this case “Studio” resolution? Where as a 192 MQA unfolded all the way to 192 is considered to be at “Master” resolution.
