MQA. Apple Music. WTH

For a simple solution I would just use multiroom from the Atom to get Qobuz to the QB.

:+1: Do you maybe also know what @airedog has to do do get the Qb v1 onto his wifi network in the first place? I have no idea about the v1 and only found the v2 instructions on the Naim website under Support. I’m sure the OP would appreciate

my Naim ap recognizes the Atom, I just don’t know the order and where the ethernet cables go into / from the plume pods. I have the app which has the instructions, but it wouldn’t allow me to sign in. I was on the phone for 1:45 today with Atlantic BB trying to figure out why the account (new/ moved here two weeks today) wouldn’t recognize me, Never got to the question of hooking up the Plume pods. unreal…

The 1st gen. Musos do not have very good WiFi, so an Ethernet cable would by best if at all possible.

Uh…as entertaining as this is, and it is, there are (last count) 27 emails to me on the topic (I could stop them, but actually they are helpful in starting where I left off the first time. Can you tell me, the Plume on the wall at the router has 2 ethernet jacks. Does the Atom plug into the router still? And one cable from the router to the Plume. I also know a second ethernet cable is used at the router plume for the second jack. I just don’t know where that ethernet cable goes? Into the router also? That seems weird.

Well…the Qb need be wired to the ‘net doesn’t it?

Lol. Sharing your nationality made me subscribe to Tidal by joining the Hifi.nl powerbuy last fall :smirk:

Yes, it still needs a network connection. My point was that the 1st gen. QB won’t work with Qobuz, but you can get around this by playing Qobuz on the Atom, and using its Multiroom function to send the music stream to the QB.

That is factually incorrect. MQA files can be played back by non MQA decoders in what MQA describe as ‘legacy’ mode but with reduced dynamic range for the bit size and perhaps more relevantly with the addition of increased digital noise floor. So the PCM equivalent playback is impacted and compromised.
So if you no option then yes you can play MQA processed media as PCM, but for optimum SQ and performance best avoid and use the native PCM media instead of the MQA processed media.

Jim Lesurf has an accessible description of the bit stacking method used posted on the web.

So noise shaping is used to encode the MQA processing data. If you refer to the MQA patents ie WO2013/186561 then you see they state that an LPCM player can play an MQA file and be equivalent in the audio spectrum below 5kHz… that is the frequencies we are most sensitive to… and optimisation can be performed at MQA processing time to affect this.

In summary the MQA file can be played back in a compromised state, albeit with minimum impact to frequencies used for speech, by an LPCM player.

Yes. I thought that if you choose a Master version, the Naim app chooses the CD quality stream anyway? But now I realise that we were talking about the Tidal app and you are correct for that. Luckily it is all irrelevant because the OP switched to Qobuz.

Yes streaming media indexing such as in Tidal is a different matter… you can typically control whether to fetch native or MQA processed media to stream… I was referring to playing MQA processed media using LPCM equipment.

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I have no Plume experience, but I looked up how it works and if I understand correctly, you plug one Plume into the router, and this plume then connects to other Plumes in the house by wifi. The other Plumes distribute the wifi coverage over a great area, but also have their own ethernet jacks where you can connect devices per cable instead of using the wifi.

So if this is correct, then this should work:

First room:
Router — (cable) — Plume 1
Atom — (cable) — Plume 1 or router, whatever you can reach better

Second room:
Qb — (cable) — Plume 2
(as others have said correctly, the Qb v1 does not have great wifi, so better to use a cable to the Plume if you can)

You can then use the Naim app to use “multiroom” to stream from the Atom to the Qb, including hi-res Qobuz

I use MQA with Linn (Klimax) via Roon and it sounds pretty good to me. Not better than Qobuz, but still pretty good.

… but surely what counts is how ‘good’ it sounds, and not the question of whether or not it is ‘lossy’.

The pejorative use of the term ‘lossy’ does annoy me a little because it infers that MQA is no different to any application and level of compression in MP3 and other compressed formats. When MQA is used in conjunction with Roon or via an MQA DAC then to my ears this is most certainly not the case.

Most people who are anti MQA are anti for a number of reasons that are not necessarily related to sound quality. Fair enough - I do understand some of these arguments. However, in my view some of the anti MQA sentiment borders on hysteria.

I should point out that I am not a particular fan of MQA. I simply feel that ‘Masters’ offerings on Tidal are a worthwhile option to have for Tidal subscribers. However, I would be at least equally happy were Tidal to drop MQA and offer standard hi-res streaming.

Finally, if the Qobuz music catalogue offered me every album that I have in my music library via Tidal then I would probably switch to Qobuz from Tidal for a number of reasons not solely related to sound quality, but at the moment they can’t quite do that.

However, if the OP has already tried Tidal, switched to Qobuz and is happy with their music catalogue, then there is absolutely no need to consider MQA at all.

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That’s great so good reason to stick with Qobuz if it is better.

For the OP - assuming that the Qobuz catalogue meets his requirements then - yes! He should stick with Qobuz.

For anyone else, the same criterion applies. If you are happy with the Qobuz catalogue, then there is no reason to choose Tidal over Qobuz. Consideration of MQA and its impact becomes totally irrelevant in my opinion.

For those who favour the Tidal catalogue, the good news is that in my experience (using an MQA enabled DAC or the first unfold using Roon), Tidal ‘Masters’ can provide hi-res content that is at least almost as good as that on Qobuz (on some systems). However, this statement may be specific streaming device/DAC dependant, hence my use of the caveat “on some systems”.

Excelsior! Success! Thank you all. Again, hope for all the OCD people out there, If I can stumble around and get this fancy schmanzy stuff (Atom, Qb, Focals, Plumes and grrrr…Google Home) to work anyone can. Special thanks to you that have steered the post back to the connectivity question. The pods took forever to connect, that was the issue. I was just on the phone again with Atlantic BB (never call tech support during the day, call at 3am) for (after 1:31 yesterday) 1:44 minutes! Ugh…but…now I’m up and running. I have a lovely masonry home (Block with brick veneer) and hardwood floors throughout. The Qb is now in the basement. The Atom is upstairs in the front room. Just turned them both on for the first time. HOLY CATS! The little ‘ole Qb in the basement is essentially working as a sub-woofer. It really is insane how much base that little thing produces. Amazing. Naim, and this community just rock. Thank you all. This has been fun. I really should go through, single you special people out, especially and send out special thanks to Clare (you work for Naim correct? Cool…) and Suedkiez for steering the post back…love to you all…

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I am so glad that you worked it out. Very well done! Enjoy!

And yes the little Qb is amazing, even more so the larger Mu-So. Every time someone turns one on (a friend has the larger one, and I’ve heard the Qb at the dealer’s a few times) I am surprised by what comes out of it.

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Right. That is how it played out. It was not correct that there would be two ethernet cables into the plume at the router. And the Atom is plugged directly into the router but could be into the plume. This does raise another question I’ve had: now, with the Qb in the basement playing and plugged into the plume, is the signal being transmitted wirelessly (bluetooth or chromecast) or wired connection?

If you are using the multiroom feature in the Naim app, the Atom should be sending the music over the wire to the Qb, in all its Qobuz glory. (Well, it seems that it will go from the router-Plume in the front room to the Plume in the basement over wifi, but this is fine. The Plume seems to be a “mesh wifi” solution, and this is fine. Basically everyone on the forum who had wifi coverage problems and switched to a mesh solution was happy)

I never used multiroom, but it sounds as if you figured it out. Else, see https://www.naimaudio.com/product/uniti-atom/support and search for multiroom