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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Goood stuff, CG. Thanks for your input!
Correct. Some external DAC’s will do DSD as well as MQA as well as hi-res with an iPhone