Strange behavior of Audioquest Dragonfly Red when playing MQA from Tidal

Audio Gear Talk
1

My Audioquest plays wonderfully through Roon with all files whether in my network (low and hi res) or streamed through Tidal. But when playing MQA songs from Tidal, there is a very audible and disgusting “scratching” sound coming from the right channel. Have done A/B with same hi res songs network/Tidal, network songs sounding great but MQA not.

Does anybody experiences this? Any solution?

2

Now, it sounds fine (!). Suddenly, after a few days experiencing the problem. It self solved, apparently. Tidal streaming gremlins?

3

Now, it sounds awful again. It’s an on/off thing.
But if I disable in Roon DSP the presets for my Audeze EL8…voila!: sounds great

Strange…

4

Normally the MQA Capabilities should be set to “Renderer Only” for DragonFly. However if this is the setting you’ve been using, the next time you experience this problem try “No MQA Support” instead.

6

Hello @Ricardo_Damborenea,

There is a known issue with the Audeze DSP presets and MQA playback. Here is a post from our CTO explaining the reason for this behavior

-John

7

Thanks John. In my case, the problem persists with the low latency filters on in Audeze presets. It disappears when Audeze presets are off.