Tidal reportedly enabling bit-perfect playback to USB DAC on Android

[Jimbob54]

It's not relevant to this thread. Id rather keep the religious debates out of the discussion. More choices are better. As others have mentioned USB AUDIO PLAYER PRO works in cases where the tidal app does not. To me thats the relevant comparison. If uapp works with the dongle DAC of choice then Tidal should be able to work it out.

A quick look at the release notes for the frequent uapp updates tells us the problem. Far too much fragmentation in android phones and how they all operate. It's a constant stream of "added support for X and fixed issues with Y". Explains why other streaming apps haven't even tried to give exclusive control over external hardware, it's a nightmare.

 

[artsky]

Happy to report that after I set my Tidal to offline mode and tried playing the downloaded files they are also being decoded by my ifi hipdac as MQA.

 

[Beershaun]

A quick look at the release notes for the frequent uapp updates tells us the problem. Far too much fragmentation in android phones and how they all operate. It's a constant stream of "added support for X and fixed issues with Y". Explains why other streaming apps haven't even tried to give exclusive control over external hardware, it's a nightmare.

That's a good call out. Their list of DACs they have tested is extensive. That is likely why Tidal has not yet announced the feature formerly. They are testing in production to see which work and which don't and which DACs customers are actually trying to use. Hopefully they are getting telemetry on which DACs people are plugging in and failing or crashing with.

https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/technology/usb-audio-driver

 

[Jimbob54]

That's a good call out. Their list of DACs they have tested is extensive. That is likely why Tidal has not yet announced the feature formerly. They are testing in production to see which work and which don't and which DACs customers are actually trying to use. Hopefully they are getting telemetry on which DACs people are plugging in and failing or crashing with.

https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/technology/usb-audio-driver

The phones themselves seem to present a challenge too. And they change far more often than the dongle models. And then we have whole new versions /betas of android itself which can screw a device that previously did work (the first install of a12 beta on my pixel 3 didn't work with uapp, now does)

 

[Beershaun]

The phones themselves seem to present a challenge too. And they change far more often than the dongle models. And then we have whole new versions /betas of android itself which can screw a device that previously did work (the first install of a12 beta on my pixel 3 didn't work with uapp, now does)

Yeah. Android allows manufacturers to fiddle a bit too much with stuff that should "just work." I think they took the windows model a bit too far and have had a lot of trouble unwinding it to make it manageable for developers.

 

[Mathias]

Unfortunatelly Tidal app still freezes with Tempotec Sonata E35 when "bit-perfect" mode is allowed.
Tidal ver.: 2.45.0, MIUI 12.5.2, Android 11.

 

[Slavek78]

[QUOTE = "Beershaun, příspěvek: 873438, člen: 10043"] Díky.
Jaký externí DAC používáte?
Můžete se podělit o to, jak jste potvrdili převzorkování na 192? Nikdy jsem o tom neslyšel a chtěl bych vědět, jak si to v ověřit sám. [/CITÁT]

s10e a Dragonfly Red fungují dobře a v aplikaci Tidal se zobrazí vyskakovací okno pro správu Dragonfly red

 

[Beershaun]

[QUOTE = "Beershaun, příspěvek: 873438, člen: 10043"] Díky.
Jaký externí DAC používáte?
Můžete se podělit o to, jak jste potvrdili převzorkování na 192? Nikdy jsem o tom neslyšel a chtěl bych vědět, jak si to v ověřit sám. [/CITÁT]

s10e a Dragonfly Red fungují dobře a v aplikaci Tidal se zobrazí vyskakovací okno pro správu Dragonfly red

Translate: "s10e and Dragonfly Red work well and Tidal displays a pop-up window for managing Dragonfly red"

Wow. Thanks! That's great to know the Dragonfly Red works fine for you with a Galaxy S10e. Hmmm. So does that mean it's my Pixel 3 or do I need to do something like fully uninstall the Tidal App? Or maybe uninstall UAPP? Now I am just speculating that the app is not playing well with other stuff I have on my phone...

 

[Jimbob54]

Translate: "s10e and Dragonfly Red work well and Tidal displays a pop-up window for managing Dragonfly red"

Wow. Thanks! That's great to know the Dragonfly Red works fine for you with a Galaxy S10e. Hmmm. So does that mean it's my Pixel 3 or do I need to do something like fully uninstall the Tidal App? Or maybe uninstall UAPP? Now I am just speculating that the app is not playing well with other stuff I have on my phone...

I would uninstall uapp as a trial (save any eq profiles, they don't back up). If you've somehow enabled an "always allow this app to control (dac)" in the past, and best to rule out

 

[Salter]

This is working on my Samsung S10 with the Dragonfly Red. However - it's not all roses. With my setup there are DAC disconnections. Sometimes spontaneously for no apparent reason (at least it seems this way). It definitely disconnects when the phone's screen locks up (music continues to play for about 20 seconds and will then stop). I solved this by using an app that prevents the screen from timing out. Finally, when Tidal is shutdown and started again - the Dragonfly - while still indicating it is connected, is in fact no longer playing any music. I need to physically disconnect/reconnect the dongle dac from the phone. Tidal will then prompt me to accept the USB connection.

So: this new Tidal feature very nicely solves my main issue - not being able to play Tidal on my Samsung phones / dongle DAC in anything other than un acceptably low volume (it's the same with the Samsung S21). This makes me very happy since I can use my old S10 phone as a dedicated DAP and take advantage of Tidal's built in offline feature (which I could not do with UAAP).

Kudos to Tidal. But hopefully Tidal (or DAC manufacturers) will clean up some of the issues above.

 

[Beershaun]

I would uninstall uapp as a trial (save any eq profiles, they don't back up). If you've somehow enabled an "always allow this app to control (dac)" in the past, and best to rule out

Woohoo! That was exactly it!

I gave UAPP permission to always allow control and once I removed it and restarted the Tidal App came back immediately and asked to access the DAC. I now have a purple light on my Dragonfly Red listening to "The Dee Gees, Night Fever."

 

[Beershaun]

Hello. I made an account on here just to join this discussion.

I have a OnePlus 9 pro and a dragonfly black with the dragon tail. When my Dad connected it to his Pixel 4a, I don't believe he got a pop up from Tidal, but he got the purple light right away

However, when I connect it to my phone, I get no pop up and it stays blue. Nothing in the settings of my phone or the Tidal app fixed this.
I then proceeded to buy UAPP. I've never used it before but definitely beard of it. Sure enough, after buying a second piece of software I was getting a purple light on the dragonfly using Tidal through UAPP. I got this popup: View attachment 145560View attachment 145560
Switching back to Tidal after this still yielded a blue light unfortunately. I'm not sure if any of this is of any help to you guys. I hope it is!

Here's to hoping maybe with an update to Tidal the "bit-perfect" playback will be enabled for the new OnePlus phones?

Calling to your attention the solution we just figured out for my problem. That uninstalling UAPP solved my issue and now it's working great for me with my Dragonfly Red.

 

[artsky]

I can see a version 2.46 now but haven't updated yet since all is fine for me with 2.45.

 

[Jet Black]

Version 2.46 still unsuccessful on xiaomi redmi note 7 pro + ibasso dc03. The app still crashes/hangs.

 

[Jimbob54]

Woohoo! That was exactly it!

I gave UAPP permission to always allow control and once I removed it and restarted the Tidal App came back immediately and asked to access the DAC. I now have a purple light on my Dragonfly Red listening to "The Dee Gees, Night Fever."

Now we just need to sort out your choice of dac. And music (but seriously, glad it's sorted)

 

[Beershaun]

Version 2.46 still unsuccessful on xiaomi redmi note 7 pro + ibasso dc03. The app still crashes/hangs.

Do you have any other USB audio streaming apps that may be creating a conflict like I did? Specifically USB Audio Player Pro was conflicting on my device and once I removed it things worked fine.

 

[Beershaun]

Now we just need to sort out your choice of dac. And music (but seriously, glad it's sorted)

HaHa! Let's just say I'm being environmentally friendly by not throwing it in a landfill.

 

[Jet Black]

Do you have any other USB audio streaming apps that may be creating a conflict like I did? Specifically USB Audio Player Pro was conflicting on my device and once I removed it things worked fine.

I installed a uapp which is just a trial version but I unsinstalled it a long time ago. What I have is a hiby music player but I don't think it will interfere because it doesn't use streaming apps like uapp does. And it seems the dongles working is recognized by the tidal app, it will prompt connection and it will say the dongle dac whether is a dragonfly or thx Onyx or earman eagle, mine just shows if I want to connect into a USB connected device. No description so probably means it's not yet supported.

 

[Jimbob54]

I installed a uapp which is just a trial version but I unsinstalled it a long time ago. What I have is a hiby music player but I don't think it will interfere because it doesn't use streaming apps like uapp does. And it seems the dongles working is recognized by the tidal app, it will prompt connection and it will say the dongle dac whether is a dragonfly or thx Onyx or earman eagle, mine just shows if I want to connect into a USB connected device. No description so probably means it's not yet supported.

The Hiby app also controls USB dongles. That might be the conflict more than streaming apps. Uninstall it and try

 

[Jet Black]

The Hiby app also controls USB dongles. That might be the conflict more than streaming apps. Uninstall it and try

Still not working =(