No MQA Support vs Renderer Only

Whilst updating my Antipodes K50, it reinstalled Roon, and I then ran a back-up. Due to a few changes in my system, I reviewed the end points and was interested that the MQA setting for end points that do not decode or render MQA (Devialet Amps; an SOtM streamer) defaulted to Renderer Only.

Does this matter? Roon is still decoding MQA tracks as before, but no rendering occurs.

This isn’t the case for all non-rendering endpoints, but it’s a “safe” default where we’re unable to tell if the endpoint is capable of rendering or not, even if we have some idea of what it is. For example, a Meridian Sooloos ID41 is an endpoint (which we can identify unambiguously), but we don’t know if it’s in an 808v6 or 818v3 product which can render or in an earlier 808/818 or 861 which can’t.

Defaulting to “Renderer Only” leaves the small amount of rendering (signalling) information below the noise floor which is going to have little or no consequences, but feel free to set these endpoints to “No MQA Support”.

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Thanks @joel!

Really appreciate the explanation, and in the spirit of experimentation, I will now spend many hours trying to ascertain if I can hear any impact from the small amount of rendering information on the endpoint :wink:
Mainly as a break from the news…

(New update is very good too!)

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