Heres my example
Full off loading to Fiio R7 for full decode and render
This is Roon doing initial decode and Fiio R7 rendering only
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The only thing that doesn’t make sense based on that is that with the Qobuz file it is recognizing the capacity of the iPhone’s DAC and downsampling it accordingly. Seems like it should be able to do the same with MQA. But it is what it is! No need to take up more room on this forum trying to make further sense of this is my take. Once Tidal makes its full transition to FLAC I won’t have to worry about it anymore anyway! 
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It will play back fine up to that rate it just has no mechanism to report back. Just the way Apples designed it.
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No the limitations of iOS internal playback is known. Roon will downsample anything to it if no external dac is connected it knows what to do as it’s a fixed entity and can’t change. So give it a file higher than 48/24 it will downsample. Tidal is giving it a 48/24 file, Roon knows the iPhone can’t handle internally anything higher so won’t apply decoding if no dac is attached.
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I’m with ya. You and I know that an MQA 96khz file is 48Khz unless the first unfold is performed, and we know that the iPhone cannot recognize or handle that unfold. But for other folks, on the surface it looks like it’s successfully decoding a 96khz file. It’s a nitpicking issue—in my view Roon should display the actual sampling rate the device is playing, and in this case it isn’t. I’m a fairly advanced user and am in retrospect I’m embarrassed that I missed the “enhanced” tag on the throughout screen—but since the problem has been recognized since at least 2018, I don’t expect it to be a priority anytime soon!
Thanks again for the explanation. I rarely listen to Roon through my iPhone, so it really isn’t a big problem. I just got flummoxed for a bit because I just noticed this after buying the iPhone 15–I thought maybe I had missed something for a bit there! Peace…
Way to know if Roon is doing the initial decode is this
Shows Decoding
On my iPhone which is set to Core to decode with no endpoint capabilities
PS: was playing 2 different songs but the result is the same if the same song.
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Thanks again! I have a FiiO Q3 around somewhere I could have used to test it, just jumped the gun too early!
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TBH, I’m cool with just 16/44.1 and any music that gets my toes tapping.
I hope @Simon_Arnold3 and I have helped 
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You both have. Next time I’ll pause before I post!
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It’s all cool. If in doubt PM me 
I don’t always have the answers, but I try 
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Heyup, someone’s dropped a ballock, big Carl is here
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Not really, because when Roon is decoding the MQA it is clearly detailed on the signal path. As can been seen in the example shared above by @AMT.
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OK, going to make a third attempt to wave the flag here! I fully own my own impulsive post and oversight—I know better to look for “enhanced” in the signal path to know what’s happening under the hood. I’m going to choose to be wrong, happy and peacemaking in this case—although I would like to humbly offer that despite my appearance here, I am a technically advanced user, and the MQA signal path as presented has tripped up others before me (see the link below).
It’s really not important at all. In the most user-friendliest of worlds, Roon would be indicating the sampling rate accurately that it’s sending to the DAC, based on it’s own archive of commonly-used devices (of which the iPhone is surely one of the most). I’d like to see it indicate when the software unfold is active in the signal path or not, especially given the degree of detail it offers pertaining to the processing steps going on when DSPs are active.
But apparently, since the issue has been reported now for only the second time since 2018, I’m gonna opt for putting my tall between my legs and crawling out of here as silently as possible, before I succumb to the last remaining vestiges of my dignity! Again, thanks for bringing me back from the shattered hopes of lossless capability for this $1,500 phone, 10-4, over and out.
Roon shows fully what is going through to your dac Roon is showing what rate is playing at the start of the signal path as nothing has changed from ths, it clearly shows you it’s an MQA file 48/24 file that has an original master sample rate of 96/24. Whether you get that is down to your DAC.
No decoding is ever present in your examples and you can see nothing is changing in the signal path and it’s passing it along untouched. If Roon is altering the file it will show like it does for any other processes in the signal path. Any MQA software decoding will show up. In this case all that going to the dac is 48/24 no where does it show otherwise.
Roon cannot be blamed for users misunderstanding of how MQA and its processes work. Use any other app you won’t get anything at all showing you the MQA processes or what what is happening in your chain at all.
In your example cases all that has hit the dac is 48/24 as no MQA decoding has taken place, no downsampling has taken place as per Qobuz example not in any shape or form as 96/24 been passed through the iPhone. Yet you assumed it’s 96/24 going to it.
As Roon cannot control what happens after the RAAT stage in iOS what happens there is lost and nothing can be done there other than check the DACs readouts and lights if it has them.
As I have said if anything changes from the original file in Roon in shape or form it’s represented in the signal path. You didn’t have your device setup correctly again this isn’t Roon to blame.
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The only thing going on is that ROON has authenticated the stream as containing MQA which can be decoded to 96Khz. Authentication is not the same as rendered or decoded. So the stream has been passed to your iPhone as a 24bit/48Khz FLAC stream.
Sorry to open up a dead post…
In short - via Roon:
-Regardless of external DAC or not iOS devices are bottlenecked to 24/48 sampling |
Even if Tidal shows 24/192 playback (MQA or FLAC), iOS will downsample to 24/48 as its output
(Yes or No)
-Type-C port iOS devices (iPhone 15 pro) can pass through, when plugged into an external DAC full lossless, MQA or anything higher than 24/48 (Yes or No)
I have a USB-C iPhone 15 with an external DAC (FiiO-KA5) and it passes through the hi-res.
I didn’t try with a Lightning phone but I think it’s the same there. The KA-5 comes with an alternative Lighting cable, which would otherwise be pointless.
Awesome, good to know!
To confirm: “it pass through the hi-res” meaning sampling rates are higher than 24/48, correct at the output stage?
If you use an external dac with iOS it will pass through upto the limit of the dac. The 48/24 limit is purely for the speaker or apples own dongle dac.
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