I got a usb3->Camera adapter and powered it properly from a wall socket. Then I connected the Explorer 2 to the adapter and the adapter to my iPhoneX and iPad Air. Results of my tests:
- Playing Tidal MQA from Roon’s iOS app with the iPhone (or iPad) set as MQA decoder and renderer in Roon gave the proper light show for full MQA unfold and authentication on the Explorer and Roon’s signal path showed full unfold to the Explorer as well.
- Streaming the same MQA files from the Tidal app with Master selected as the streaming quality only ever lit up 2 white lights on the Explorer. So the DAC indicated a max of 96/88.2 kHz audio, even with known 192 kHz MQA files. There was no green or blue authentication light. Same result for downloaded Master files.
- Changing the streaming quality from Master to HiFi changed the light show on the Explorer to one single white light only, indicating CD quality as expected with HiFi.
I couldn’t get the Explorer to show a full unfold/authentication light show from the Tidal app no matter what I did. How did you get yours to do it, please?