MQA first unfold in Roon? MQA? [Delivered in 1.5]

Welcome back! SQ in Roon 1.4 has been improved. I’m looking forward to hear/see Roon’s MQA implementation.

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so we payed 499 USD (lifetime) for a imperfect sound.

Guess that’s one way of looking at it. :slight_smile: This is why I love software updates. Continuous delivery. I’m just looking forward to hear what all the MQA fuss is about. Is it “perfect” doubtful! but if I hear even 5% improvement I’ll be happy and have to re-listen to all my favorite songs/tracks again when they become MQA enabled. It does look like MQA is really starting to gain traction now(for better or worse)

Saywhat? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Roon always has been capable of bit perfect output. But according to some, Roon 1.4 has brought a several percent increase in perfectness.

AJ

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Ok, understood.
Couple of legitimate ways in which sound could have improved:
1- Improved upsampling algos - many people use these
2- Improved convolution engine / eq
3- Improved track prefetch (I don’t know if Roon loads track in memory like Audirvana does)
4- Lower CPU usage resulting in lower computer noise (1)

So not as clear-cut as bits-are-bits…

(1) Actually I have casually observed Roon 1.4 use more CPU power than previous versions.

I have no idea what you mean… :stuck_out_tongue:

This is what the team says about it in the 1.4 Release Notes:

We’ve also optimized the RAAT implementation in the Core to minimize CPU usage and context switching during streaming. On the endpoint side, there some optimizations in Roon, Roon Server and Roon Bridge that reduce timing variability when passing audio buffers to device drivers.

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Miguel, I am being facetious. With the “increase in perfectness,” I am poking fun at those who speciously believe that bit perfect players have different sound qualities.

AJ

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Ok understood. The sound from Roon is the best, really the best, you’ve never heard a sound like that

One would have hoped the implementation was ready a long time ago, and was just pending the completion of negotiations.

I guess we shall see how long this takes to actually roll out.

How do you get the proprietary implementation specifics from MQA without an agreement? As far as I know it’s not public information, maybe I’m wrong?

Personally; I wouldn’t spend a large amount of time implementing something you might not even be able to work out an agreement on.

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My understanding is first unfold had been ready for a long time. If I understand correctly, the first unfold is really just adding a binary provided by MQA Ltd and using it in the code, and this code existed already. I expect the issue is getting a release together with full testing takes a little while.

So to confirm… If I setup Roon to use my Tidal HI-FI subscription and point Roon to an MQA track, Roon will now do the 1st MQA unfold (as of release 1.4)?

Thanks,

Peter

Not yet. No ETA. “Soon” seems to be the general (not official) consensus.

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The fact that the code exists and works does not mean that it is undergone full testing in a new release. The current version of v1.4 does not support first unfold in Roon. I would expect that the next release will.

As you already know:

There’s been no indication anywhere on any forum (or in Audirvana software itself) that MQA had already allowed DSP after the 1st unfold in A+ all this time.

So firstly, I owe you an apology for questioning your guess.

Secondly, congratulations on your correct guess.

Thirdly, since you’re on a roll, can you give me the next winning Powerball numbers in advance? :wink:

It’s safe to now assume Roon will absolutely have DSP after the 1st MQA unfold since there is already precedence … maybe lol.

It would be a bit insane for MQA to say no processing past the first unfold should be allowed because in reality EVERY DAC will upsample to it’s max sample rate whatever comes in (except NOS DACs, but those are rare).

Yes but we’re talking software side and DSP that’s not just limited to upsampling.

I’m not sure anyone really knew for certain other than Damien, up to now.

Nice to have confirmation.

I don’t really care about MQA but my old man (dad) is obsessed.

Roon Core’s MQA 1st unfold + DSP will (should) sound better than the MQA DAC I got him doing the full MQA decode and upsampling internally, as it is now, so this is promising (for people like him).

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True. In reality, there are ways to simulate output (eg soundflower or linein) such that A+ or TIDAL would play to that allowing you to apply DSP after. But regardless, it is nice to have this within A+ and not have to do away with things like exclusive mode (if you’re using USB as output). I would actually use UPnP so even better.

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