External USB DACs support for Deezer

No you’re not going to use built-in laptop DAC, you will be using you OS mixer, which is fully digital. So bits go into this piece of code, and when you turn your laptop’s volume up or down, the numbers are correspondingly scaled to less or more. In addition, if your output (in the OS mixer) is set to something not matching Deezer’s HIFI stream of 16b x 44.1KHz, the stream is resampled by the CPU and OS mixer code, which may introduce some issues but maybe not (depending on that code, and OS version). As a bonus, you may peruse all sorts of “audio correction” which sometimes comes with Creative cards etc like “Room correction”, “Equalizer” so crappy laptop’s DAC is not used since you’re not converting D to A, but you are converting D to D, depending on settings.
To minimize corrections, turn “All Enhancements Off” in the Windows Audio device settings, set bitness to 16 x 44.1  and Volume to 100%.   It should go through unprocessed to your external DAC.
Hoping this helps.

YES PLEAAASSEEEEE!!!!

This is the primary reason I don’t use Spotify (they won’t add this) and the reason I might have to go back to Tidal (they have this in their player, but it’s buggy). I want the Deezer desktop player to play directly to my external USB/Firewire Audio DAC. That’s the ONLY way to get the best quality playback. Also, it allows me to keep my OS system audio settings reserved for my Zoom headset or whatever, while Deezer still plays. PLEASSE PLEEEASE PLEEASSE add this!!

Why not make a plug-in for Volumio or others, that will make the DAC operations themselves. This way, Deezer has only to make little effort in designing functionality. The Chassis already exists. Most of the competition like Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal have walked this path with success.

A hifi FLAC service doesn't make alot of sense if your music gets resampled by Android/windows. In my opinion, this should be the top priority. 

This feature alone would make Deezer the best FLAC service on Android. No mqa scam, and sending your music bit for bit. 

I hope the Deezer team is working on this...

I do too, especially now that everyone is being moved to a HiFi plan yet Chromecast (the way many will try to use to stream to hardware that can take advantage of the enhanced sound quality) is still broken.

I had to learn about this problem the hard way: My first dac ever arrived today and it’s worthless with Deezer. So I think I’ll cancel my Deezer account … sadly.. 

Hi everyone,

Does anyone find a way to pass hifi via apple lightning to USB camera adapter and a dac (like dragonfly red)? 

I have just tried it after spending a lot of money on adapter and the dac itself and the app is useless. No point at having the HIFI subscription if you can use it with a phone.

Hi Gobara,

it’s not a problem with iPhone. Just go iPhone → USB camera adapter → cable to your → DAC → headphones .  I had to learn that on my DAC (Qudelix K5) the small camera connector did only work when charging of DAC is deactivated. With the big camera adapter it works with or without charging. 
the problem discussed in this thread is about deezer App on Mac computers (or maybe on windows, too)

Hi zuchi, 

It's not working with my iphone and the Deezer app. May you please give me more details about your solution.

Here is my setup: 

Iphone 12 pro (ios 15.5) → lightning to USB camera adapter (the bigger one with two usb and lightning outputs, allowing charging) → dragonfly red → 3.5 mm audio cable → Sony wh-1000xm3 headphones.

These are my settings in the Deezer app ( everything is high fidelity):

I have restarted the Deezer app, my iphone, listening to downloaded files within Deezer or streaming and no success for putting hifi audio to my headphones. My dragonfly indicates green color which corresponds to 44,1 kHz. The sound quality is even worse in comparison with the cheap 10 bucks lightning to 3.5 mm aux dongle. I have also tried using the dac when charging the phone via the lightning port on the adapter, but the result is the same.

On the other hand, if I try Safari app or lossless file on my iphone, I hear the difference and the dragonfly dac detects the higher quality and displays the magenta color 96 kHz.

I guess that I will need to return the hardware and hope for a refund or use another music service.

Hi Gobara, 

that’s kind of confusing. Deezer ist always 16-Bit/44.1 kHz FLAC as far as I know: https://support.deezer.com/hc/de/articles/115004588345-High-Fidelity-HiFi-

Never heard that Deezer can go 96kHz. But maybe there is a reason for this: On my MacMini (like on every Mac) the audio is sent through Audio-Midi-Settings, because Deezer sadly has no “exclusive mode”. This means I have to do the settings for audio quality in Audio-Midi-Settings manually. Indeed I’m able to set higher quality than 44.1 kHz and the color of my DAC changes along this. But this doesn’t change the fact, that Deezer is 44.1. Fun fact on Mac desktop: When I do this, close Deezer and start again, there is no sound. I have to fix this by setting the Audio-Midi-Settings back to 44.1kHz. To make confusion perfect: Setting 48 kHz works all the time without loosing sound after closing and restarting the Deezer app. 
In a nutshell: On a Mac Deezer really needs an exclusive mode … but for some reason Deezer does not give this to us. 
On my iPhone I have no problems connecting my Qudelix K5. Deezer iOS App plays with 44.1kHz when connected wired with adapter. 
Using my mobile DAC with Bluetooth I don’t care about any kHz-Settings, because Bluetooth limits the quality itself.  Bluetooth with Apple devices is never lossless audio (at the moment). 

PS: Talking about the 10 bucks apple dongle: This one is known to be very good sounding! A lot of people are kind of disappointed that their expensive DAC only does a very small amount of better sound.

Hi zuchi,

Thank you for the explanations! 

I did some more listening and you are correct - the iphone sends lossless signal to the dac and to my headphones. I was initially misled by the color of the dac, which for the Deezer app indicates audio sample rate of 44.1 kHz. For example, Apple Music reaches higher levels and thus different color, but personally for me it doesn’t make much of a difference for casual listening.

And like you, I also think that the 10 dollar/euro 3.5 mm adapter is the best budget option for the moment.

So at the end I am enjoying the dragonfly dac purchase with the Deezer HiFi playlists. Just one advice for people who would like to try the same setup - take into account that the camera adapter, the dac and the wire makes your phone difficult to carry and reduces the portability ;)

Hi,

16bit/44.1kHz 1411kbits bitrate is today ok but maybe (and hope) later Deezer will upgrade to 24bit/192kHz the resolution, in this case the difference will be bigger between bitperfect or not bitperfect playing. 

On mac you can use the LosslessSwitcher add-on to your mac. With this tweak you can listen bit-perfect music.

By the way on Win10 OS the Kernel streaming possibility or use JPlay output would be also nice (and increase the sound quality!) by using Deezer.

+301

Lossy without DAC control is akin to v1.0 of Tesla's FSD… pretty but worthless.

Seriously, would love for Deezer to provide a timeline or some context to the why? What was prioritized over this?

Yeah, Dee’s software decoder sucks, i cannot believe my old Symbian UIQ phone pulls better sound from mp3s than this “HQ” streamer.

The need for this feature is real.

give me this option and I will stop to search for another streamer :)

I use the desktop application with windows 10. It’s a pity thad there isn’t the option to choose an external audio output, connecting my pc to a dac via usb.

Can you add support for ASIO and WASAPI please??? We need “Exclusive Mode” in Deezer

Are we going to get a time table on this as this is now a 2 year old request? I like Deezer over all the other Hi-Fi alternatives but this is becoming a deal breaker for one of Deezer’s targeted customers. Particularly on Windows.

Sadly this request goes back further than 2 years. Some of the original forum suggestions were merged, deleted or restricted along the way. Like you I like the service and have used Deezer since 2015 or 2016, but I also have Tidal and use it whenever i want to connect to anything other that bluetooth devices and have it work without issues.

Deezer as usual completely tone deaf on user requests and blatantly obviously needed ‘feautres’ (or basic requirements more so). This along with the recent lame attempt at Deezer connect seem to show Deezer has little interest. God knows what you guys actually spend your time developing to improve the service.

Hi,

Question for the audiophile's..
I believe I bypass android's internal DAC by casting (chromecast) Deezer to my Harman Kardon AVR. Is this correct?

Its not handeld by Andriod's internal DAC because it keeps playing when my phone is disconnected.
Chromecast doesnt have a built-in DAC, so its handeld by the AVR.

Is my reasoning correct? Conclusion would be that Chromecast is the way to NOT get your music resampled by Android/windows?

So i enjoy deezer hi-fi FLAC directly from my Harman Kardon AVR. It sounds very well anyway.

Looking forward to your replies.

2 years and still non progress on the matter. sad. I switched from Spotify to Deezer, so I could listen to Hi-Res files. I guess ill just have to switch to Tidal then. Long live the competitive market :D

I have a fiio K3 DAC, on my PC. Would be nice for Deezer desktop to use the PC DAC. 
And my mobile is an LGV50, with a very good DAC. For example, it can play DSDs

Lossless music without exclusive mode makes no sense. I switched to tidal a long time ago.