It absolutely is coming though, we won’t need 2 apps to play Tidal? Check out the above posts where Dennis and Paul comment about Roon and MQA, it’s not about power.
As per Brian, Roon will be required to do the first unfold to 88/96 and then the Bridge II will take it to 176/192. Just the one app will be required (Roon) to play Tidal, not 2?
As much as I hate to say it Sean, I think Paul’s quote gives us the opportunity to make some assumptions, and those assumptions indicate Roon will have to actively support MQA in some way, for it to be used by the DS community. To wit…
Paul’s answer was in reply to a query as to whether Roon will be “supporting” MQA. Not sure - at this point - what “supporting” means. However, we all know that an MQA file is supposed to look like a normal 48kHz file to a non-MQA DAC. So if you play it on a DAC that does not support MQA, it still plays as if it were a normal file. As such, if PSA did not need some kind of support from Roon, then Paul’s reply should have been…
“It does not matter whether Roon supports MQA or not, if they pass the file to your Bridge II, it’ll be decoded.”
Or some other statement indicating that Roon’s support of MQA was irrelevant (or not needed) for Bridge II’s decoding. But he didn’t.
So that indicates - to my thinking - that he needs Roon to provide some form of MQA “support” for Bridge II to unfold what’s Roon supplies. And that sounds like the first unfold that you mentioned Sean.
Bummer.
Fortunately, Roon build 142’s MQA Detection feature indicates - at least - that MQA is something Roon Labs is working on. You don’t know to route a given stream of bits to a different decoder if you don’t first know that it needs different decoding. Or put another way, IMO this detection was essential to MQA support, which indicates that Roon Labs is actively working on it. 
Hi Steve, these are not my opinions btw. This is from Yoda himself. We need to trust The Oracle lol. Believe me, when he told me I was just as disappointed as you are right now - but this was a few weeks ago so I’ve had time to get over it. We’ll just need to wait a little longer but it’s confirmed to be coming with Roon - just no timeline.
Also this is not an assumption - I’ve been saying from the beginning of this thread, it is confirmed by Brian to be coming. We just need to be patient.
The Roon support is just separate to what PSA have confirmed is coming this/next week , which is the mConnect player and Tidal suporting MQA streaming.
And that is what makes me uncomfortable accepting - on face value - what you state as fact. For I’ve not seen any qualifiers to PS Audio’s support of MQA. Talk of rendering to Bridge II using mConnect, sure. But not that it would be necessary. That’s a horse of a different color.
If I were to buy a Brooklyn DAC, I wouldn’t need something else to support its playback. If I can get an MQA file to it, the Brooklyn will unfold it. All of it. Or at least that’s my understanding.
But you are indicating that PS Audio has stated that their support of MQA is not true FULL support, that other tools will have to be in the unfold process for them to play an MQA file. Is that correct?
If so, I’ve got to say that I’ve missed that. All I’ve seen is language that says they’ll support MQA. Not a qualified “We’ll mostly support MQA, but not for the full unfold”, or any similar language.
Where would I find that qualifying language? Thanks.
Hi Steve,
Did you check out the two links I posted above:
Check out the discussion before and after those posts, just to get more details and more context also.
You won’t need mConnect to play Roon and Tidal MQA later.
The Bridge II is not only a Roon endpoint. I think that may be where the confusion is.
For example: my friend has a DirectStream + Bridge II + Tidal subscription - no Roon. He’s happy because he’ll have MQA streaming at some point this week or next week and he has no interest in Roon.
And by next week we too can also download the free mConnect app to hear MQA with our DS - and I will be doing this - but we’ll need to wait a little longer to use Roon with Tidal MQA. The Roon support is coming and will be free.
Apologies Sean, I did not. Should have. Doing that now…
No problem. Those discussions were from March. The Roon and MQA support is not as straight forward.
That’s true with mConnect and Tidal MQA.
You can ask Dennis K about Roon though? There’s absolutely no reason to believe me.
I thought those other links clarified that Roon is different.
My replay is a shade behind, as some conversation has occurred as I was composing it…
OK Sean, I HAD seen that 2nd link (above), but not the first. Thank you. And in my read of this, here is what I’m gleaning…
So - IMO - either the non-PSA poster that states that Roon says Roon will have to do the first unfold is wrong, or Dennis is wrong that Bridge II will do the full unfold. OR - a third possibility - is that for some reason that I don’t understand, Bridge I will require a first unfold even though Bridge II can do them all.
Oh, further…
I also saw that Roon will do “pass thru” for Meridan Explorer. So if Roon does MQA pass thru now, AND if Bridge II does the full unfold, I am completely unclear on why Brian would say that Roon has to do a 1st unfold for Bridge II.
It does not add up.
LOL this is no fault of anyone here but I’m getting a headache - the entire MQA thing with the DS has been a headache for many for a long while btw, so again, no fault of anyone here in this discussion.
The experts are very easily reached (Dennis and Paul at PSA and Brian here) and should clarify.
I was and am always happy to trust Brian but it may be worth someone cross-checking (again) with PSA otherwise we are all dogs continually chasing our tails.
The truth is out there. LOL
And we’ll find out soon enough…
Absolutely.
Unless someone gets new clarification from a credible source, rather than piecing together posts from here and there like a CSI agent (and BELIEVE ME, I’ve done that a lot in trying myself to piece things together, so I’m making fun of myself here too), I suggest we revisit a week or so from now, after PSA’s rollout LOL
I’m good with that. I personally see no reason to bother people about something that will be clarified very soon. Possibly as soon as today.
Keeping my eyes peeled for new MQA info on that PSA forum though…
The Bridge does a Full unfold.
Dennis
AWESOME !
Thanks for the post Dennis! Did not want to bother you, but glad you chimed in.
So, assuming Roon does the pass thru (easily searched here), then DS w/Bridge II users (and DSJ) should get fully unfolded MQA!
Awesome!
Hi Dennis @dennis
Does this mean that Roon and 24/192 MQA will work with the Bridge II, when the Bridge II firmware update arrives this week or next?
Or is the Roon 24/192 MQA & Bridge II support coming later than that?
