MQA 44.1kHz and signal path?

Audio Gear Talk MQA
16

There are four different rates here, which causes no end of confusion:

  1. The MQA container rate (i.e. 44.1k or 48k) which is how the MQA gets to you. It has nothing to do with anything else and has no bearing on rendering rates.
  2. The transport rate of decoded MQA (“MQA Core”) from the MQA decoder to the rendering part of a DAC. This can be from Roon (or any other MQA decoder) to the DAC, or within the DAC itself. MQA Core is always 2x rate (88.2k or 96k) and has no bearing on rendering rates.
  3. The original sample rate of the master. Roon reports this and so do/should DACs. It it relevant to rendering only insomuch as there may be additional recoverable information for original sample rates >96k.
  4. The rendering rate of the DAC, which is purely hardware dependent. Any MQA can be rendered at any rate, but the DAC is very unlikely to be reporting this.
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