MQA core decoder decoding to 96K?

Do I have some setting wrong, or is there some Roon or MQA limit?
I have a DAC that supports 192K (the HoloAudio Spring).
But checking the signal path, a source that starts as 192K MQA is being decoded to 96K along the way…

The file is 48k, the MQA unfold that Roon does unpacks it to 96k but your Holo Spring can not do the final render which would give you 192 as it is not an MQA certified dac, I get the same as I have the Holo Spring Level 3.

Ah, interesting, thanks Ratbert. (Btw this is the level 3 as well - fantastic DAC don’t you agree?)

I do, I use a Microrendu feeding usb to a Matrix Audio X spdif 2 feeding the i2s input on the Holo

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Interesting, I tried the Kutsuni-recommended USB to I2S but really heard very little difference between than and going USB from my mac mini (using the newer USB module). Sounds fantastic!

Try Roon PCM up-sampling (device setting to max capability of Spring DAC, 384k), using ‘power of 2’ (take care of multiples 44.1/48k) and select Smooth Minimum phase filter. In my Spring DAC level 2, set to NOS mode, I hear more improvement in SQ.

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I actually preferred smooth linear phase. Definitely worth up-sampling into the Spring and definitely worth trying different up-sampling options.

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Thanks for the ideas. Trying them out now (upsampling modes).

Upsampling for me certainly sounds worse. I can hardly believe people like it. :dizzy_face:

Maybe for me this is because my Chord DAC does it internally so well already.

Yes, Chord have paid a lot of attention to their filters. Upsampling doesn’t have a sound as such, it just creates bandwidth enabling different filters to be used.

I don’t think there’s a general consensus of people loving up-sampling…

With your Hugo TT, in addition to paying for the most important features of a DAC like power supply and analogue stage, you are paying very good money for Rob’s own high quality digital filtering… so for the price, one would hope Rob’s sounds great and indeed a lot of people like it, just playing bit perfectly (I’m in this boat with my Chord DAC).

Just to demonstrate how subjective all of this is, there a many Chord Dave owners that prefer using HQ Player up-sampling to PCM768kHz to their Dave… some even prefer HQP up-sampling to DSD512 to their Dave too…

Btw in informal testing I prefer no upsampling either in roon or in my Kitsune Holoadio Spring Level 3 DAC