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MQA Hardware Decoder


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I have been a Tidal User for almost 5 years and I have been watching MQA develop but only recently, I have joined the camp that believes MQA offers some benefit. Since, this is part of my subscription anyways, I want to use MQA. I have read a very simple article on Computer Audiophile which talks about the different ways of getting MQA and that the hardware decoding is considered to be the superior method. 

 

So my question, is there a transport (something like a Lumin U1/Aurender N100 or any dac less transport) which has a MQA hardware full decoder which is able to feed the fully unfolded signal into any DAC (provided the dac is capable of accepting a 24 bit / 352.8 kHz DXD signal)? This method would ideally avoid needing to buy a 1 box solution (like a Lumin D2) or get an MQA certified Dac (Mytek)

 

Thoughts? 

 

Thank you for your time.

 

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No.  MQA Ltd. requires that the MQA rendering stage to have DAC-specific filter in order to meet MQA criteria of music reproduction.  That filter can only be created by having MQA Ltd. profiling a DAC as part of the MQA certification process, and is different for different DAC hardware.  Therefore, a certified MQA transport will only do the MQA Core decoding (first unfold) to 88.2kHz or 96kHz, retrieving the Hi-Res information embedded in the MQA file.  You have to use a MQA DAC (or any Lumin player with analog outputs) to the get MQA rendering.

 

That being said, if you love your current DAC then keep you using it.  Use the MQA Core decoding from software or MQA transport.  If your DAC has a slow minimum phase filter, use it for MQA playback.

Edited by wklie
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@wklie Thanks a lot for the simple explanation. So it is understood that MQA Ltd has made this restriction so should this restriction go away, then technically all that one needs is an MQA decoder that can feed the fully decoded signal into any Dac.

 

1) Can you please advice if Lumin U1 Mini/ Lumin D2 use hardware based MQA decoding? 

2) What is Lumin's direction on I2S? 

3) I am quite torn in making a decision if I should go for a solution like D2 which is one box or a U1 Mini with a Denafrips Dac (slow minimum phase filter per ur advise) The later being a more expensive solution but it gives the flexibility of changing DACs in the future if required. Can you advise if the D2 is basically a U1 mini with a DAC? or are there other differences between the two? Like in terms of the clock or how they clean up/process the signal. 

4) I do not have a local server or even intend to rip CDs or buy DSD. I will only use a streaming service and I currently use Tidal. So for people like me, does it make sense to care about the DSD aspects of a DAC. If 24/196 is what I am going to get via Tidal, then does something like DSD 256 even matter to me? 

5) As per my point above, I am a streaming only audiophile for digital so Tidal Connect is a game changer for people like me. I have been using the Roon Essentials for 4 years and I was pretty much a beta tester for 3 years and sometimes it is just frustrating and I notice that I end up listening to Spotify Connect more due to its simplicity. Thank you for planning to include Tidal Connect as part of your road map. I will pull the trigger the moment Lumin announces the first beta for Tidal Connect.


Thanks again for your time.

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0. This restriction cannot go away without contradicting MQA's philosophy to sound quality and all its marketing materials.

1. U1 MINI has digital outputs only, so it does MQA core decoding.  D2 has both analog output and digital BNC-SPDIF output.  When you use the D2 analog output, it does full MQA decoding.  When you use the D2 digital output, it only does MQA core decoding.

2. I2S output is not supported.

3. If you intend to use an external DAC, use the U1 MINI which can do USB or AES / BNC / coaxial / toslink outputs.  Functionally D2 behaves like a U1 MINI plus a DAC but hardware wise they are totally different.

4. DSD does not matter if you only stream Tidal, unless you like to use PCM to DSD upsampling.

5. No ETA.

 

Edited by wklie
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