Hi a_muz_ed , can you please? if you have a Tidal account, try to find a MQA playlist and let it play via mconnect or Music Life without forwarding or jumping betwen songs? i am wondering if you will hear distortion after a while. Thanks a lot. Jaro
I don’t have a tidal account so unfortunately I can’t check this out for you.
Using the network functions, I mostly stream AIFF files from my NAS or listen to internet radio. I also use the coax and optical inputs to listen to CDs and watch TV. So i have little experience with MQA or hirez files.
Although I’m quite happy with this build, while watching a movie yesterday evening I‘ve heard one or two small dropouts i think. Listening to cds I haven’t noticed this, so time will tell if this will occur more or not.
Hires distortion here, too (Tidal, flac via usb), for now i have my dac connected to the cd in and it works well, but its obv not the solution i was hoping for. had distortions about 20 mins after update. I’m sure you guys will find a way to fix it tho, i love the amp otherwise.
You can download some MQA files to test from this website. I have them on my NAS.
Right so new SA80 today, shipped with 521 was considering leaving it, then I saw that the version had bumped to 867 thought “ok surely they would have fixed the MQA issue…”
Played vinyl for an hour or so (sounds good), switched to streaming, 20 mins in I hit my first MQA track in a playlist and it’s completely distorted! Now ALL MQA tracks are distorting?!? WTAF?
Is everyone getting the same thing as me?
No not at all actually. Have you gone through every step in upgrading. Some people seams to forget this part:
“After update perform a factory reset using the System Settings > Net Reset and System Settings > System Resetmenu options”
I have some test MQA files that I have downloaded on my NAS. When I tried them yesterday initially the first one distorted. I selected a random different input on the SA30 then went back to NET and they played perfectly. It did this on V705 as well but sometimes with regular files as well. I have noticed these things seem to occur when changing from one format or file sample rate to another for example playing a 44/16 file then going to 192/24 or a regular file to a MQA file. It’s almost as if the DAC isn’t adjusting to the change.
Yes I did the Net Reset after the update.
Now I have some MQA files playing ok but clearly they haven’t fixed the issue. How disappointing.
I raised a support ticket.
Ok yeah I hadn’t done the System Reset as well, just did that too.
I hope that sorts the issue for you. I do not have the distortion problem now and I really pushed the SA30 by changing from 44.1 to MQA 192 and back and also other formats, but I could not reconstruct the problem. Hope that the system reset is the solution for you.
Mine went for hours and hours perfect, then suddenly the distortion bug occurred . Let it stream all day a mix of MQA, red book and HD files. I bet it fails eventually. I hope not! If not, it may point to a hardware problem. I am getting concerned.
Ken
I do not own any MQA tracks, I’m using the sample files linked earlier by paulguk. I cannot hear any distortion. I’m not playing the same sample track for hours, just once or twice.
@Ken after the distortion occurs did you notice any error or warnings in the SA30 system log?
In order to view the system log:
- go to the ip address of the SA30
- click device settings tab
- click ‘Download system logs’
- extract the temp_data_logs.tgz archive file
- examine the log files, search for the text error. I believe the most relevant log file is located in /tmp/log-nSDK
I use Roon. After Roon finishes a track or album, it starts what is called Roon Radio. Roon picks tracks from my library and Tidal based on the tracks I was listening to. So it will keep sending tracks that are a mix of formats all day to the SA30. After hours, I will discover that it has started to distort. It was much worse in 705. But it has occurred again in 867. The fix in 807 has been a hard reboot. It has been playing fine today since I reset the Network again. Fingers crossed. I will look at the system log in a bit. Thanks for the directions!
Ken
A general trouble shooting advice is to exclude a part and try to reproduce the behaviour. E.g. if you think MQA is involved then try to get it reproduced without roon (or tidal). Download the MQA tracks, store them on your nas, play them with MusicLife app. Hope this helps.
FYI: after a reboot the SA30 log files are wiped, you have to save them before a reboot occurs.
Ok, thanks! I didn’t realize that.
Ken
OK, I streamed from Roon all day with no trouble. I decided to try a Dirac filter and discovered they were wiped when I did the Net Reset. I thought they were wiped by a System Reset not Net reset. Anyway I reloaded them and activated a Dirac filter. And then the distortion started. I had to click in in and out a get it back to normal. I am using no curve right now and all is fine. I think in my case its Dirac that sets off the trouble. I downloaded the log and I see error lines. No idea what any of it means. I guess I will just go without Dirac for a while.
Ken
Do you have more than one Dirac filter installed?
Yes, I have all three.
Ken
Try to have only one curve installed. I have seen before that it has been a bigger problem if you have had several curves installed. I know it’s not a good solution, but then you can at least troubleshoot a bit.
Good idea. I am going to reset the Network again and listen for a day with no filter installed. Then add just the one flat filter and see what happens.
Ken