Wrong Sample Frequency on Volumio

[Ciok]

Dear All,
I’m using the 15 days trial period before start definitively the yearly Premium account. I’ve a Pi4 connected by usb3 on my IFI Zen Dac V2. Both supplied with linear power supply. But I’ve a doubt. Why Volumio show always 44.1KHz/24bit also if the track is streaming by Tidal is in HiRes? In fact the Ifi Zen DAC V2 show correctly the Blue light (MQA Studio) but the Volumio show always 44.1 or 48/24bit. The second doubt, I don’t understand why the same albums, for example “Matter of Time” of Eddie Vedder streamed from Tidal by iPhone/iPad is shown in Zen DAC with Magenta light, i.e. (MQB original sample rate), when instead the same tracks played by PC@usb or Volumio@Pi4 is shown on DAC as Blue (MQA studio).

Thanks for your support.

[chsims1]

Possibly here, from a search.
Volumio 3 web interface shows 44.1kHz 16bit but

[Ciok]

Thanks so much for your suggestion but also in this topic there aren’t answers to this issue. All speak about it but no clear answers from Volumio. The question remains, Volumio doesn’t pass a good data stream to “iFi Zen Dac V2” because its led never go to Magenta. Considering that this dac is approved from MQA std as a FULL MQA DECODER its Led must go to Magenta!! Only if I connect an iPhone with Tidal the dac play with magenta.

[Wheaten]

I think this is related to the special drivers needed, which has only been issued for Windows and MacOS. As the issue seems to be with the Zen DAC V2, my DAC plays the MQA files without any issues.

[Ciok]

Thanks for your reply Wheaten,
as shown from your photo also your dac highlights with a blue dot the MQA sample rate. So, like my dac reaches “blue status” i.e. MQA but not the Magenta. For example the first two tracks from Top Tracks of Sarah McLachlan are the first in Master and the second in HiFi. As you can see from the below photos ZenDacV2 show them respectively as Blue and Yellow. Which colors show your dac? Thanks and nice day!

[Wheaten]

Hi my DAC will will turn purple for MQB, but not with Volumio, only with Tidal native app, If I enable:

As Volumio will only pass through a MQA signal it turns Blue, Same a the native Tidal app.

So I guess this requires an answer from @Volumio as this means Volumio is doing the 1st step.

[Xhorder]

When you stream from the Tidal app, it does the first unfold, so you get Magenta. You should be able to test this by turning off MQA processing in the Tidal app. The Zen should then show Blue or Green.

Since volumio does not do any MQA processing, you’ll only get Blue or Green.

[Ciok]

Hi Xhorder, thanks but here we are thinking that the maximum sample rate we can aspire with @Tidal is Magenta colour when we stream from our DACs. You can see also the above image about the MQA standard colours. Magenta is the maximum rate and we cannot be satisfied with blue or green. Our “iFi ZEN DAC V2” is a full MQA decoder. Don’t make confusion with its first version without V2. So, this DAC can decode and render without any other previous unfolding. For this reason it’s strange that with Volumio the maximum colours reached are green or blue. It seems that Volumio make the first unfolding but it cannot. Is there anybody know about it? @volumio @ifi-audio.com

[Xhorder]

I was referring to Zen V2. Since V1 could not do a full unfold, it is not usable with volumio as an MQA DAC.

And I very well could be wrong, but I thought Magenta is effectively equivalent to Blue/Green, and only indicates that software is doing the first unfold.

IOW, I don’t think Magenta is “better” than blue/green, just “different”. With all three you’re getting the full MQA unfolding. At least that’s mu current understanding…

Probably need to correspond with iFi in order to get a definitive answer.

[Xhorder]

FWIW, here is a reddit post that discusses the same question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TIdaL/comments/o0ajdb/comment/hg18ez2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[Ciok]

Thanks for your help and all is correctly explained in the above link from Xhorder. At this point I think you are right. After my last hour tests I can confirm that the alone way for set to magenta the zen dac V2 is use Tidal app with iOS devices and connect them by usb to the DAC. Maybe because the Apple’s devices cannot disable their first Tidal unfolding. Not even the tidal on windows notebook can set to magenta the dac. Tidal on Win_notebooks or Volumio on Pi4 seems to have the same behavior, maximum Green or Blue, i.e. MQA or MQA_studio. So, Magenta status indicates only that the first unfold is been made by a software where Tidal is being playng. However I’ve write also to iFi but they don’t have yet answered. I think they don’t have explained well these differences on their tiny instructions and I’ve beleived that Magenta (MQB) was the maximum sample rate but is not. nice day!

[G-rig]

Hi

I’m using the V1 of the iFi Zen Dac, it’s a pretty neat unit for a PC setup.
It may have been mentioned but you need to use the windows (or mac) App, you can’t get MQA decoding/unfolding in the webpage version.

Also just check the settings near the output device (pulldown) to ensure it’s in exclusive mode, and if using another headphone amp there are settings so the volume control won’t be applicable on the iFi Zen Dac. It should display purple for MQA.

Actually not even sure why you’d need to use Volumio if sitting at your pc with Tidal Connect going. I usually prefer to use Tidal App if using tidal for playback, but can still have volumio open in the browser for control (or phone app). I mostly use in another room with a DAC+monitors not with the iFi & headphones

[Ciok]

Hi G-Rig, please read my above post of yesterday…
I’ve made also this table below can help where I’ve putted what I understand about it.
However iFi should have explain better the meaning of Magenta/MQB colour!

[G-rig]

Ok, perhaps they’ve changed things a bit with iFi V2, did you get it working? Not sure what MQB is to be honest.

Sounds like you’ve got the iFi plugged into Raspberry pi, what screen is that, looks handy?
Mine is connected to PC so no point using Volumio when sitting at the PC setup. Out of interest I checked my output devices in Volumio (web) and can only see my DAC (which the RPi4 is connected to), or headphones. Don’t see an option for the iFi/