MQA and Bluesound

It really is disabled. I just checked again to be 100% sure.

I think Roon and my BlueSound Flex have some minor communication problem. Seems like the Flex tells Roon he can only handle 24/48 tracks.

Hi Michael,

Your screenshots do show dsp engine is enabled. Can you disable it completely… see top left

That said there is an issue with some bluesound speakers downsampling. Both roon and bluesound are aware and hopefully a fix is coming soon

Looks quite right. Well, that’s not a huge deal. I’ll patiently wait for Roon and BlueSound to fix it :slight_smile:

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As of Build 208, this issue is still not resolved. Any work being done towards this?

I have also been waiting patiently for a Bluesound fix to enable playing Tidal Masters and local MQA files from Roon. No word from Bluesound as yet on status. I hope they are not simply waiting on Roon software MQA support, but I suspect a Bluesound update will eventually make its way out.

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Rob, is this glitch really just a licensing issue by Roon?

To explain:
It is my understanding that in order to “legally” play MQA files, it is required that the MQA logo and colored dot be displayed, either on physical equipment or on a user interface.

When sending MQA files to Bluesound equipment, the MQA logo and dot are displayed within the BluOS app (and decoding occurs properly).
When sending the same file via Roon, right now there is not a way for an MQA indicator to be displayed.

Has MQA decoding within Bluesound hardware simply been disabled when the source is Roon, simply for licensing (and not technical) issues?

So MQA has header information that the decoder needs to see in advance of the decode happening. With RAAT today what we receive is PCM without the prerequisite info. Our developer and Brian have discussed in detail and this will be solved in a future release.

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@Andrew_Haines @brian

Thanks for the update. Good to know why the problem occurs and that a solution is planned.

Can you throw any light on a different issue (which is referenced earlier in this thread and in other threads) - some Bluesound products (Pulse Flex, Pulse Mini, Pulse Soundbar) force everything to be converted to 48KHz whereas other products (Node 2, PowerNode 2, Pulse 2) do not have this issue i.e. they play at the native sample rate of the source.

Excellent! Thank you for the info @Andrew_Haines.
I truly believe Roon and Bluesound make an excellent combination and this being ironed out will only help increase sales of both.

Thank you for the update. I am glad that you guys at Bluesound and Roon guys are working on a solution. Bluesound and Roon is a great match!

Andrew, many thanks for clearing the confusion. Can you be specific, are we waiting on a bluesound release OR are we waiting on a Roon build…Or for Roon release 1.4, which would seem to be farther off than either of the former scenarios.

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I am interested in the answer to this as well. @Andrew_Haines

Hi Mark, we need the MQA header (metadata) on top of the PCM. This would be an update for Roon, albeit timing, 1.4, just as maintenance is up to their development team.

Thanx Andrew, perhaps someone from Roon can pipe in and tell us whether this update will come in a build or release 1.4??

Tagging @brian

It’s tied up in our general timeline for MQA integration, and we’ve already done that topic to death. There’s a piece we need to build, then a piece for Bluesound to integrate against. I don’t think anyone knows for sure the date that this will be released yet, but it’s a priority for all parties involved.

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Brian, can I nail you down to a time frame…Days, weeks, months?? Some info on timing would be a small consolation.

We don’t estimate dates in public except for things that are extremely imminent (hours to a few away) and we only very rarely make statements about scheduling features to releases until those features are built and in alpha testing.

MQA is literally the last topic on earth that would provoke us to break that longstanding practice. There’s way too much attention and anticipation around it. If I said “X weeks” to you, someone else would notice and start counting down, and as soon as midnight passed on whatever day someone assumed we meant, our inboxes would be filled with complaints and grumbling if it wasn’t released yet.

Sorry, we’ve been there before, and we won’t do it again. We’ll share more when we can.

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Does that mean ROCK is tomorrow? :wink:

Seriously, thanks for making a great product and for delivering 1.3 without MQA. Glad you decided not to delay it for that.

Well put Brian. You guys have been more than forthcoming about new updates and I appreciate the problems that can create. All of us here need a dose of patience from time to time.