Configuring MQA - iFi Zen Stream / Chord Hugo 2 DAC

Audio Gear Talk Chord
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Using Roon with speed conversion to DSD128 (USB) and DSD64 (SPDIF coax). Source to iFi Zen Stream.

Playing Tidal Hifi+. My iFi Zen Stream feeds a Chord Hugo 2 DAC (most of the time via coax).
Noticed that configuring MQA across Zen Stream and Roon, impacts frequency of occasional audio disconnections.

Can you suggest the “optimal” device settings across Roon and Zen Stream?

Thanks

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For Chord, use PCM and don’t upsample. Let the DAC do the magic!

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I’d let the DAC deal with everything at its native resolution. No upsampling in Roon. If you think it sounds better with some help from Roon then only upsample to the maximum PCM rate your connection allows. As intimated above Chord DACs are configured to work a certain way in PCM and although it can work with DSD it only converts it back to PCM before doing its audio conversion thing. Give the whole signal chain less work to do and see how you get on.

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Thanks
Now what about the MQA parameters in the Roon’s device setup for the zone of the Zen Streamer and the Hugo2 (usb/spdif) the basic and advanced settings?

Thanks

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You will only get the first unfold with a Chord DAC. Just let your Roon core do the first unfold and set your device as renderer only and it should work although you can try no MQA capability (or similar words). You want Roon to recognise and act on a MQA signal but you will not get the final stage of rendering. You get Chords processing instead.

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Rob Watt’s advice is to ignore MQA if you can. However, if IIRC Chord’s advice (Rob Watt’s) was to allow the decoding (first unfold.) However, I suggest you try with and without core decoder enabled.

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Thank you all for the above recommendations.
Found the best setup:
Roon device configuration set to “no MQA”
Roon upsampling set to “max PCM”
Connected to Hugo2 via good Coax cable

No more audio disconnections.
Sounds sublime.

Thanks again

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