TIDAL maximum audio quality:

[MDF]

Hi, Just a quick question. If I set the 'TIDAL maximum audio quality' setting in the Openhome renderer section of bubbleupnp server to 'FLAC 44.1 kHz / 16- bit' what does it actually do?

Does it; 

a) tell Bubbleupnp server to downsample any streamed content that above cd quality to 16/44.1 as it plays, or

b) request a 16/44.1 version of the album file to be streamed, or

c) instruct the renderer to somehow play a 24 bit flac file at 16bit (does Tidal only have one copy of each album which can be played at either bitrate?).

Basic stuff I expect but I have always wondered how it actually works. Thanks

[Bubblesoft]

Hi,

It does pretty much what it says: it request from TIDAL a FLAC 44.1 kHz / 16- bit (and no more, so no 24-bit). 

If such FLAC exists, this is what will be played (a 44.1 kHz / 16- bit FLAC).

If FLAC is not available, which is very rare but possible for some very obscure albums, the request will end up with 

a AAC stream in either 320 kbps or 96 kbps bitrate. That's why the label is called "TIDAL maximum audio quality".

Likewise, if you set that setting to ''FLAC 192 kHz / 24-bit', this is the maximum quality you will get if available, but if that quality is not available you will get something lower.