The DAC came in today and I followed the instructions: I got the app USB audio player Pro, paid for the MQA playback, and followed the instructions the DAC said I should do (Instructions from the pdf And the bottom page of said instructions..

So far every track that isn't MQA shows the LED blue on the DAC itself. Every track that is MQA is LED red on the DAC (Like this song..

I'm wondering if everything is normal? Did I maybe miss a step? Is there an option I have to turn on or off on my phone?

Because the DAC says it should turn purple/magenta when it plays and detects MQA files.

Aside from that I have a Pixel 6pro and am using Grado headphones. I'm a noob to this so any help will be appreciated.

**Since cross posts are not allowed I do want to add the following updates:

I posted this originally on the tidal subreddit and while some help was provided, it ultimately didn't help.

I emailed the DAC company, Zorloo, and they effectively told me that the pixel 6pro cannot do MQA playback and cited a Google forum from January '22. I responded by saying there was an update to fix this on the June '22 update. Radio silence since.

I emailed USB audio player Pro (UAPP) and one of the devs has tried to help me resolve what's going on. Unfortunately we hit a stonewall.

Googling around, I found people with similar issues saying the June update didn't help them. A few recommendations said to uninstall tidal and redownload my playlist. Which is exactly what I did, twice. I even uninstalled UAPP and redownload too. No dice and that's where I'm at this point.

Like I said in my original post I am a novice so any help will be appreciated.**

Comments

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MoWePhoto t1_j58yyeu wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:19 AM

#1,424,797

Hi! Do you use Tidal through UAPP? Or do you use the AMP directly with Tidal app?

Does your phone ask if you want to give tidal/UAPP access to your DAC? It has to for the MQA throughput to work. If it doesn't ask, the audio signal is down sampled by Android and then given to the DAC.

Also are you sure, that the light turn red or is it just also red as well as blue to create purple but only if looking from the right angle?

I have a HiBy FC4 which does MQA and indicates quality if the played back file with the LED. And there are times, that I misinterpret the LED because of the viewing angle...

Apart from all this. Does the setup sound great to you? Does it change sound with MQA vs no MQA?

All_hail_Korrok OP t1_j58zne7 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:27 AM

#1,424,829

Replying to MoWePhoto (#1,424,797)

Hello!

I signed on my tidal account through the UAPP app.

Every time I plug in the ztella DAC it gives me that prompt and I allow it access.

I will feel like the idiot of the year if that was the case, but no it's definitely red, but I'll double check in a minute. *It's definitely red lol.

Honestly, yea it does sound better. I just feel that it's my phone not allowing MQA to pass through since others have said the pixel 6pro gave them similar issues.

MoWePhoto t1_j592l7b wrote on January 21, 2023 at 7:03 AM

#1,424,951

Replying to All_hail_Korrok (#1,424,829)

I have worked in Sales and Support for nearly twenty years and if you experience all the problems, the customers have, you start searching for them on your own devices and start doubting your own reason. That's pretty much the same with doing.to much research on possible problems online.

Your Pixel6 asks for allowance. Your DAC recognizes it by indicating the pass through via LED. So I would imagine it works. What it doesn't do is change led colour by audio format. Could that the format is not transmitted. Could also be that the driver doesn't communicate the led change correctly.

What happens to the LED when you plug your DAC into windows and use Tidal from the desktop. My HiBy is much more reliable in terms of LED change with Windows than with my Sony Xperia....

kazuviking t1_j59pca0 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 12:08 PM

#1,425,861

Well you just wasted money on a feature called MQSCAM. MQA is totally useless and does nothing, the only thing it increases are the devices cost. It makes the song not lossless(if you care about that), mixes some ultrasonics into the audible band.

TrueVanDal t1_j59yax6 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 1:41 PM

#1,426,362

Maybe stupid question... You do have the Ztella MQA version? Goole shows that this DAC comes in MQA and Standard version. Latter does not support MQA.

Secondly, in UAPP "settings" > "MQA" menu there is a checkbox "MQA passthrough". Do you have it checked or unchecked? If information on the Zorloo website is correct Ztella only is a MQA Renderer so this checkbox should be unchecked (you want the phone to do the first unfold). But in reality this should not be an issue because UAPP should detect DAC capabilities and act accordingly but maybe it is not for some reason and needs a bit of guidance.

Lastly, does the UAPP UI shows MQA at the bottom and is there green or blue dot next to it? If there are no dots then phone is NOT doing the first unfold and sends the raw file to the DAC. DACs without decoder will not be able to decode it and will treat it basically as simple 44.1/48 kHz file and play it "as-is".

That's all I can think of. But I think it may be also just specific issue with phone/UAPP/DAC combination. For instance my Zen DAC V1 never shows up magenta on my phone and UAPP, only green and yellow. But it works on PC so I guess it is just nature of the beast.

All_hail_Korrok OP t1_j5a6hdc wrote on January 21, 2023 at 2:48 PM

#1,426,912

Replying to TrueVanDal (#1,426,362)

>Maybe stupid question... You do have the Ztella MQA version?

Fuck.... I'm gonna leave this up as a mark of my stupidity.

To answer your questions for any future people with similar problems:

MQA is checked, but someone suggested to uncheck and a dev suggested there was no need to do that.

The app UI does show Green and Blue dots for MQA songs and non MQA songs.

This whole time I really thought the signs were pointing to the pixel being the problem (even UAPP still has it listed as incompatible) despite the June '22 update. The UI even told me to turn on bit perfect mode and MQA since it detected the DAC. Hell, the DAC packaging had information on how to turn this feature on. But none of it mattered because I couldn't read.

Thank you and to everyone who helped me with this.