Having MQA issues with Meridian devices

Long press on the pause forces Roon to drop the connection and re-initialises. (The light on the signal path goes out momentarily.)

And did that change the settings for you?

Interesting.

  • Why did 1.5 set my UltraDAC as “No MQA Support”?

  • If the MS600 doesn’t support MQA (I believe you that it doesn’t), then why if I tell 1.5 that it is a “Decoder and Renderer” does everything seem to work?

  • Finally, for my UltraDAC, what are all the settings I need to change to configure 1.5 correctly, i.e. to use the UltraDAC to do all the MQA decoding and rendering? Should I disable the MQA Core Decoder under Advanced Settings?

Steve in the advance settings you are stating what the dacs MQA capabilities are so the ultradac is a decoder and renderer, as is the 818v3 whereas the MS600 and 200’s have no MQA support so Roon would do it where applicable.
The ultradac may have been set to no MQA support due to the ID41 not correctly reporting the dac capabilities?

If you set a device to decoder and renderer Roon will not try to do the MQA decode.

That is what I understand the situation to be…

Sorry – under “Show Advanced” there’s a setting that says “Enable MQA Core Decoder” – separate from specifying “MQA Capabilities”. What does “Enable MQA Core Decoder” mean, and should I disable it for my UltraDAC?

@Steve_Fisher

A couple of things:

  1. Meridian kit MQA capabilities are particularly difficult to “identify” unambiguously due to (a) the card-based architecture and (b) the Sooloos network protocol which does not provide identification.

  2. There is currently an issue with all (I think) of the big-gun 8x8/Ultra Meridian MQA-enabled pre-amps/DACs. In short, they don’t recognize the decoded (but renderable) form of the MQA stream that Roon can output.

That said, there may be additional issues here which we need to explore and assist you with.

It’s basically a nuclear option for those who don’t want to use Roon’s MQA encoder.

You shouldn’t need to.

Q1. Are you using any form of DSP in Roon with your Ultra?

Withdrawn…

I was switching the Core MQA decoder on and off (ID40 Zone) … and it worked for me.

Hey everyone. Please can you guys leave this to support now? Thx.

1 Like

I am not using any DSP (at least, I don’t think I am). I have set DSP Engine to Disable for all of my audio devices.

Ok, in device settings:

  1. For your Ultra, I would set MQA Capabilities to Decoder and Renderer.

  2. For your 818, if it’s an 818v1 or 818v2, set MQA Capabilities to No MQA Support; if it’s an 818v3, set to Decoder and Renderer.

  3. For everything else (MS200s and MS600), set MQA Capabilities to No MQA Support.

In all cases, leave the MQA Core Decoder enabled.

Done. Thanks! Out of curiosity, why leave the MQA Core Decoder enabled for the UltraDAC?

Hello @Steve_Fisher,

Because if you decide to do things like volume leveling or DSP, you will still receive the MQA Decoded signal, even if the UltraDAC at this point in time in incapable of completing the rendering. If you have Core Decoder disabled, Roon’s DSP engine is left to work with only the undecoded FLAC file.

-John

Got it! Very nice!

Don’t forget the ‘little guys!’, Explorer2 and Prime… was really looking forward to tinkering with EQ while still enabling full fat MQA :frowning:

1 Like

@Simon_Mirren No one is forgetting anything, but this thread is a specific support thread for a particular user about the 818 and Ultra.

I too have a Meridian 818v3. I don’t currently use room correction and volume levelling, but was anticipating using this later once MQA was sorted out.

Am I correct that this is not currently possible on the Meridian equipment, but is possible in my other rooms (using squeezeboxes)? Do you know if this is fixable by the guys at Roon, Meridian or not likely to be fixed?

Assuming the 818v3 is set up in Roon as a “Decoder and Renderer”:

If you don’t use any DSP, Roon will pass the unaltered MQA stream to the 818v3 as before (where it will be Authenticated, Decoded, and fully Rendered).

If you do use DSP, Roon will Authenticate and Decode, apply the DSP, and pass that to the 818v3 with embedded (rendering) Signalling Information. As you surmise, currently, the 818v3 will not Render it (or pass the instructions to Render along to Meridian DSP SE loudspeakers). It does sound rather good, however, on my 818v3 and DSP8000SEs, so goodness knows how good it will sound when the 818v3’s recognition of decoded and renderable MQA streams gets fixed!

And yes, I think that it will get fixed, although Meridian timescales can seem rather glacial. Let’s hope that we get a pleasant surprise.

Thank you. I will try room correction and see how I get on.