MQA and Bluesound

I am not sure where but I read for MQA to work all the internal processing on the bluesound itself must be disabled. Since I do not have one myself I cannot check that.

I think this is called ā€œTone Controlsā€ in Bluesound.

The tone controls are off. I think the dsp and eq in the signal path is the Bluesound internal dsp and that is not something you can turn off. MQA should work inspite og this.

Well according to the the release notes it should be supported and you see that it is on the Node 2, so it should also work on the Flex.
I was about to pull the trigger on a Flex, guess Iā€™ll wait until this is sorted out. :slight_smile:

I edited my post: no MQA rendering on the Bluesound Pulse soundbar either.
Although it was updated to the same firmware as well.

Seems like a good idea if MQA is important to you:) I guess its just a bug that needs to be sorted.

Well the main reason is portability, all the other devices are Sonos endpoints.

The Node2 is not a speaker, the others are and afaik they do internal dsp.

I wonder if this is the reason mqa is disabled on the speakers since I think the software running on the bluesound should send itā€™s mqa capability to the roon server.

Another edit to add my NAD T 777 v3.

Ok, so the pulse soundbar does not do MQA rendering but the pulse 2 does? In the end it should work on EVERY bluesound device so I am wondering why there are some with issues.

Are you sure the Soundbar does not do what its supposed to?
From the log;

Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: BaseEndpointCodec::onPlay BaseEndpointCodec.pm (147) $url=Raat:raat_pcm01:pcm/96000/24/2/mqaCore=96000/0 $self->{url}=Raat:
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::_reportCancelledPlay Controller.pm (1312) 2
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: rate-rate_lock: new rate 48000
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=1): S
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=4): I100
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::_Codec_play Controller.pm (1150) Raat:raat_pcm01:pcm/96000/24/2/mqaCore=96000/0
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: main::ANON ./ms.pl (4489) soundbar: change preset (MUSIC)
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: Playback device is default
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: Stream parameters are 96000Hz, S24_3LE, 2 channels
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: buffer-frames=28800, period-frames=960
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: open_mixer(digital) success
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=4): I100
Jun 21 20:22:21 (none) user.info ./cp.pl: main::ANON ./cp.pl (3148) sbsettings: MUSIC
Jun 21 20:22:22 (none) user.info ./cp.pl: Soundbar::kleer_pair Soundbar.pm (166) KleerNet status: numid=21,iface=MIXER,name=ā€˜KleerNet Statusā€™ ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw------,values=1,items=3 ; Item #0 ā€˜Disconnectedā€™ ; Item #1 ā€˜Connectedā€™ ; Item #2 ā€˜Pairingā€™
Jun 21 20:22:23 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: main::ANON ./ms.pl (4489) soundbar: change preset (MUSIC)
Jun 21 20:22:23 (none) user.info ./cp.pl: main::ANON ./cp.pl (3148) sbsettings: MUSIC
Jun 21 20:22:23 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::resumeRaat Controller.pm (1700) resumeRaat

Ok well I verified that playing an MQA track from tidal directly from the bluos app to Pulse flex does have the MQA icon with Blue dot in the Bluos app. But playing that same MQA track via Roon does not generate the MQA icon/blue dot in the Bluos app. Also get the ā€œAmplifierā€ but no ā€œMQA Rendererā€ in the signal path. Regardless of what settings are in the Device Setup/MQA for the pulse flex.

Something is definitely amiss. Too bad.

And the same log from a Vault, which does get the Renderer symbol in Roons Audio path:

Jun 21 21:40:21 (none) user.warn ./cp.pl: HDT::ANON HDT.pm (393) getOrderList: There is no new order to download.You will only able to login if there is any open order to download.
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::play Controller.pm (1615)
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: BaseEndpointCodec::onPlay BaseEndpointCodec.pm (147) $url=Raat:raat_pcm01:pcm/96000/24/2/mqaCore=96000/5 $self->{url}=Raat:raat_pcm01:pcm/96000/24/2/mqaCore=96000/4
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::_reportCancelledPlay Controller.pm (1312) 10
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: NPlayer::trigger_reset Player.pm (2732) trigger on
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=1): S
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=4): I100
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::_Codec_play Controller.pm (1150) Raat:raat_pcm01:pcm/96000/24/2/mqaCore=96000/5
Jun 21 21:43:28 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=4): I100
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::resumeRaat Controller.pm (1700) resumeRaat
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=50): R617410025
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info dspout: [warning] dropout of 960 samples at 18787 [2]
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info dspout: [warning] dropout of 960 samples at 19747 [2]
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info ./ms.pl: Controller::streamStarted Controller.pm (2633) streamId=12
Jun 21 21:43:30 (none) user.info dspout: Command(l=5): I5000

I see differences in the logs for exampleā€¦

Of course since I do not know any details about the implementation this can also mean nothing at all. Over at the bluesound forum similar questions are asked about MQA support with the new firmware, but users are referred to open a support case.
Apparently players like the flex do support MQA since playing with bluesound apparently works, ROON on the other hand I wonder why some of their players work while others seem to have issues.
Finally it is up to their support to figure out whatā€™s happening here.

Yep, thats me! :wink:
Iā€™m getting a bit fed up with the Bluesound forum representativesā€¦ They mostly answer questions with ā€open a support caseā€ answers.
All the more cred goes to the Roon team who almost always respond to questions regardless of category

Maybe you can file a support case and report back here what they said. This would be very much appreciated at least by me.

I filed a support case with Bluesound describing how I was unable to play MQA on my Pulse Flex through Roon. I just got this answer back:

We have been able to replicate this issue in our lab, thanks for reporting this!
We will investigate it with the help of Roon and MQA and see why the Pulse Flex is behaving differently.

So I think they are working on it now.

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Iā€™ve just had another Bluesound firmware update.2.182 Not sure if it has anything to do with Roon compatibility

Over at the Bluesound discussion forum a rep states that the update [2.18.2] addresses an issue with Panasonic remotes.

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