Can’t seem to play radio paradise in flac

Hi, all. Well, this is a very tough learning curve for me evidently. I thought I had all the settings correct and I have the A-6 ME. I can’t get radio Paradise, or anything to play in flac. Everything I go to is low res. Is there some step I missed in setting it up? I waited to come here after I’ve been searching for YouTube videos, and then just searching for answers, and cannot seem to find any. Please help if you have a chance. Otherwise, I just might be in over my head with this device. Thank you in advance.

 

Hi. I have FLAC set in the RP app and it works fine at 44.1 Khz, PCM.
What do you mean "lo res" ?

 

Thanks. Mine plays at 44, but I wanted to hear what flac sound would reveal or just even higher resolution than 44.1. My Primaluna tube integrated and speaker setup now should hopefully present better, so I wanted to hear the best quality available for increased depth of ss, maybe even holographic, and width. I just may not know how to properly activate that.

 

FLAC is lossless. Typically RP sources from CD releases, which are 44.1 Khz /16 bit samples.
FLAC is the best available from Radio Paradise, and it's pretty good for a radio station.

Higher bitrate / Higher sampling is probably overkill if your source is just the red book CD release. It's a different story if the source is new high resolution digital, or re-digitized from old analog masters.

 

If you want to get an idea how higher bitrate music sounds, you can get a trial subscription of something like Tidal, and look for Max flac music. It has 24 bit 48khz files. I have Tidal and look for albums with the "Hi-Res" label on the album icon. It's somewhat subjective, but I do think I hear a difference when listening. They have masters that are 16, 20, 24 bit and display the bitrate while it's playing. Newer music is often 20 but, even if it does not say Hi-Res on the album icon. Older music, that has never had a re-mastered release, is usually 16 bit CD quality, but remastered versions of older music is often at least 20 bit.

If you don't hear much difference, or don't think it's worth paying for, you can always cancel the subscription before the trial period, but at least you will have had a chance to check out your equipment.

 

Great points! I personally use Apple Music, which (with some setup effort) does stream hirate/hires.
My periodic plug for useful test recordings (and some good music): https://www.applemusichiresalbumsdb.com/

 

Thank you so much for that! Great idea and I’m definitely going to try that. I sure hope I hear a difference but I’m not sure until I try it. Thank you.

 

Thanks! That does explain it. And I love the radio station! I appreciate your help.

 

Yes. I'm not employed by Tidal, or getting paid for this, but I'm a subscriber, but this is not meant to be a Tidal ad. BTW, you don't have to do anything to set up the playback of hi-res music on Tidal, as far as I know.

Is the "some setup" reference within the Apple music app, or do you have to sideload the Apple music app on the A6. I don't use Apple music, so I'm not familiar.

 

Understood - Tidal sounds like you get what you pay for, which is good. AM can be a pain.
I wonder though, if everything is hires if they are just upsampling CD quality. True hires releases are still somewhat rare.

Yes, "Some setup" consists of side-loading the AM release on the A6, since the installed one won't do it. There are a couple checkboxes, one in the A6 setup, and another in the AM setup.

There was also some doubt cast on this forum that this solution would be available long term. The threat was that Apple was going to disable hires on anything but apple products (so no Android). Not sure if that's going to happen, still works at v 1.4.6 build(1447).

 

Thanks. Good to know.

As far as Tidal goes, my understanding is the Hi-Res content is from Hi-Res masters provided by artists, or record companies. They also have a ton of dolby-Atmos content, both movie music and straight audio content, both newly recorded music recorded natively in Atmos format, and other content remixed by studios or under the control of artists.

There is a lot of standard 16 bit CD quality content in flac format, but the 20 and 24 bit stuff is not upsampled 16 bit content. It is from better, hi bit, more recent digital masters, generally from newer, digital era music.

 

@kmfkevster
Or, at least, this is what reads on the Tidal website...

 

Yes, as I said further up the posts, it's somewhat suggestive, but I've done a few tests with CDs I own against Tidal, so that I'm just quickly switching sources on the same tracks, same location and it's been quite different, somewhat closer to sacd vs cd.
At least, that's what I tell myself.

 

The was exactly what I meant to say. They state somtehing, right? Now, the question is: can you prove it? Do you perceive it?

 

I tried Radio Paradise to see what station's format was like. I found that it shows FLAC 44.1/16 upsampled (correct term?) to DSD64 2.82 MHz on the DMP-A6 display and on the Eversolo app. In the DMP-A6's menu is a "Fixed sampling rate output" setting. The setting on my DMP-A6 is set to "Original sampling rate". So why when playing FLAC 44.1/16 on Radio Paradise does it show DSD64 2.82 MHz (below the track playing progress bar)?

I posted this over at the Steve Hoffman forum and two members posted that they weren't seeing FLAC 44.1/16 upsampled to DSD64 2.82 MHz with the streamers (WiiM and Innuos Pulse) they were using.

 

I would also love to know the answer to this question. Glad you shared your experience.

 

RP's maximum quality really is stereo 44.1 Khz FLAC (lossless), with 16 bit samples. "CD quality".
That's what I see on the display, but I only use analog output. Are you using one of the digital ones?
It may be upsampling to produce DSD64, maybe that's not what you want.

You may want to check your eversolo setup options for within audio -> [ SPDIF, USB DAC, ARC ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Stream_Digital

 

Are you seeing 44.1/16 upsampled to DSD64 2.82 MHz with Radip Paradise as well?

I'm using USB out and have the "Fixed sampling rate output" setting set to "Original sampling rate". I have hundreds of files of ripped CDs and SACDs. They all play in the original sampling rate. The same when streaming music from Qobuz.

 

No, I see RP's expected input stream rate, 44.1 Khz 16 bit. I could not replicate anything different.


2.82 Mhz suggests a DSD64 bitstream, "SACD". ( for example, 2820 Khz / ( 2*32 bits/sample) = 44 Khz. )

I suggest you look at the settings for USB DAC, for instance below. Some conversion/upsampling could be being called for by the output format. I have just used defaults.

I've lost track of what you're trying to do here. Just figure out why the display rate is different?


and in USB DAC output

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I have the DMP-A6's "Fixed sampling rate output" set to "Original sampling rate". No other music I play whether from ripped music files or Qobuz gets upsampled. It's only when playing music on Radio Paradise.

It's fine as I have no interest in listening to Radio Paradise. I was just checking it out as someone on another forum was saying how great the channel was. I didn't fine it to be very appealing in content or sound quality. I much prefer playing content of my choosing which is almost all playing full albums.

*edit... I just checked Radio Paradise on my WiiM Pro and it plays 44.1/16 as 44.1/16. I then played RP on the DMP-A6 and it shows 44.1/16 at 192/32. Very strange and this indicates that the issue is with the DMP-A6 and not RP.