Air Play sound quality...

[JemHayward]

A friend sent me a link to a Tidal playlist, but for some reason I couldn't find it via the Tidal facility on my Logitech Media Server, but via the Tidal App on my Macbook, I could find it so I used AirPlay to send it to my Moode Raspberry Pi. My MDAC says it's coming through as 16bit/44.1kHz, but it sounds really awful. I don't really know how AirPlay works, but something horrid is going on. Is there any way of hearing these tracks at a listenable quality?

 

[Strictly Stereo]

A friend sent me a link to a Tidal playlist, but for some reason I couldn't find it via the Tidal facility on my Logitech Media Server, but via the Tidal App on my Macbook, I could find it so I used AirPlay to send it to my Moode Raspberry Pi. My MDAC says it's coming through as 16bit/44.1kHz, but it sounds really awful. I don't really know how AirPlay works, but something horrid is going on. Is there any way of hearing these tracks at a listenable quality?

Is the TIDAL app set up for lossless playback? Check that TIDAL > Settings > Streaming > Streaming Audio Quality is set to Lossless or Master.

 

[JemHayward]

It's set as "Master" as the last time I used the app was to test MQA via USB. I've used AirPlay before, but mainly for stuff on YouTube where I expected the quality to be poor anyway...

 

[Whatsisnaim]

Is the TIDAL app set up for lossless playback? Check that TIDAL > Settings > Streaming > Streaming Audio Quality is set to Lossless or Master.

If Tidal sounds bad via Airplay but not via LMS, the streaming quality setting doesn't explain that difference. Having said that, it is always worth checking this setting periodically. Just because you are paying double for lossless does not mean that you are getting it if the settings are set to the lossy stream. Tidal will happily charge you for lossless while sending you a lossy stream!

 

[Whatsisnaim]

It's set as "Master" as the last time I used the app was to test MQA via USB. I've used AirPlay before, but mainly for stuff on YouTube where I expected the quality to be poor anyway...

What happens if you set it to lossless (what they call HiFi) rather than Master? Airport Express may be getting confused by the MQA stream.

 

[JemHayward]

I'm not actually using any apple stuff (other than the MacBook)... I have a RPi running Moode with Squeezelite, which has the AirPlay plugin installed in LMS. I'm now listening to the tracks via LMS and it's all sounding splendid... I'll have another go with the app and airplay later and report. I doubt if the Tidal app is creating a MQA stream from the playlist tracks.

 

[Man in a van]

Jem, one has to make sure Squeezelite is stopped completely before starting with the Airplay as it is a resource hog.
That was the old rule for MoOde, I'm not sure about the v4.2.

Ronnie

If you want to try Airplay on a spare SD card

https://thepi.io/how-to-set-up-a-raspberry-pi-airplay-receiver/

works, just edit the config.txt file in the boot partition first. Comment out the default audio output at the bottom of the file and add the overlay for the dac that you are using.

Airplay is vanilla 16/44 for everything. (I'm not too sure if shairport-sync can be configured for anything else, it makes my head hurt trying to understand some of this stuff

Ronnie

 

[Strictly Stereo]

It's set as "Master" as the last time I used the app was to test MQA via USB. I've used AirPlay before, but mainly for stuff on YouTube where I expected the quality to be poor anyway...

Are you playing MQA content now? That could be problematic. In Masters mode, the TIDAL app will be partially unfolding MQA content to 24 bit/88.2kHz or 96kHz. Then AirPlay, CoreAudio or some other macOS subsystem will be downsampling this to 16 bit/44.1kHz, which is the limit for AirPlay. Even if you set the output to Lossless in the TIDAL app, those 24 bit/44.1kHz or 48kHz MQA tracks are going to be downsampled by macOS. Please try some 16 bit/44.1kHz source material and see if that is any better.

I know absolutely nothing about Moode's AirPlay implementation, but I use AirPlay and TIDAL regularly with Hegel and Auralic products. Other than being limited to 16 bit/44.1kHz, it seems to work just fine.

 

[JemHayward]

To be honest, airplay isn't that important, I just expected it to 'just work' as it is an apple thing, and that is what apple does... the Tidal app works fine via USB into my DAC, but as my RPi is my primary music source and I only have one USB input, it would be nice if I could route at leat listenable music from my laptop to the RPi, occasionally. Using the Tidal app via the Mac was horrid, but I feel that YouTube was, if anything, acceptable. I'll try some settings in the app and see if I can get it to work when I have some time to spare! At the moment we're listening to proper music!

 

[linnfomaniac83]

I use AirPlay all the time via Apple TV and a Linn Numerik DAC, it sounds great... in fact it also works pretty great via my Amazon fire TV through the toslink output on my Sony TV and a Rega DAC, there may be an issue with the plugin/app you’re using on the Rasberry Pi.