New to Roon Nucleus & MQA

Roon Software Discussion TIDAL
1

Hello Everyone,

I just acquired a Roon Nucleus and I am using Tidal as my source for music. The Nucleus was easy to set up, however I have some questions regarding MQA.

My system used to be a Cambridge Audio CXA80 amp and a CXNv2 network streamer with a pair of Rogers LS3/5a speakers. (Prior to getting the CXA80 & the CXNv2 I had an old Yamaha R-9 receiver from the 1980’s). I was not satisfied with the sound I was getting from the CXA80 so I swapped it out for a new Yamaha A-S801 amp, which has an internal dac and a usb input.

At first I tried using the Nucleus through the CXNv2 then to the Yamaha. Next I connected the Nucleus directly to the Yamaha usb input, which gave me a lot more detail and richer sound.

My question is, from what I understand that the Roon Nucleus does the first unfold of the MQA on Tidal 96/88.4 kHz 24 bit, is there a second unfold that needs to be done to hear the true sound of MQA files? If so do I need a dac that is MQA certified such as the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge or the Mytek Brooklyn + to achieve the best results?

2

Yes there is. Some here would tell you to switch from Tidal to Qobuz. I like them both, but prefer Tidal.

3

You do need a fully MQA certified DAC or streamer. I would go with a streamer so I’d add Auralic, Lumin and the Teac NT-505 to your Brooklyn Bridge. See if you can get a listen first though. MQA isn’t necessarily going to blow your socks off. It compared favourably to high resolution files in my opinion. I went with a good Roon compatible streamer that happened to doz MQA too.