Trying both Roon and Tidal. I don’t own any MQA hardware. But playing on my Mac desktop to my Yamaha MG-10XU USB mixer, I’m getting this info.
I’m listening to the headphone jack on this mixer which is quite powerful, using my Sennheiser HD800 S headphones. It all sounds very good, but am I actually listening to MQA…or am I missing a piece of needed hardware?
Thanks!
MQA is a two stage process, the decode, the render, you are getting the decode which some say is 90% of it others don’t, without an MQA dac that is the most you are going to get.
Thanks for the help. Are you able to tell me what I would be seeing in the Signal Path window if I DID have an MQA DAC?
Thank you!
You are welcome.
One more question, if you’re able.
I ordered an AudioQuest Dragonfly Red, but was confused by this sentence on the MQA website, referring to the Dragonfly as a renderer.
“An MQA Renderer will include ‘stream lock’ but is not able to decode an MQA stream or authenticate it.”
The next section of the MQA website goes on to talk about “full decoders” representing the “highest level of playback”
So, the Dragonfly Red still does not provide the “full MQA experience” when using Roon and Tidal?
Dragonfly Red needs a MQA Core decoder for its MQA rendering to work, e.g. Roon 1.5, Tidal desktop app, or Audirvana.
Since you’re already using Roon, MQA should work in your setup.
Great. Thanks!
