Yes, they have said so a couple of times on the forum, it just requires a software update.
Software can give ‘first unfold’. Hardware - an MQA certified DAC - needed for full ‘unfold’. I believe you can get first unfold now by streaming via suitable third party software, including Audirvana or Roon, even to a Naim player.
As Mike says, full MQA support on Naim streamers is technically possible. However, they have openly said that they will support it only if they see enough customer demand to justify the effort and costs involved in developing their software and paying the license. Then there is the fact that required changes to the DSP could have a negative effect on sound quality on non-MQA material.
Even then if MQA Ltd, who have yet to turn a profit, goes bust it could all have been a waste of time, effort and money. So on balance I think Naim are probably justified in sitting on the fence for now.
5 Likes
I agree, Naim should avoid it for now. I personally hope MQA fails. It is a form of DRM.
2 Likes
I suppose Naim could get their DACs certified if they wanted, and once certified it would be a software update.
Definitely with Roon, don’t know about Audirvana
Definitely with Audirvana, however reportedly some people have had problems when trying to use Audirvana in UPnP server mode to Naim players (as opposed to direct to DAC), seemingly due to the UPnP standard not being truly standard. That was a year or two ago - I haven’t read anything either way mire recently.
1 Like
I stumbled on this on YouTube and found it well thought through and informative, gives a real (if only partial, as the encoding process is not exposed) insight on to the inner workings of MQA and where it sits in the streaming hierarchy. Worth a watch, be interested in others opinions on this certainly considering Tidal vs Qobuz as one example. I have both but find myself leaning towards or even needing Tidal less and less, to the point of likely letting it go and focussing only on Qobuz moving forwards.
1 Like
This has already been posted…
Late to the party it seems!
I’m just resurfacing on the Naim community so not as up to date as I would hope 
Interesting topic anyway, I have an average DSL connection in my new house, having had 1GB Cable at the old place, and Qobuz still work without issue sending me FLAC to enjoy.
2 Likes
I was in my dealers this week and played them a couple of tracks off some albums i thought they might like from Qobuz. They commented they sounded a bit compressed…turns out as they have both Tidal and Qobuz the App had defaulted to Tidal. Forced it back to Qobuz…so much better, more open in the mid and high frequencies. That was just comparing cd quality between Tidal and Qobuz, the hirez version on Qobuz even better still.
5 Likes
I have access to both services also here, decided I’d give it a good year or two to make a serious evaluation of both and to establish if it made sense to have both, I can’t say there’s been many occasions that Qobuz didn’t have the same material and my bias was to default to listening to the Qobuz versions over time. This MQA investigation just got me back on the topic of working out what I actually needed month on month, I dropped Apple Music a while ago, rarely use Spotify but it remains as the family like it and have playlists on it, Qobuz and Tidal is mainly for my benefit but we all use it.
I’ve been doing some testing for my friends at Presto Music as well, on the classical and Jazz tip in that case, and all FLAC based, also a decent service if you’re that way inclined musically.
I’d still like to dig deeper on DSD, the challenge there being the genre focus doesn’t necessarily align to my day to day tastes so whilst it’s an interesting experiment in the technology It’s challenging for me to invest in the content from a library and enjoyment perspective.
I do find myself coming back to CD oddly, it’s relatively cheap to own and can be digitised easily, I do find a local playback of a WAV rip has certain qualities hard to put your finger on relative to streaming.
1 Like
My own long journey into streaming ended up in pretty much the same place. Local server (SonicOrbiter i5 with LPS), rip with a quality drive to WAV and serve with Minimserver 2 as UPnP. I recently had a borrowed Aqua streamer and DAC and I still preferred the ripped CD:s. It just works for me, I don’t know why.
3 Likes
I’ve been listening to old cassette tapes a fair bit lately too, found some gems I’d mostly forgotten about over the last 20-25 years!
I had a thing for recording pirate radio stations in London when I was based there in the 90’s for example, none of which can be streamed from anywhere.
1 Like
I can hear no difference between MQA and Qobuz through my Naim Nova. I am happier with Qobuz on subjective grounds based on the approach of the companies and what looks like an attempt to get an unjustifiied USP. Their obvious link up and advanatage in the RAP/Beyonce sphere does not dio it for me - in fact their delayed release/denial to other outlets just annoys. There you go.
1 Like
I have a lot of old cassettes and 15ips reels from the old industrial/electronica band we had, but no one fancied baking the tapes so I recorded them while still playable onto a Sound Devices 352/24 recorder and downsampled to 44/16 as part of mastering (the other members needed CDR). It was both fun and embarrassing hearing those recordings again
You can find people releasing on audio cassettes on bandcamp. Looks like a nice community.
1 Like
Yes I’ve been able to share old recordings with friends they assumed no longer existed anywhere, brings some happy memories to life again!
I never went down the open reel route, I’d love to, not least they look amazing, but the cost is prohibitive in my case!
I would like a decent vintage cassette deck, might spin up a topic on that here perhaps for advice. A close friend acquired a Nak Deck 1 recently for example.
Do spin away with a new topic.
1 Like
None of the current NAIM DACs can be certified for MQA, they don’t use any of the type of DAC chips that are required for certification. This is because Naim believe that the chips they use, when driven by Naim’s preprocessing and their customised DAC processing, sound better than all the DAC chips that can be certified.
2 Likes
Well then I don’t know why Naim made the statements they made about adding MQA being possible if it was sufficiently requested by Naim customers. Surely there is a way if they say so.