So, as of this writing on 3/13/18, do we still not have MQA first unfold in the current version of Roon?
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Just peeked at this thread, again.
Sigh.
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Itâs not Roonâs fault. Iâm sure it is the legal issues with MQA that have to be the major issue.
Anyway, as an owner of a Pro-Ject S2 Digital, I will simply say that some MQA sounds better but itâs not going to change your life. Roon will do many greater things for music fans than implement MQA first unfold, if/when it happens.
Since my DAC does the complete unfolding I just need Roon to keep passing the titles from Tidal. I can understand those who would like that first unfolding.
Hi James, there may be some benefit in having the DAC (including itâs USB interface) do less âworkâ internally (unfolding and upsampling), by having Roon Core do it all outside the DAC.
It may not be a direct apples for apples comparison since beyond the 1st unfold in Roon you wonât get MQAâs filters in Roon (maybe?), compared with the DAC doing everything internally.
But the beauty is you will have options to try it for free and decide for yourself but it may be worth a try. You may prefer Roonâs upsampling beyond the 1st unfold over MQA Ltdâs inside the DAC.
My understanding is Roon wanted to do the complete unfold in software - allowing for application of DSP after that. So the first unfold would take you to 88 or 96, then the MQA stream would specify a particular filter to be used of the 16 possible ones (actually what filters are possible depends on the target rate), upsampling to the highest rate your connected DAC can take, and on top of that it would do DSP (room correction, eq, volume control) and then send that to the DAC.
This would have been an excellent development except MQA Ltd did not like the upsampling in software part of this (DACâs would not need to license MQA in that case - any DAC would work!).
I wonder if MQA adoption is lacklustre 18 months (or whatever length of time) from now, if they consider moving the goal posts.
Weâll have to wait and see how it all unfoldsâŚ
Where did you get that from?
This was discussed ad infinitum around here. I added âmy understandinâ to emphasize some of it might be my interpretation.
Yes thatâs true but not by anyone from Roon, thus there is no substance to it ⌠itâs all just idle speculation.
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Correct. It is currently under active development and can be expected âsoonâ. You will see it announced in Software Notes when it happens and probably notice a large downturn in MQA related threads.
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If weâre talking about âRoon wanted to do the complete unfold in softwareâ, I think itâs a safe bet that all the software players âwant to do the complete unfold in softwareâ.
All would ask. It costs nothing to ask 
Doesnât mean youâll get what you want.
Noting that Rugby was asking miguelito about his understanding in the above quote, not asserting that statement as fact.
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Noted, no sure why I quoted Rugby there. I removed that quote.
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Are you saying Roon doesnât have the legal rights to do this yet?
MQA and Roon reached commercial agreement as per the MQA announcement earlier this year. MQA functionality for all use cases (and I hope some nice little extras to make life easier for us) is under active development. So far as I am aware there is no ongoing negotiation regarding commercial terms between Roon and MQA, but I am not in a position to have definitive knowledge about that.
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If full unfold is going exist then Audirvana would have done this long time ago(only MQA core is implemented). Any DSP after first unfold does not exist in Audirvana. I believe whatever MQA features implemented in Audivava, the same will follow for other software makers.
I chose my DAC because of its MQA filter and for the specific reason that it doesnât use USB as the interface. I have no issues with Roon developing these options for those who desire them. I just want Roon to leave the option of passing thru the file untouched from Tidal or on those MQA files I have saved on my network .
The second step is one of various MQA digital filters being applied and upsampling. Not sure how Roon would mimick that for the hodge podge of hardware attched unless they negotiated the rights to implement those filters in software.
Very nice. If it isnât a USB interface doing the MQA decoding itâs likely the ethernet interface (little computer inside the DAC) doing it so the same benefits may apply.
Which DAC, if you donât mind me asking?