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[GioF71]

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[Spoker1973]

Hi GioF71
First of all thank you for tidal connect new method.
I would like to note because you may not be aware that at the moment tidal does not allow you to listen to songs in FLAC format. Only MQA works and every other track shows quality as HIGH . The moment you start a track in FLAC format the quality immediately changes to HIGH and tidal does not play anything.
Do you perhaps know about this problem?

[GioF71]

Hello @Spoker1973, just two days ago I upgraded my subscription to "Hi Fi Plus", and noticed the same behavior.
When using the Tidal Connect container, I often see the sampling rate go to 96kHz, but I never saw 192kHz, even for albums labeled as "max" quality. So I concluded that either I have not been able to really find an album which is available in flac hi-res, or that the software included in the Tidal Connect image simply does not support this new streaming mode.
Also, when using the Tidal Plugin for Upmpdcli (see here), I saw sampling rate up to a max of 48kHz: I concluded that mqa version was selected, but of course there is no mqa unfolding when using this solution.
Until the situation changes, I will probably revert back to the HiFi subscription. I don't have any MQA-enabled dac, and don't plan to buy one soon. Maybe, when I will hit the market for a new dac, MQA will have disappeared or will have become even less relevant than it is today.
I really hope Tidal will finally get rid of albums in MQA format, in favor of true hi-res releases.

[GioF71]

Thinking again, I did not experience a playback stop when trying to play "true" hires content. Can you indicate me the album you used, so I can try?
Also please post your configuration (the .env file).
Thank you.

[Spoker1973]

Thank you for your reply, if you mean songs in FLAC format then type into tidal search engine: Hi-Res FLAC - 24bit/192kHz and there you can find 69 flac hi res songs. If at that moment you look at the device on which you play tidal then you will see for a moment written FLAC and immediately it will change to HIFI and the song will not play. I am not an experienced Linux user, so please tell me how to call the configuration file from under SSH

[Spoker1973]

[GioF71]

Everything plays on my system, but I confirm that nothing goes beyond 96kHz and I get the "MQA" writing instead of flac on the Tidal App. So the Tidal Connect app is doing the first unfolding, and it is playing the MQA version of the track.
One thing I remember when I upgraded the subscription, I had to logoff/logon on the android app, can you try doing this also?
And did you set "Wi-Fi streaming" to "Max" on the Audio & Quality / Quality preferences?
Also I generally disable "Normalize volume", but I don't believe if it is strictly relevant for this issue.

About your configuration, from your terminal just type:

cat $HOME/tidal-connect/.env

Thank you

[Spoker1973]

I didn`t try logout and then log in because i gave HI-FI + always, also i set up wi-fi streaming to max.

[Spoker1973]

env conf:
pawel@moode:~ $ cat $HOME/tidal-connect/.env
FRIENDLY_NAME=Desktop
MODEL_NAME=Raspberry Pi
CARD_NAME=AUDIO

[GioF71]

The config is ok... I would really try to logoff/logon again.
Which DAC are you using?
Can you post the output of

cat /proc/asound/cards

and

aplay -l

[Spoker1973]

I use SMSL SU-9 as DAC, when i connect dac via my PC then everything is ok, so i am going to try to logoff and then login again.
pawel@moode:~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [b1 ]: bcm2835_hdmi - bcm2835 HDMI 1
bcm2835 HDMI 1
1 [Headphones ]: bcm2835_headpho - bcm2835 Headphones
bcm2835 Headphones
2 [AUDIO ]: USB-Audio - SMSL USB AUDIO
SMSL SMSL USB AUDIO at usb-0000:01:00.0-1.1, high speed
and:

pawel@moode:~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 0: bcm2835 HDMI 1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 4/4
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 1: bcm2835 HDMI 1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]
Subdevices: 4/4
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
card 2: AUDIO [SMSL USB AUDIO], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[GioF71]

That traling space after "AUDIO" is suspicious.
Let's see which device is default with:

aplay -L

Do you have problem with everything or only with hi-res tracks?

Anyway maybe let's try with card index first:

cd $HOME/tidal-connect
./configure.sh -i 2 -f "Desktop"
docker-compose up -d

[Spoker1973]

pawel@moode:~ $ aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
audioout
audioout
alsaequal
plug_alsaequal
btstream
camilladsp
crossfeed
plug_bs2b
eqfa12p
plug_eqfa12p
invpolarity
trx_send
hw:CARD=b1,DEV=0
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=b1,DEV=1
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=b1,DEV=0
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=b1,DEV=1
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=b1
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=b1
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=b1,DEV=0
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=b1,DEV=1
bcm2835 HDMI 1, bcm2835 HDMI 1
Direct sample mixing device
hw:CARD=Headphones,DEV=0
bcm2835 Headphones, bcm2835 Headphones
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Headphones,DEV=0
bcm2835 Headphones, bcm2835 Headphones
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=Headphones
bcm2835 Headphones, bcm2835 Headphones
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Headphones
bcm2835 Headphones, bcm2835 Headphones
Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=Headphones,DEV=0
bcm2835 Headphones, bcm2835 Headphones
Direct sample mixing device
hw:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=AUDIO
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=AUDIO
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Front output / input
surround21:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=AUDIO,DEV=0
SMSL USB AUDIO, USB Audio
Direct sample mixing device
pawel@moode:~ $

[Spoker1973]

I have no other problems just that one. I have tried to logout / login after that nothing had changed. When i try to play FLAC song i see short written FLAC and then it change to MQA and what i see on my DAC (look also at frequency):

[GioF71]

No there is probably no trailing space, sorry about that. Just post the logs of the container:

cd $HOME/tidal-connect
docker-compose logs

[Spoker1973]

pawel@moode:~/tidal-connect $ docker-compose logs
Attaching to tidal-connect
tidal-connect | FRIENDLY_NAME=Desktop
tidal-connect | MODEL_NAME=Audio Streamer
tidal-connect | MQA_CODEC=false
tidal-connect | MQA_PASSTHROUGH=false
tidal-connect | CARD_NAME=NOT_SET
tidal-connect | CARD_INDEX=2
tidal-connect | Specified CARD_INDEX=[2]
tidal-connect | Set card_index=[2]
tidal-connect | Creating sound configuration file (card_index=2)...
tidal-connect | Sound configuration file created.
tidal-connect | defaults.pcm.card 2
tidal-connect | pcm.!default {
tidal-connect | type plug
tidal-connect | slave.pcm hw
tidal-connect | }
tidal-connect | PLAYBACK_DEVICE=[default]
tidal-connect | Starting Speaker Application in Background (TMUX)
tidal-connect | Sleeping for a while (3 seconds)...
tidal-connect | Starting TIDAL Connect ...
tidal-connect | STARTING TidalConnect services, version: 1.1.3
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to ope n slave
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.rear
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.center_lfe
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.side
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | Expression 'GetExactSampleRate( hwParams, &defaultSr )' faile d in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 895
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.hdmi
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.hdmi
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.modem
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.modem
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.phoneline
tidal-connect | ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards .pcm.phoneline
tidal-connect | Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directo ry
tidal-connect | Cannot connect to server request channel
tidal-connect | jack server is not running or cannot be started
tidal-connect | JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
tidal-connect | JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
tidal-connect | STARTED TidalConnect services.

[Spoker1973]

unfortunately now i havent tidal connect, there is no device to choose at Tidal app

[GioF71]

Try restoring it with

cd $HOME/tidal-connect
docker-compose down
./configure.sh -n AUDIO -f Desktop
docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

[Spoker1973]

i restarted rasberry manually and Tidal started to work :)

[GioF71]

That looks consistent with what I see on my dac... your dac probably goes to 192kHz and indicates "MQA" because it can decode MQA. But it looks like that Tidal is giving you the MQA versions of the files instead of the hi-res flac files (non-mqa).
When I was mentioning that I was seeing "MQA", it was something displayed on the Android App, not on my DAC, which does not support MQA.
Also, considering your MQA-enabled DAC, you might play with the other two variables, MQA_CODEC and MQA_PASSTHROUGH which I cannot try by myself. That will probably not change the fact that the Tidal Connect app is receiving the MQA version of the files and not the full hires version.

Keep in mind that the underlying tidal-connect app is a closed-source software, it might not support at all the new streaming mode.

When you use your dac from your windows/mac desktop, does it behave differently? Sorry if I ask something you might have already expressed.

[Spoker1973]

I am aware that tidal-connect app is a closed source third party soft and might not support new streaming options.
And your second question when i use my DAC from Tidal on my desktop i behaves differently because i see FLAC instead of MQA :)
Now unfortunately something went wrong and tidal connect not works :(

[GioF71]

Did you try my previous post?

cd $HOME/tidal-connect
docker-compose down
./configure.sh -n AUDIO -f Desktop
docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

but maybe before that let's try and see if there is something in the logs:

docker logs tidal-connect

[GioF71]

I see it works again, good to know. Unfortunately there seem to be limitations with this software, due to its origin.

[Spoker1973]

all is clear maybe in the future you`ll be able to solve that problem. Anyway - thank you so much for your collaboration.

[GioF71]

Honestly I doubt this can change. I instead believe that other projects have more potential:

https://github.com/tamland/python-tidal
https://github.com/tehkillerbee/mopidy-tidal

and I have built a plugin for upmpdcli as I mentioned before. Still does not play flac hires though for some reasons.
But this Tidal Connect project is stuck where it is because, again, of its origin.

Anyway if you find it useful somehow, consider starring it :-)

[GioF71]

I just found this:

tamland/python-tidal#188

"At the moment, Tidal only allows it's own apps to use the HiRes Flac files higher than 24bit 48kHz"

[GioF71]

And this:

orenskl/HiFiStreamer#43

After some more digging it seems that currently TIDAL streams Hi Res FLAC only in 24bit/48Khz, further more this stream seems to be originated from the MQA version and it is not a true lossless version.

This will have to wait until we have a true Hi Res lossless stream

I guess we have to wait.

[Spoker1973]

Indeed we have to wait :) If you have some news do not hesitate to let us know.

[Spoker1973]

Same problem have users of volumio, ifi zen stream and probably many more. So, iti is a global problem.

[looun]

With KODI addon TIDAL2 TIDAL MAX work 192@24bit.

[GioF71]

Yes, but that software, the python-tidal library and e.g. the upmpdcli tidal plugin which also relies on that library, are open source software while this Tidal Connect is not... unfortunately it cannot be updated by the community and there is nobody maintaining it. Or I'd better say, for sure there is somebody working on it, but they are maintaining and distributing updated versions for select oem vendors afaik

[looun]

should be need a new certificate, different from ifi zen.

[GioF71]

Ok... But how do we find such certificate?

[longday11]

@GioF71
Thanks so much for this solution.
I'm able to easily swap between my 2 USB dacs connected to api4 running moode.
I've played with LMS picoreplayer, bubble uonp and others. But it is so great just to use the native tidal interface. The tidal radio feature is great.
Also, I set this up again 2 days ago and I swear there is a slight improvement in audio quality since last time (around a month ago). Might be placebo.
Thanks again. You are a legend!

[GioF71]

Thank you very much for your kind words!!
About the improved audio quality, I really don't know, but the application did not change. Might be placebo as you say.
Did you try Mopidy-Tidal, or the Tidal plugin for upmpdcli?

Please star the repo if you like the works, it is always encouraging :-)

[turambar517]

Hey thanks so much for the work on this! It's been great. I have it going using an XMOS sound device and a TAS5825M DAC.

[GioF71]

Thank you @turambar517!
Please star the repo if you like the work. This is always very encouraging.
Cheers!