Distortion & Crackling when playing MQA over Tidal and active DIRAC

Answered
Rolf Gehring
Sometimes when playing an MQA Track over Tidal when DIRAC Live is active the sound is distorted and annoying crackles are audible. Reminds a bit of clipping. This is not subtle and the track is not listenable anymore. When Dirac is turned off, this disappears. It reappears when it is turned on again. It does not happen every time, but it can happen for the same song or not. Sometimes it disappears when skipping to a different song and back, sometimes not. I had it resolved by switching the unit off, once also by switching inputs and going back. I thought it had disappeared since it did not happen for a while now, but now it is back with full force. I try to avoid listening to MQA as much as possible. But some songs are only available in MQA. This is extremely annoying and should really not happen for a high end device. This is happening on my NAD C399.
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Comments

13 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Please open the BluOS App and under Settings, About, ensure you are on BluOS 4.4.12 on your NAD C399 to resolve a recent DIRAC issue. If you are and continue to hear issues, please select Settings, Send Support Request and fill out the online form so we can get a copy of the log file and take a closer look.

    * on The BluOS App for Windows or macOS, About and Send Support Request are both under Help, not Settings

  • Brian
    Lossless

    DIRAC had a problem with 88.2 kHz sample rates which had been well documented, I suspect the tracks causing distortion are being unfolded to that rate. 

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  • Rolf Gehring

    Not sure what the rate is, but it it is not reliable with one song or the other. It happens with the same song, then it work with that exact song, next time its a different song that worked before.

    0
  • Brian
    Lossless

    If that's the case then best to contact Bluesound support directly either through the app or by clicking the Support button at the bottom of this screen.

    0
  • Ted Cruz

    I just got my NAD C399 back from repair and I was hoping that the repair would also address the audio distortion that I was hearing while playing Tidal MQA tracks. Frustrating to see that the audio distortion is still there and just like Rolf's experience, the audio distortion comes and goes and doesn't stick to a particular track. I'll have to try disabling DIRAC but that's a terrible work-around. 

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  • Rolf Gehring

    Had the issue just now with two consecutive tracks. I went back and forth with the track, didn’t help. I switched to a different input, then back to BluOS, problem still persisted, I then played another Track without MQA and went back to the problematic ones. Problem was gone. It is really annoying. Especially when listening to playlists with mixed qualities.

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  • Mark Gerlach
    • Edited

    Same Problem with BluOS 4.4.12 on my NAD C389 and Dirac.

    1
  • Rolf Gehring

    Yes. In the meantime this issue also happens with non mqa streams from quboz. All of them with the sample rate of 88.2 kHz as Brian reported above.

    It happens only sometimes, but when it does it is really ugly.

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  • Brendan Fusco

    I’ve just opened a support request because I am experiencing this issue streaming from Tidal on my NAD C 3050 when using Dirac. The behavior is just as described in this thread except that Tidal has removed most (if not all?) MQA tracks and the ones I’m streaming are not 88.2 kHz. The tracks where I have heard the crackling, even those that are apparently wrongly identified as MQA (per the last FAQ item at https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/25876825185425-Audio-Format-Updates), are 44.1 kHz. I am running BluOS 4.8.21. Hopefully the support request will help since I find it quite disconcerting when this occurs.

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  • Anders Hellström

    I have exactly same crackling problem as Rolf G describes. Intermittently on some certain files. Using NAD C389, Dirac live,LAN 500 MB/s, Tidal hifi, BluOs 4.8.0. Did not help to make new clean install of latest Dirac SW on PC. Have tested different NAD modules and both C389 and C399 in different combinations. As for others always immediately ok when Dirac is off. Anders Hellström Sweden.

    2
  • Mark Gerlach

    No one cares about this problem.

    0
  • Anders Hellström
    • Edited

    Hi Mark, Rolf and other on this thread. I now have hope for coming action on this problem. This is todays respons from The The BluOS Support Crew May 23, 2025, 4:18 PM EDT on my request 470101. Then after that my summary of my observations.:

    "Following a thorough review of the videos and subsequent discussions with our Engineering team concerning your particular issue with Tidal and Dirac, they have successfully replicated the issue in our laboratories. Our Engineering team is currently engaged in developing a solution for this matter, which will be included in an upcoming firmware update.
     
    Unfortunately, we in technical support do not receive timelines for future development and releases, so I cannot provide a definite date for when this update will be available. Nevertheless, please be assured that our Engineering team is diligently working to resolve this issue as promptly as possible.
     
    Our team may contact you directly if they require further details regarding the issue you're experiencing.
     
    I apologize for not having an immediate solution for you. "

    My observations: Crackling high pitch sound intermittently on some certain files. Using NAD C389, Dirac live,LAN 500 Mbit/s, Tidal hifi, BluOs 4.8.21. My experience is that it appears from start of tune. It can then be gone for next tune or replay but most of the times it is persistent for several tunes in sequence at least if these tunes has shown the problem before. Tunes are often CD flac quality but may be of other quality to. The crackling is very annoying when it appears.

    Did not help to make new clean install of latest Dirac 3.13.2 SW on PC. I made a full clean restart with uninstall and then new measurements 20-20kHz and new standard filters. I only kept one old filter as reference in C389, it show same crackle sound as the new ones. 

    Have tested different NAD MDC2 modules and both C389 and C399 in different combinations. Always immediately ok when Dirac is off.

    Tunes that show crackle from start of files but intermittently so that it suddenly can be ok at next consequent restart. Can not say I have seen it e.g. appear suddenly in middle of tune.

    Using Tidal through BluOs or using Tidal direct through BluOs card, make no difference. (some sort of initialization failure??)

    Frequency of apperence of crackle every second up to every 10th return to tune, each time persistent for that return for 1 to 5 or more retries for each tune. (rough estimates, sporadic behaviour).

    Anders Hellström

     

     

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  • Ferdinand Feenstra

    Hi Anders, thanks for the update. I have the exact issue on a NAD C389 with BluOs 4.8.21 and Tidal (certain songs) with Dirac enabled in BluOs.

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