I want to experiment with a Roon Ready endpoint MQA enabled network streamer to listen to MQA selections from Tidal. MQA has been so hotly debated I want to pick up some gear and listen for myself rather than read endless online debates.
I’m not interested in portable DACs or music fed directly from a computer. So, I’m inclined to shy away from the Meridian Explorer 2, Dragonfly Red or iFi Nano BL. I suspect that using the iFi Micro BL on a desktop is a waste of much of what that device has to offer. But perhaps I’m thinking of this the wrong way.
Since Roon can now handle the decoding, I realize a renderer is all that I need, however, I don’t feel compelled to ignore solutions that offer decoding and rendering.
This particular system is very simple. It’s a Naim Uniti Atom driving ProAc Tablette 10 speakers. The analog input is available.
I’ve been pleased with the Allo USBRidge that I’ve deployed on one of my systems and was thinking that pairing that device with a Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 would do the trick for about $580.
An alternative would be the Bluesound Node 2 at about $500.
I suspect that the USBRidge/Pro-Ject combo would yield better sound. However, the Bluesound would tie things up nicely with a single box. I’m not interested in any of the other features offer by Bluesound.
Are there other alternatives you might suggest? How would you think about the two options I’ve mentioned? Just to put boundaries on this experiment, let’s keep the budget below $750.
It’s worth noting that the analog inputs on the Uniti range get digitised, so any MQA magic is likely to be spoilt somewhat in the reconversion. A shame really.
If you get a simple Roon endpoint that will connect digitally to your Atom, you could leave it at that to begin with. You’re getting the main decode (the really important bit) via Roon anyway. Just let the DAC in the Atom do it’s thing with that and see what you think. Some full MQA DACs can’t deal with rendering a pre-decoded MQA stream, so be careful of that if you are looking for something to render a Roon-decoded MQA signal.
Well, if need be I can look at going through this exercise where I take the analogue outputs and run them into a traditional pre-amp on one of my other systems.
My goal was to see what adding an MQA renderer to the mix adds to the equation. Since the Atom is a Roon endpoint I am able to observe the impact of Roon decoding in isolation already. Am I confused about something here?
I think some of the confusion is that the Atom is an All-in-One, so it is an amp, DAC, Roon endpoint, streamer, etc. all wrapped up in one. That make it very convenient but also a bit difficult when you want to start splitting things up and inserting new elements like MQA. I think there are only two practical choices for using the Atom with MQA - 1) let Roon do the first unfold, which your Atom should be able to do as soon as it supports the Roon 1.5 client or 2) wait for Naim to add full MQA into their DAC section.
If you have another regular pre-amp or powered speakers, you can use any of the MQA enabled DACs like the Meridian to feed your preamp or powered speakers directly. Unless you can find one that also supports Roon (I know PS Audio does but they are out of your price range), you may have to front-end the DAC with a Roon renderer like a microRendu. I think there are combos that can be done within the $750 target.
Forget about the Atom. I have other systems I can use for this experiment that either have a traditional pre-amp with a free line level input or systems with active speakers. (By the way, the Atom seems to be working just fine with Roon 1.5, however, I’ve not seen anything indicating that Naim intends to add MQA support.)
Can we please refocus this thread on the primary question I posed?
I’m not interested in portable DACs or music fed directly from a computer. So, I’m inclined to shy away from the Meridian Explorer 2, Dragonfly Red or iFi Nano BL. I suspect that using the iFi Micro BL on a desktop is a waste of much of what that device has to offer. But perhaps I’m thinking of this the wrong way.
I was thinking about either the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 and an Allo USBridge on the one hand, or the Bluesound Node 2 on the other. Both are desktop Roon ready streamers with MQA rendering capability. Apparently there are some problems with Bluesound and MQA that might push me to the USBridge/Pro-Ject alternative. If people think the SQ would be better with one of the portable DACs I said I wasn’t interested in, that would be good to know.
It’s my sense that the USBridge would make a nice partner for the Pro-ject Pre Box S2. I’m not sure that the additional money for the microRendu over the USBridge is warranted. I find it odd that Sonore upgraded the hardware on the microRendu from the old 1.3 based systems to 1.4 and then stopped offering the 1.4 based systems and no longer offer upgrades from 1.3 to 1.4. Sonore seems more focused on the UltraRendu. The USBridge works well with Roon. If I was inclined to spend more money in this case I’d likely get a good power supply and the UltraRendu – but I don’t want to climb the ladder for this experiment, which is why I mentioned the USBridge and Pro-ject.
Sorry, I don’t have any experience with your preferred solution, so can’t comment. These is a fairly lengthy thread in this forum regarding the Project DAC, so maybe you should take a look at that.
I think it is because they now have a multi room function, so anything that gets put into one uniti zone could be output of another uniti zone. Bit of a bummer for vinyl purists as well.
I use a raspberry pi with a project prebox s2. Sounds wonderful with Roon doing the first unfold and just using it as a renderer, better than passing it through and getting the s2 to do both. Make sure you get the 1.12 firmware tho.
