Just found this on the Meridian Facebook page
www.meridian-audio.com/news-events/world-first-meridian-firmware-update-enables-mqa-playback/
Hope the link works!
With strict limitations at the moment
Am i correct in thinking that
A) right now the MS200 and MS600 will not support MQA
B) they never will support MQA playback
I am being typically indecisive on set up for my main living room set up but am close to going down the Mytek Brooklyn route (but that is still waiting for MQA support and is still facing some significant bugs)
Hi Jay(?)
As of today, MQA Unfolding and Playback is only available on the Meridian 818v3, 808v6, Prime Headphone Amplifier and Explorer 2
The MS200 and MS600 [as well as MC200 and MC600] will playback the “CD” 16/44 portion of the MQA file, when used as part of a Network Audio solution using Roon or Sooloos as the “Core”
Network Endpoints offer a number of Sound Quality advantages over USB DAC’s and the MS200 used in conjunction with Roon has been a very stable and well performing solution since the very early days of Roon. The MS200/600 will take 16/44 files and RE / Upsample / Apodize them to 2x rate [24/88 typically] for output to your DAC or Speakers
Meridian’s plans for MQA and these Endpoints is unknown at this time…Meridian have been asked, but the answer remains uncertain if these will receive a Firmware update or similar to allow MQA Unfolding as per the Explorer or Prime
For its price, the MS200 is a nice performing unit and is well worth checking out, especially on the 2nd hand market…but MQA is unknown for the moment
Hi Ronnie - thanks
I think therefore I misunderstood what the MS200 (or MS600) actaully is - I thought it included a DAC, so I would just have to plug it into my amp. Would I need a DAC between an MS200 and Amp?
I guess the other question is if i added it to my network and then on to an MQA capable DAC, would the MQA DAC have problems decoding the MQA file if the MS200 has already upsampled the CD portion of the file?
Both the MS200 and MS600 have both Digital and Analog outs…and therefore both of them have internal DAC’s which would enable you to connect them directly to your Amp
The Settings of both the MS200 and MS600 allow you to Enable or Defeat the Upsampling / Apodizing and output the Digital Stream without any processing
This way, the future “MQA Enabled DAC” would receive the original 24/44 or 24/48 file from the MS200/600 and perform the “unfolding” etc
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Got you, thanks @Ronnie
I guess that means that the MS200 is a viable alternative to the SonicOrbiter as an endpoint, wired to a network to make it visible to Roon as an endpoint and then connected by analogue out to an amp, but with the added advantage that it can upsample the data file if required. Even if it does not support MQA in the future then it can be passed to an MQA DAC later. Is that right?
J