I am in a bit of a dilemma and hoping to get some insight on the forum.
I am being offered a demo NDX2 for a discount.
I mostly listen to vinyl (RP3 - SN3) and streaming via Bluesound node N130. When I have (lots of) free time, I hookup an iPad cabled via a Schiit Gungnir for some lossless/Hi-Res listening.
My dilemma is that given that the NDx2 doesn’t unfold MQA and the NDX2 won’t accept a direct iPad connection for lossless/Hi-Res, would the NDX2 add anything to my set up? Ideally, I would replace the bluesound node and the Gungnir with the Ndx2 - but I loose on my (hobby!) of lossless/MQA.
The NDX2 is a much better streamer than the node but is designed for quality. MQA is a compression algorithm trying to solve bandwidth compromises (or a marketing stunt aiming to impose DRM, depending on your viewpoint).
The NDX2 is completely at home with true lossless which it will express much better than the node.
The NDX2 will stream lossless from Qobuz or CD quality from Tidal, both via the app with an internet connection, both of which should be well ahead of your current setup.
Again, I’d just try to get a home demo and compare.
Consider that both Roon and Audirvana software can do a 1st MQA unfold too, but when I had Tidal, basically to compare with Qobuz and try some MQA files I wasn’t bowled over and ultimately it’s compressed which was a nice attempt to overcome poor internet bandwidth at the time but for most this is unlikely to be an issue these days.
It also depends on your music tastes so Tidal or other providers using MQA might be better than one using lossless if it doesn’t have your music styles in abundance.
Thanks all! Went in for the demo and indeed, it didn’t matter any more if it was MQA or lossless - the sound quality via the NDX2 was immensely different! Called in the whole family for testing and the opinion was unanimous!
MQA is a solution looking for a problem. I have a NDX2 and it’s excellent, and that’s coming from me, a complete vinyl snob. I use Qobuz via Roon. I had TIDAL for a while and although it had a few things (i.e. titles) at the time that Qobuz didn’t have it was too little to worry about. Qobuz costs me less too.
It took the NDX2 for me to appreciate digital streaming.
Use the NDX2 as a Roon Endpoint (it has RAAT support) and let the Roon Core make the 1st unfold of MQA & Tidal Masters. This gives you upto 24/96 which is 96% of the Tidal Masters.
Plus Roon is so much better to use for Library and Playback Management.