It does run Roon Ready code and communicate back to the core. That is how the Signal path can read…
Bluesound NODE 2i
Roon Advanced Audio Transport
MQA full decoder
MQA Studio 44.1 kHz
Without Roon Ready code, none of the above would be displayed in the Signal path.
AJ
Spdif is dumb. It can’t talk back to Roon so Roon can’t know it is being used even with Roon Ready code. To get an accurate read, do the first unfold in Roon and tell it your DAC has no MQA capability (which is correct). You should then get a signal path that represents what is happening.
No you have to turn on MQA decoding it’s off by default these days, they changed the whole MQA behaviour early last year.
The Node 2i has ALL outputs active, that is why the line states “Analog/Digital Outputs”. So if you play anything to it, it will play it out the COAX, the Toslink, the Analog outs, etc. So, even if you are outputting via COAX to your MQA DAC, the Node 2i is still doing an MQA unfold for its analog out, even if you are not using it.
This feature is interesting because, as I have done, I have plugged every out from the Node 2i into my integrated amp. This allows me to play a song and instantly switch at the amp level between different outputs of the Node 2i for comparison.
And the Vault does the same, I used this feature to my advantage to run a 50ft Toslink cable into the other room to feed the system in their as well as my main system on SPDIF Coax at the time.
I thought it was and obviously still is a great feature.