Tidal MQA playback on Node ICON is absurdly loud with track gain

JP Lee

Hi,

I have a new Node ICON, stream Tidal to a Musical Fidelity MS6i amp via balanced ports, and am using Track gain. If I encounter an MQA track in a playlist the volume is shockingly and explosively loud, to the point where it feels like I will do major damage to my speakers. I need to immediately turn down the volume and say a prayer that all is OK. 

What's happening here? Do I need to avoid MQA tracks completely? Should I be using Output level fixed? (It is currently disabled). It's really scary loud.

BS should have a Replay-gain mode that matches the volume level of the first track played after the mode is enabled or set. Isn't that what Track gain is supposed to do? 

This does not happen on My NAD M33 v1 with BluOS.

thanks,

JP

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Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • Seppi Evans
    • Edited

    With MQA tracks you should have replaygain disabled, as Bluesound will disable the MQA processing and you get no benefit. Turn the volume right down and test with the replygain settings off.

    Gain values are normally added to tracks by the end user when ripping or occasionally via a streaming service. If purchased and downloaded digitally (like from Qobuz) I would be surprised if gain value tags have been added to MQA tracks or indeed any format.

    I would submit a support ticket for further investigation.

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  • JP Lee

    Thanks, I will. The MQA tracks are in mixed file type playlists, all streamed from TIDAL. So replay gain is a useless feature. I don’t want to have to be mindful about what my replaygain settings are whenever I listen to music. There must be a better way to deal with this. Thanks for your help.
    JP

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