If you play that, it will be MQA. FLAC is a container that can hold the MQA formatting.
Just tried this one and no MQA indicators lit up. On some other 2L albums (i.e. Nordic Sounds) they do.
Hmmm, weird, might Qobuz have multiple versions of it? I started it up and got no indications either in Roon or on the DAC end… Weird.
If they have a non-MQA version, I would actually prefer that, but I can’t find one. In Roon Qobuz that’s the only version I’m seeing.
Turns dark blue here on my iFi Zen DAC V2
MQA Studio it is.
Roon lists the Qobuz version as FLAC, but it definitely is an MQA according to the signal path. The Tidal versions are correctly listed as MQA.
I’ve looked up the album on the Qobuz app and here it plays without the MQA decoder kicking in.
And not a single mention of MQA anywhere.
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I’ll do some testing. This is interesting.
A couple years ago I wrote to Qobuz about 2L MQA titles and asked about Qobuz’s stance on MQA. Here’s a snippet from their response;
…Rest assured, we have no interest in bringing any more “folding” or “unfolding” silliness to Qobuz…
I suspect that’s part of the reason you don’t see any mention of MQA from Qobuz.
Unfortunately, Qobuz doesn’t have control over what the labels provide. 
BTW, I also wrote to 2L expressing my disappointment that they didn’t offer customers a choice in formats when streaming. Here’s part of their response;
… Our digital aggregator, The Orchard (Sony), can only handle a single file set i their distribution. Across the services we find that MQA provides the best listening experience for the majority of streaming customers…
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What’s so odd is that those albums were not even recorded in whiteglove MQA or anything. Somewhere down the line the record label decided to convert and only release them to streaming services in MQA. But if you look at the liner notes, it was recorded in DXD originally. No mention of MQA at all:
Stranger and stranger. Now it played as MQA for me.
The FLAC designation is correct, because it is a FLAC file after all (note that Tidal also lists it as a FLAC format file). The difference is probably that Tidal adds MQA information to the album metadata (which is picked up by Roon), whereas Qobuz probably doesn’t even know if an album is MQA encoded.
I’d say with respect to Apple and Roon collaborating, be careful what you wish for. A collaboration would open up the books so to speak and if successful integration can be achieved it wouldn’t be too far a stretch for Apple to make an acquisition. That’s how many corporate tech acquisitions start out, co-operation, integration, acquisition.
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Spot on Brian. That’s how big business works👍
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Im not concerned . Bring Apple to Roon and you won’t need any other services added . Period .
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I’ll put my vote into the very concerned camp, not everyone’s on board either the Cupertino or Redmond train 
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I think we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves here 
Roon is only in talks with Apple on integration. Technical challenges may veto the integration entirely.
Even if it is done, there is no reason to believe Apple would make an acquisition (beyond the fact that they have more money than god at this point).
Given Apple has for all intensive purposes unlimited resources, they could just as easily pick and choose what they want to build into their service rather than buy an audiophile centered company.
Remember the head of Apple Music is the same guy who said that 99 people in 100 can’t tell the difference between lossy and CD Quality, let alone high Res. They are not focused on the same things Roon are.
Integration could be mutually beneficial for the parties because of things like Roons handling of classical works. Apple acquired Primephonic to address the growing audience for classical music. Working with Roon could give them pointers on how to handle that.
I’m not disagreeing with Briank, he’s bang on, that is how acquisitions can work, I just think it’s a pretty big jump at this point especially given Apple has the platform and catalogue to do what they want without further acquisitions.
I agree. Be careful what one wishes for. I’d rather give my money to Qobuz (or Tidal). Apple has already had enough from me for their hardware (though I’m an outlier that has an all Mac desktop/laptop/iPad yet a Pixel phone). Gaps in catalog? Get real, like there isn’t enough music to play already on the ‘little guys’ service. First world problem.
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This is an interesting suggestion that I haven’t seen before.
I don’t know if the format would lend itself to such a thing, but you should make a Feature Suggestion in the appropriate forum section.
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There is another one for metadata where Roon staff said that this was on their radar
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