Here’s a puzzle. I upsample 44 and 48k audio to DSD 64 in Roon. When I do that with streaming radio, the yellow light comes on. When I do that with a 16/44 file from Tidal or my local library, the light is cyan/blue.
Why would that be if Roon shows the Zen is getting a DSD stream regardless? Thanks for any insights.
Are they MQA as those for not not get converted.
Caused me a lot of early confusion
They are not. WBEZ in Chicago, KCRW in LA and New Sounds from NY.
Ah sorry I saw streaming and missed the next part.
What does your Signal path look like, can you post a screenshot, it might be he low quality source material
It is a low quality source but Roon is sending the Zen DSD 64 regardless. Not a big deal, but not accurate either.
Ok an interesting one. I have not seen that happen.
I might try one of my sh1tty digital tracks later and I will try and let you know what happens
That is working as intended. The Condensed Signal path shows the lowest part of the chain. So, if any step in the chain is low quality that is what it will display. Kind of like, the team moves as fast as the slowest member.
This is also why each step has an indicator. The Source is low quality. Doesn’t matter what you do with it afterwards, you are limited by the source. Upsampling an MP3 does not make it high quality nor high definition.
Thanks. I guess that makes sense, but it’s not documented by iFi anywhere. Still strikes me as odd.
If Roon says I’m feeding the Zen DSD 64, how does the Zen know the original format of the file AND differentiate btw a file that started as 16/44 and a file that started as a 128k stream?
While I completely understand what @rugby is saying, because it is being upscaled I am not sure it does that. If it was just being converted to PCM maybe that is correct. So I am playing a 250KB MP3 file here and I have a blue light.
And this is Radio Caroline at 120kbps
Both light up in blue. Not sure the difference with this, and I changed my usual DSD256 to DSD64 to be as close as your setting.
Thanks Michael for playing with this. Only thing I can think of that’s different on my end is one band of EQ. Quite strange. Good thing I usually keep the lights off on the Zen.
Hi Israel, please see my response to Michael. Thanks!
Actually I did some experimentation today and I was unable to reproduce your issue. I started with a low quality (257 kbps) MP3 file, added a 4 band PEQ and upsampling to DSD 256, and my ZS had a red light, indicating it was indeed processing at DSD 256.
I cannot explain why yours is showing a different LED, if you’re running firmware 2.31.7. I even tried switching my Roon settings to DOP (DSD over PCM) instead of native DSD and got the same result with DSD 64 upsampling. Are you certain you’re on the latest firmware?
Yes I tried that DOP option after Rugby suggested it but I could not get it to change be wrong at that time.
What was interesting though, was that when I switched it all back to DSD256 the colours didn’t change. I checked everything and it was correct but it was acting like it was DSD64 still.
Several more changes back to PCM and DSD256 and then the colours changed back.
So there may be a bug there somewhere
I think there is a small bug somewhere that prevents the unit from being permanently changed back from DOP to native, especially when you disconnect the ZS from your DAC. I’ve had issues trying to save the native DSD setting from DOP and it keeps switching back. In those cases I’ve had to reboot the ZS to get the setting to stay on native permanently.
Thanks Steven and Michael for the continued investigation. I’ll report this to ifi and be happy and ignorant for the time being with the led’s turned off.
New Roon software today! Downloading it now…
OK it’s installed. Everything seems to be working fine. Requires a database update, no bridge updates with this one. When a new bridge version is released, I plan on resetting the ZS to factory and seeing if the ZS bridge will update too, then reinstalling the Roon Ready firmware.
One thing I’ve noticed that I’m not sure I did before is that if PEQ is added, I’m required to turn on Roon’s software first unfold to get MQB decoding on my DAC, and this allows upsampling to be performed on MQA tracks as well—if there are any DSPs added you must have Roon perform the first software unfold for MQB (not MQA) decoding to work.
However, since my DAC is a full decoder and I don’t use PEQ much, I typically keep the ZS audio settings to show that the DAC is both decoder and renderer-capable and I turn the software unfold off. This is the only way to get MQA Studio and the blue light, and although I’m not certain, I would think that that would be the highest quality stream for MQA-encoded files.
Anyone else’s intel on this issue is welcomed!
Yup this is one of the big benefits to Roon’s core decoder. You can apply all the DSP you want and still have the DAC perform MQA rendering. I don’t believe there is any other audio solution out there that allows for a user’s DSP to be applied to MQA and still have the DAC perform rendering for full MQA decoding.
It doesn’t matter if the core decoding is done by a device other than the DAC. Just look at Roon’s playback info in such a case. It is still authenticating the track as MQA Studio. Long as the DAC is able to do rendering you will still get full MQA decoding. In this case you won’t get the Studio light but the OFS indicator and the result is still full decoding (just another way of getting there).
Appreciate it, and that makes sense, although I’m not so sure what’s going on with my DAC. The Topping D90se has an indicator when it’s receiving MQA Studio streams—it indicates the sampling rate and “MQA.”—the period on the end indicating Studio vs regular old MQA (it shows OFS for MQB). And when I have DSPs in the signal path and enable the core decoder, not only is the ZS LED green but my DAC shows OFS as well.
Whether there’s a difference in quality between MQA Studio files being sent to my DAC as OFS or unadulterated as “MQA.” is unclear, although to my logic it should be the same. The LED color implementation (which is dictated by MQA corporate, not iFi) is just shoddy and confusing—there is no way to tell from magenta MQB streams what the original quality of the file is outside of Roon telling you in the signal path. 
I have the same DAC (although I also have a U90 in front of it ). When Roon is core decoding my DAC shows OFS (as expected) and the ZS show magenta (as expected) with Roon’s signal path showing studio authentication. I agree MQA’s indicators have a lot to be desired but all this is in the end is the Authentication part of MQA which has been proven to be unreliable/breakable. This info not being available outside of Roon is a byproduct of Roon handling core decoding. Roon shows what I would expect though so I will just assume (like I do the info on my DAC) it is correct until I have reason not to.
