I have Topping DX7 Pro and TIDAL connected with my ROON account.
I have two questions:
As my DAC doesn’t have MQA,
Should iI have: “MQA capabilities” and “Enable core MQA decoder” set to OFF?
Is using default settings: MQA cap - “render only” and “core decoder” - ON will give me any benefits?
My DX7 Pro has Pre amp mode and DAC mode.
Is there any difference in sound signature (or anything else) between these two?
I have active speakers and headphones connected directly to the device.
In DAC mode, controling the sound by device is not possible.
I don’t see a point to use DAC mode if there is no difference in quality (i don’t hear any)
Set “No MQA capabilities” (this is telling Roon what the hardware itself supports) and then “Enable core MQA decoder” to “yes”. That will tell Roon to do the first unwrap (which is 95% of the MQA work). You won’t get the “renderer” stage from your hardware, but that’s largely moot as all it is is a low-pass filter and all DACs provide that already anyway. Just might not be the exact same curve as the one the studio requested.
DAC mode just fixes the output volume at reference volume. Since you indicate you are using headphones, you can’t use DAC mode. DAC mode isn’t about sound quality (per se), its about ensuring the downsteam components get exactly what they expect.