[QUESTION] What is the maximum quality of the downloads? (even with a token)

[PR1192017]

Before my question, I'd just like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to yaronzz for making this! You are a life saver!
Anyway, I started using tidal-gui, everything works fine, but even with a token that I got from my android, the highest quality download I got was 24bit 44.1khz. I have a premium subscription on Tidal (I can listen to HIFI and Master recordings).
For example, I know for certain that one of those master recordings is a 24bit 192khz file, but as I said, even with a personal token entered, the highest quality download I got was 24bit 44.1khz.
How can I get the maximum quality for downloading HIFI/Master recordings?
Does this program even support that? If it doesn't, can we expect it to be added at some point in future?

EDIT: I just realized that those 24bit/44.1 master downloads are MQA files....not FLAC... So I guess everything is working fine with tidal-gui, it's just that Tidal uses MQA file formats for their Master recordings... AFAIK there is no way to convert MQA to 24/192 FLAC? Any tips on this?

[toomding]

Hi, This confusion also trouble me a lot. But now i am ok. Here is the Facts.
With the token, you can download the MQA file, and the property of this file on system will show 24bit/44.1kHz.
Meanwhile, We do know the Master Quality is more than 100Khz, reach to 192Khz.
But don't be confused here. The MQA file is hosted by flac which is a container for MQA encoded music.
There are two kind of flac as far as i know

1. ordinary flac contain loseless audio
2. MQA in flac

The MQA in flac can be decode by software and hardware.
MQA will expand, yes, just like the Expanding word means. when decoding the MQA.
For Example:
Tidal Official Desktop App in windows will expand the MQA file in first level. there are 3 level.
every time expanding will make your audio with high kHz. By the third level expanding, it will reach very high kHz.
But bear with me. The first expanding can be done by Tidal desktop app or third party app like Audirivana, USB xxx in android, or roon core.
But the second level and third level must be done by hardware.

So the conclusion.
With the token, you can download the master quality MQA file in flac. And Yaronzz only in charge of make an app to help us download the audio file. You would have to do some work to decode them either by buying roon, or hardware DAC device.
So you can enjoy the MQA file inside the flac.

The simplest words are you do download the master quality file and indeed it can be played in very high kHz, but you need professional player to utilize them.

[toomding]

Steps to enjoy your master quality file:

1. get the mqa file # you already done it by using Tidal-gui or tidal-cli with Token.
2. get the app to done the first level expanding # by tidal desktop app or roon or audirivana etc. # this step you need do, yaronzz can't do it for you.
3. get a professional DAC which support MQA decoding to finish the second and third expanding # this step you need do, yaronzz can't do it for you.

As far as i go, i only reach the second step, cause the dedicated hardware are so expensive.
PS: i use roon as my first level decode, so my MQA file can expanded to 96kHz. if you want to reach 192kHz or higher bought a hardware device.

[toomding]

what i mean apps , i mean dedicated app to expand 1st level. don't use a ordinary player to play MQA flac file, it will treat it as normal flac and won't do the expanding for you .

[PR1192017]

Ohh, okay, thanks a lot for this explanation.
Since I don't have the hardware to fully "unpack" the MQA files and I'm using Foobar2000 for my music, my next question is:
What is better: MQA played trough Foobar (without "expanding" as you said) or just a regular HIFI CD quality file at 16bit/44.1?

Is there a plugin for Foobar that can unpack the first layer on MQA? Like Audirivana? So I can at least get 24/96 files.
If not, I think I'll just be downloading CD Quality 16/44.1 files, and not bother with 24/44.1 MQA that I can't unpack

[Willhiro67]

This link provides a great explanation as mentioned by @toomding
https://www.mqa.co.uk/how-it-works

Hope this helps everyone

[toomding]

Answer to 16bit/44.1 or 24bit/44.1 without unpacking.
The focus should be Bit/Second, and it is the key to a audio quality.
Bps = bit depth x sample frequency .
So, 16 x 44.1 will be roughly 1k bps.
and 24 x 44.1 will be roughly 2k bps.
2k > 1k .
if you don't have hardware or software to unpack the MQA flac file. I still recommend you to use MQA over the ordinary flac.
In conclusion:
if an album or single has Master quality(24/44.1) and ordinary flac(16/44.1), You should download the MQA , even though you don't unpack it.
What you say , you are using foobar, and i am using all kinds of music player.
Foobar # very customizable and you will have to find the plug in or make or plug in. but considering the MQA is property and codec is copyright. the property software is much good comparing to opensource software at this point.
Musicbee # what i am using right now , not support MQA decoding
Audirivana # provide 30 days trail and it let you unpack MQA in first level , your quality will hit the 24/96 as you mentioned.
Roon # if you want, use roon , this also support first level unpacking.

This is roon take the MQA flac as input and output the 96 by unpacking 1st level.

[horvinek]

Highest quality for flac itself is 24 bit 48 kHz. Bitrate I suppose 1699 Kbit/s.

No, the truth is on the official FLAC website
(max 32 bit / 655 kHz):
https://xiph.org/flac/faq.html#general__samples