I know there are two versions of Blue in Tidal - an MQA one and a normal one. You tell the difference because the MQA one is 24 bits and the normal one 16 bits. Doesn’t matter what I do I only get the non MQA version in Roon ie the 16 bit version. I search for other albums and it brings back nothing.
I am thinking about getting a MicroRendu to Stream Tidal MQA via Roon to a Meridian Explorer DAC.
Has anyone actually got it working. I read where some people tried and failed. I would hate to buy it only to find it would not work.
Could be that roon is hiding a duplicate album. Either try turning off show hidden albums on settings or use the show other versions button on the album page. Hope this helps.
I have a Sonore microRendu, and just hooked it up and tested it with the microRendu. (I use the newly installed Meridian Explorer 2 downstream from a Bryston BDP-1 and USB Regen). Works fine with the mR. Roon Ready mode selected.
Sounds very good. Getting the Blue light Authentication and the 96k hi-res light (single white light) on Foreigner 4 Tidal Master MQA. Screenshot shows the signal path link. Also checked it on The Cars - Candy-O Tidal Master MQA. Meridian Explorer 2 Blue Light and two white lights displayed for 24/192k.
Make sure you let the signal pass through… no volume leveling…
William, the first mode light goes blue for MQA Studio, green for MQA. and white for non-MQA 44.1/48. I tossed the Meridian manual link in so you could check it out. Nice little device for $200 USD.
Also make sure its a Meridian Explorer 2, not the original Explorer.
That little Explorer rocks. I have three DACs in my main system. Schiit Gungnir Multi-bit (Gumby). Wyred4Sound DAC-2 with femto clock, and the Explorer2. The little guy holds it own. I’m only using it for MQA titles, but it sounds pretty darn good.
I think we’ll see more MQA equipment introduced as it rolls out.
I just bought the Explorer 2 to tinker with MQA a couple of weeks ago. Good little device. Probably will buy something better down the road when the MRS isn’t paying too much attention…
Thanks for that. I hope it does rock. I have a Direct Stream and a DAC you probably haven’t heard about called a Killer. Its built around one of those old Phillips double crown DAC chips so hi res makes no difference to it. Surprisingly most people, me included, prefer the Killer to the DS, but it just keeps getting better with each software release and the number that prefer the DS keeps growing, I know the guy that makes the Killer and those chips are getting harder and harder to get so he will have to stop building them soon. He is hoping he can come up with a MQA dac that will beat both. However the first step is to see how the Explorer goes against both and exactly what MQA brings to the table. Already tried MQA decoded by the Tidal app into the DS and there was a big improvement.
Anyway early days yet - will take it a step at a time.
I am very encouraged that Roon has announced full support for Tidal MQA so expecting further integration over time, but will do a separate post about that.
Sure thing Bill. Several manufacturers (PS Audio and Schiit to name two) are staying off the MQA train, but if it takes off, I think they’ll (and others) jump on board. Enjoy…Robert
I know a lot of the Hi Fi guys out my way in Brisbane Australia and one of them makes the Klein DAC. He is heavily into the pi and has plans to build it into his DAC. The reason I like the MR over the Pi is I also muck around with some much higher end DAC’s like the Killer and DS. But I have zero doubt Clay (he is the Klein DAC guy) can help with getting it up and running to see how it goes. The Killer DAC guy wants to build one into the new DAC he is thinking about along with something called a Killer Clock that is the lowest jitter source he has come across. He has something similar built into an old Wadia transport and it’s the only thing I have come across that can take my Off-Ramp out which has very low jittter. But there is a lot of water that needs to flow under the bridge before that happens - slowly, slowly one step at a time.
Yes I have read their views, but think its more to do with paying licencing. If it takes off, and I think it will ,they will have to come to the party. How much can licencing be if the Explorer 2 costs US $200.00 or so.
I have with the Killer DAC guy (he has a degree in electrical engineering and I have one in applied math) gone deep into its details reading the patents and stuff. Technically it’s very good and attacks a real issue with audio - time smear. Personally though I would not have done it that way - I would have used a modern lossless encoder like Optimfrog that produces amazingly small 176K files (it’s very efficient at encoding Hi Res content, much more efficient than Flac) then up-sampled it even further to whatever the DAC can handle by some optimized digital filter. Just my view for what it’s worth
Some people reported not being able to get the MQA decoder lights to light up using a RC. But I don’t think it was with Roon which looks a much more sophisticated product and what attracted me to it even though I mostly use Tidal these days rather than actual files.
