Question Pre-box S2 Digital DAC - Fixing Volume at 100% for MQA on Tidal

coalfield

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I have just purchased a pre-box s2 digital in order to benefit from MQA on tidal, however having a few issues.

First of all I could not get the output detecting as MQA, it was just showing 44khz. Since found this to be a result of the Windows Audio volume not being set to 100%, and this is despite 'Force volume' being set in Tidal.

The issue is after I set to 100%, when the next track loads, it moves to another (aparently) random volume i.e. 41 which subsiquentally is causing MQA to drop out intermittantly. Its almost like windows is normalising the sound.

Has anyone got one of these, and seen this issue / found a way to overcome it?
 
Hi yes i have one running on my windows 10 pc,can i ask how it's connected ?
 
Right just like my set up,first thing have you loaded the latest drivers from project ? and are you using Tidal ?
Then i can go and have a play with my set up and check all the setting and see if i can help you further
as i have time today to play around.
 
Right just like my set up,first thing have you loaded the latest drivers from project ? and are you using Tidal ?
Then i can go and have a play with my set up and check all the setting and see if i can help you further
as i have time today to play around.

yeah latest drivers, firmware and tidal installed. Keen to know if your volume moves from 100% once you have set it. Thanks
 
Will get on it now :smashin:
 
Right i just turned on my main pc & checked the volume before loading Tidal (it was set at 48%) so reset to 100%, now playing some MQA stuff and you are correct the volume drops to 70% if i skip a track and the MQA light drops out ??
God only knows :thumbsdow
Will have a look at all the settings now and get back to you.
 
Ok this looks like a rather old problem after a bit of Google i found this Tidal Windows bug prevents MQA
and it's the same as we both have,so it looks like a driver problem with the pre box s2 !
Will have another play later & look for a different driver,hope that's of some help ?
 
Right i just turned on my main pc & checked the volume before loading Tidal (it was set at 48%) so reset to 100%, now playing some MQA stuff and you are correct the volume drops to 70% if i skip a track and the MQA light drops out ??
God only knows :thumbsdow
Will have a look at all the settings now and get back to you.


Wow! I was expecting it to be one of these things nobody could recreate, but you have the same issue first time. I havent tested extensivly with other players to it may just be a tidal thing, but being tidal is a big advocate for MQA this is pretty poor.

I have tried uninstalling the driver aswell, as its not needed for MQA (only DSD), but doesnt help at all :(
 
@raptor

Figured out the issue, Tidal is normalising the audio and it can be disabled in the settings:

normal.JPG


Looks to have fixed it for me!

Tidal should be auto disabling this when passthrough of MQA is enabled, since it will otherwise stop MQA from working!
 
Nice one i will give it a go and see if this helps :smashin:
 
coalfield
If you are up my part of the country at some point beer is on me 🍻
You have fixed a problem i din't even know i had,top man. :thumbsup:
 
@raptor next question my PC does not seem to go into standby with the Pre-box S2 plugged in. With it unplugged it works perfectly, but when plugged in screen stays on and never goes to sleep.

Have you noticed the same thing or just me?
 
I will give it a go later on
 
Whatever products you look at I would bother with MQA. It’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

If you are interested in higher res audio, you should subscribe to this guys mailers.

His research which will shortly be presented to the AES shows that people cannot tell the difference between HiRes and standard res. You may hear differences from the mix, but not because its 96/24 for example.

Dr. AIX Post for September 3, 2020
 
Whatever products you look at I would bother with MQA. It’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

If you are interested in higher res audio, you should subscribe to this guys mailers.

His research which will shortly be presented to the AES shows that people cannot tell the difference between HiRes and standard res. You may hear differences from the mix, but not because its 96/24 for example.

Dr. AIX Post for September 3, 2020

MQA for me is a nice to have but not the be all and end all, yes I perceive a difference but its subjective will all audio (and probably in part physiological). How do you subscribe to the mailers?
 
Found the solution to this issue thanks to a clever chap on reddit with another DAC:



Should anyone else have this issue with any DAC and stumble across this thread the solution is to disable the HID-compliant device in device manager which relates to the DAC. No idea why its there but disabling it fixes it!

Capture.JPG
 
You can subscribe here Dr. AIX’s POSTS | Real HD-Audio

His research that he will be presenting at the next AES shows that people cannot tell the difference between HiRes and standard res.

It looks like the engineers at Sony and Philips got it right with red book CD!
 
You can subscribe here Dr. AIX’s POSTS | Real HD-Audio

His research that he will be presenting at the next AES shows that people cannot tell the difference between HiRes and standard res.

It looks like the engineers at Sony and Philips got it right with red book CD!
Thanks for the info but i don't worry about MQA at all,this was about the DAC nothing more, as for Tidal i was only testing it out on a free trial and this will end soon so no more MQA for me.
 
Thanks for the info but i don't worry about MQA at all,this was about the DAC nothing more, as for Tidal i was only testing it out on a free trial and this will end soon so no more MQA for me.
Too bad. You’re missing out on dome incredible quality content.
 
@raptor

Figured out the issue, Tidal is normalising the audio and it can be disabled in the settings:

View attachment 1352104

Looks to have fixed it for me!

Tidal should be auto disabling this when passthrough of MQA is enabled, since it will otherwise stop MQA from working!
I registered an account just so I can say thanks here!
 

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