Hi,
I was playing around with my setup and don’t unterstand one thing I noticed.
My Setup is:
- Bluesound Node N130
- Bluesound Node 2i
- 2x Bluesound Flex 2i
So I’ve read about Signal path and MQA. So If I’m playing MQA tracks trough one of the Nodes only, with Full MQA support on, the signal path is enhanced? Okay this seem to be totally fine, since there is no exclusive mode like for DACs.
But if I group them all together, the Node wich is not the “master” of the group shows up a lossless signal path. But there is also a step missing within the path.
So the signal path is:
Source (lossless on both)
Authentication (also lossless)
RAAT (lossless on both)
MQA Full decoder (only on the group “master” and enhanced)
Output (on both and lossless)
Why is the “MQA Full Decoder” step missing in the signal path of the group member? So without this step, it shows up as a lossless signal path. If I switch the group the other way around, I get the same result. So it dosen’t matter wich Node model it is.
Both Nodes has the same configuration, full MQA support and Core Decoder is enabled.
If I disable MQA support, I get a lossless signal path on both because of the Core Decoder.
Another thing I noticed is when I put one or both Flex 2i in the group. Roon will be enable the MQA Renderer on one of the Nodes and I only get a lossless signal path on one of the Nodes again, even if the MQA support is disabled on both.
Is Roon not capable of decoding for more than two devices? Full MQA support is enabled for both Flex 2i, so there shouldn’t be a difference between streaming trough two Nodes without MQA support. I checked the performance of my Core…CPU is nearly sleeping, so that shouldn’t be the issue.
So I don’t think that there is any difference in the sound quality. I just want to unterstand what’s going on here.
I hope that is comprehensible.
thank you in advanced.
best regards
Ben