I believe that Tidal Masters does up to 24/192 which the CCA can't do. Neither DAC can unfold MQA which is available on Tidal. The CCA's limit 24/96 which is a higher resolution than CD. So the CCA can do high res just not the highest.I can only recommend the following solution because it is the only one I have ever used beside using actual squeezeboxes. Buy a Raspberry Pi and load it with the piCorePlayer OS [pCP] which is free. This turns your RPi into a squeezebox.33and1/3rd said:So if don't use the CCA what would you recommend I use? Another question, would it be useless to have one of those DACs with conjunction CCA and Tidal HiFi/Master. Unless I upgrade to another streamer plus the DAC?
Hopefully I'm making senseClick to expand...
pCP will allow to use the RPi with Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz streaming services. You also get ability stream your own files up to DSD 512. Plus internet radio and there is even a plugin for Radio Paradise which streams at CD quality. Another plugin allows you to use a CCA as a squeezebox. Nice if you want to use yours in a second system. pCP has bit perfect, gapless and synchronized playback. You can also control it via a smart phone or tablet.
BTW I have both the Topping D30 and the Modi 3 and I prefer the Modi 3.
MQA and 24/96 are different. The CCA can definetely play 24/96 Tidal files which is a greater resolution than redbook CD quality of 16/44.1.gvl said:Tidal on CCA can go to up to CD quality, no MQA.Click to expand...True. To hear MQA at its full potential with a Raspberry Pi you need an MQA capable DAC.gvl said:I believe Raspberry Pi solutions only allow MQA pass-through and you need an MQA-capable DAC to properly decode MQA..Click to expand...I am pretty sure that a RPi can do the first unfold of MQA [or maybe its a pass-through] which any computer will do but it needs an MQA capable DAC to do the second unfold. Squeezelite will play an MQA encoded .flac file recorded at 24/96 at 24/96. I just tried it with a Ola Gjeilo's North Country II downloaded from 2L.gvl said:If you have an old unused PC you can try to load Daphile on it but it won't be able to unfold MQA either. Of course you can play Tidal on a PC which will decode MQA up to 96kHz, but there is no convenient remote control for the player.Click to expand...
It can play 24/96, it cannot decode MQA. You need to somehow perform the first unfold and then send it as 24/96 PCM to the CCA. If you use the Tidal native app to stream via CCA you're limited to 16/44.1 - last time I checked several months back anyway.ldatlof said:MQA and 24/96 are different. The CCA can definetely play 24/96 Tidal files which is a greater resolution than redbook CD quality of 16/44.1.Click to expand...Pass-through means the player passes MQA 44.1 or 48kHz folded/unmodified to an external DAC for unfolding or playback as-is if the DAC is not MQA capable, MQA stream can be played as 44.1/48. How did you confirm Squeezelite does the unfold to 24/96? Did your DAC indicate it was playing 24/96? I tried this same file on Daphile which is also Squeezelite based and it played as 48kHz - no unfold, but perhaps RPi can do it.ldatlof said:I am pretty sure that a RPi can do the first unfold of MQA [or maybe its a pass-through] which any computer will do but it needs an MQA capable DAC to do the second unfold. Squeezelite will play an MQA encoded .flac file recorded at 24/96 at 24/96. I just tried it with a Ola Gjeilo's North Country II downloaded from 2L.Click to expand...
I can't say how it works for Tidal because I no longer have it so I can't test it. For anyone reading this thread this is the setup I used to play a 24/96 MQA file with squeezelite:Here are two screenshots of how I know that the DAC is playing the file as 24/96:
- Server Hardware: Dell Precision T1700 Mini Tower with an Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 @ 3.10GHz CPU & 4GB RAM running Logitech Media Server. OS is Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS.
- Squeezelite Hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero W. OS is piCorePlayer 6.0 running squeezelite only
- DAC: Schiit Modi 3
- MQA File played: Ola Gjeilo's North Country II [2L-048_14_stereo.mqa.flac]
I have a feeling that any of the processing that is going on is done on the server side and not on the Raspberry Pi. Which may or may not be a moot point because AFAIK you need LMS running somewhere on the network to use squeezelite and LMS can be run on a RPi.
Later today I am going to set up my CCA and see if it can play MQA encoded files by itself or attached to an external DAC.