Strange. It seems like the file you are playing is not an MQA file, if it was then it would show this in the source line in the signal path. Sometimes things are wrongly labeled in Tidal/Roon. When I try to play what I think is the same file I do indeed get MQA in the signal path.
Dean, I believe the behavior you are seeing is correct. I could not find that the Ares II supports MQA, and while the original Meridian also does not support MQA. The Meridian Explorer 2 supports MQA if that is the device you have.
That track isn’t MQA. That aside Roons MQA decoder like any MQA decoder can only unfold the first stage called decoding this will be to 88.2/24 for 44.1 based material or 96/24 for 48 based material. To get the full MQA ORFs you need an MQA capable DAC to do the rendering stage it cannot be done in software. The Denafrips isn’t an MQA capable DAC, not sure what your meridian one is but likely that isn’t either.
Check the ops image that’s what I am referring to what he is playing isn’t MQA. If it was you would see it in the first stage of the signal path. It’s just a standard flac version playing.
The only thing that matter is the signal path as the format being played not what anything else says. But yes it’s likely he’s not on the Hifi+ tier or hasn’t set to the correct one, but that doesn’t change the fact that one oh is DACs are not MQA capable possible both and won’t go higher than Roons first decode.
Denafrips isn’t MQA the Meridian no model number given so hard to know. But I would say no. I have MQA dacs but not on the Hifi+ doesn’t always go hand in hand. Still get MQA decoding on all the 16bit MQA which they have tons off.
Thanks to everyone for your replies. You are correct that neither of my DACs are MQA compatible (my Meridian DAC is a balanced audio component, not a desktop DAC). However I do have the software MQA decoder selected so I’m sure that @Simon_Arnold3 is likely correct in that the software decoder is limited to 44.1 and 48 with an output of 88.1 or 96 although I have seen MQA 176.4 decode to 88.2 with the software decoder.
The version of the content in my example showed as being MQA which you can see in my screenshot (there are many versions of this album). I have also seen this same behavior on all other high frequency MQA so I think it’s a limitation of the software although it seems odd that it wouldn’t default to the highest frequency it can support which in this case should be at least 24/88.2 and not 16/44.1
I do have the highest level account for Tidal but I forgot that in general I had my MQA preference set to “Treat MQA as better than CD quality but not as good as lossless hi-res content” (which I have found to be true) but again, I’m not sure why this option would result in a hi-res selection playing at CD quality instead of 24/88.2. Anyone know why?
It would if you only have Roon set as Hifi and not HiFi + as that doesn’t allow any MQA above 44.1/16 so all the others would play as flac. What’s odd in your example is that there isn’t a version available to play as normal flac listed in Roon.
MQA files are only ever delivered at 44.1 or 48 there isn’t any other rates what your seeing is the ORFs which you get with the full decode and render. You can only get to 88.2/24 or 96/24 with software decoder.
Well I do have that digital preamp in my A/V room but this is in my home office where I have the last really good pure analog system Meridian made which is the 502 preamp and a pair of 557 power amps however I know this is a much deeper ideological discussion
I might have downgraded Tidal now that now that I realize the software decoder can’t deal with hi-res MQA but when you have the cheaper subscription you are limited to CD quality. The system in my A/V room does have an MQA decoder although I almost never listen to music in there. However, all my zones have very high quality balanced component systems so I can easily tell the difference between CD quality and hi-res at 24/96 and above (which includes vinyl). It’s not just the fidelity of the sound, it’s the staging and depth of field that allows you to identify hi-res in a blind test.
Roon’s core decoding works just fine with MQA if you have it enabled, subscribe to a Tidal tier that includes MQA, and playback actual MQA content (see your first pic).
Software or hardware decoding of 24/48 MQA would be to 96. An MQA capable DAC would render that file from 96 to 192 unless you don’t have it set to do MQA rendering.
But in your signal path it’s not playing as that your getting only a standard flac encoded file at 44.1 which points to your settings for Tidal in Roon not being set at Master only Hifi. Hifi will not allow playback of MQA above 44.1/16.
