The SoundID Reference app in Windows 11 works halfway with the Tidal player, whenever I listen to 1 or 2 songs on Tidal with the SoundID Reference app, after the song ends it does not play the following songs and the Tidal player hangs, However, when I change the 'SoundID Reference Virtual Audio Device' audio device to another such as Realtek or my DAC, it is fixed there and Tidal continues playing without problems. It seems that your SoundID Reference audio device has some type of incompatibility when listening to the Tidal player, I'm mentioning this so that you can solve that problem in the future. At the moment I have no problems with that since I generally listen to Tidal through Audirvana and there I use the VST FX plugin - Sonarworks SoundID Reference, which works perfectly without any problems so far.
SoundID Reference on Tidal works poorly
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I have the same problem on a Macbook pro M1 and SoundID Refence and Tidal.
Tidal only plays through Sonarworks Systemwide at 44.1. Please help.
The plugin lets my player that supports it autoswitch sample rates no problem, and that way my EQ footprint is a new record for minimal detectability, but through Systemwide, only 44.1 gets any audible output.
SAME
Same problem over here. Spotify and everything else works, but Tidal doesn't want to cooperate…
I use this with Tidal every day, without any issues at all. I use a windows machine and a Hifiman 499 as DAC/AMP.
Same problem here. SoundID Reference on Windows 11 + Tidal Desktop app + High Quality Output.
Playback works about 20% of the time when switching to the SoundID Reference, but just results in a spinning “pause” symbol the rest of the time.
No issues with using the direct DAC output in Tidal.
No issues with “low quality” output.
No issues with dozens of other audio applications.
Having said this, it's still not clear if it's a Sonarworks issue or a Tidal issue…
The Web player doesn't seem to have this issue, so this does provide a workaround.
The Web player doesn't have a way to change output, so assume it just uses “system default”. However, if using “system default” in the Windows app, it still has the issue… So definitely seems like a problem with the app itself.
Sonarworks Dev's anybody home?!
Hi everyone!
It is unclear to me whether there are several different unique issues here to address, but let me start by one common theme: adaptive sample rate setting based on source audio.
Oftentimes times in Tidal and other advanced playback platforms, there is functionality where the Tiday adapts the sample rate format of the source audio, and the output device also adapts. This might be an issue once the SoundID Reference virtual audio device is introduced in the chain between the app and the physical output device. Generally speaking, it is a quality loss issue as the sample rate might no longer adapt per song (audio source), but it could potentially present a technical issue too. This is also quite complex to investigate as the SoundID Reference app on Windows features 4 different driver modes, and each has a different behavior when it comes to forcing or adapting to sample rate changes. Learn more here: [WIN] Audio driver types in the standalone app.
To exclude sample rate as a potential issue, I would recommend two things:
It would be great to understand whether the issues posted above are related to this sample rate behavior, and whether they can be resolved as I've suggested. Thank you!
Just had this issue- audio cutting out and refusing to play, the APO driver fixed the problem. Thanks for the insight!
I currently only use the default app for simultaneous game and music audio, since nothing yet beats Audirvana with auto sample rate switching using the tiny-footprinted plug-in only, and ASIO lives up to sounding like the most racket of all gets played by rock bands comes through unaltered by that output, which would be true for them, right? Until then, WASAPI had cut out the windows-audio mixer that all audio passes through in windows, by default, which stopped it from sounding like MS made audio pass through some software first, and made it less clear, while KS dropped playing after all of windows that loaded before until the WASASPI cut out the mixer that came next, and only outputted after the theoretical least possible OS of all got loaded and I thought that would be the final word in Windows OS audio playback. But then, after 6 months of not realizing that KS was only OS utopia, I tried the ASIO interface that is written to a musician's standard, and could possibly skip that tiny kernel that automatically converts all to colored resistance. 😉👍🏆
I've just bought Soundreference ID - my main use for it is with Tidal and it does not work with hi-res files.
I'm using it with the tidal desktop app and a Cambridge Dacmagic 200m
Within Tidal, if I select my regular output device (CA Dacmagic) and tell Tidal to use exclusive mode, I get playback where my Dacmagic correctly jumps to the correct sample rate - it's got lots of LED's on the front so you can clearly see what is actually being presented to the DAC for processing. But this driver does not route the audio through the Sound reference software…. the Windows system tray shows that the Soundreference is active but it is not at this point - you can see that because the meters within the program do not show input or output so it is being bypassed.
If, within Tidal, I then select ‘Sound ID reference virtual audio device’ I get playback through the software so you get input / output meters showing signal and you can hear the effect of the calibration which is great. But it now resamples everything at 48khz! So the hires subscription I have is pointless.
I tried the APO insert driver as recommended by Karlis in this thread. Tidal does not ‘see’ this on my computer (neither does anything else) - it claims to install ok within Soundreference ID but I get no sound.
I also tried the suggestion of setting the DAC within windows sound settings to its maximum. This just makes Tidal fall over and the play icon spins.
Tidal is 99% of my use for the Soundworks. It has improved my room when I listen (it's well treated but still it's better) but it's no good for me if it's killing the hi res stuff.
Any ideas gratefully received as I've spent hours today trying every setting I could find.
If you use a USB DAC, you have to use the manufacturer USB driver if they provide one.
If you use exclusive mode as your output, it will be sending audio directly and exclusively to your DAC, bypassing the Windows audio system and it will use AISO or WASAPI exclusive mode to do so. This will allow Tidal to exclusive access your DAC, and you will see your DAC switch sample rates based on the sample rate of the Tidal audio file. You will not be able to listen to any audio besides the audio from the Tidal application, and you will not be able to modify the audio stream using a Windows based equalizer like APO or Sonarworks.
If you use WASAPI without exclusive mode or the default windows audio system, it will not bypass the Windows sound system but also have no exclusive access to your DAC. The audio sample frequency and bit rate will be determined by your Windows Audio settings under System > Sound > Properties. What you can set there will depend on the USB audio driver, and it's recommended to set this at 24 bit, 192000 Hz. This will match the highest audio quality Tidal offers. All audio will be up sampled to 24 bit, 192000 Hz by the Windows sound system and your DAC will indicate the selected rate as static.
You can only use Sonarworks or APO when NOT in exclusive mode. There's no way to use Sonarworks with AISO or WASAPI exclusive mode. In exclusive mode you will also loose your Windows volume control, so make sure to set your amplifier to low enough level.
If you use MQA you will have to use exclusive mode, but Tidal did offer limited software MQA decoding. But it's not the same as true MQA.
Forgot to add that it is recommended to use APO and set the pre-amplification to around - 4DB to avoid up-sampling errors. You will get errors using the Windows audio system.