Roon running on Mac Mini, have Tidal account. When my Tidal playlist reaches a song encoded with MQA, playback on ND555 stops. Have to try repeatedly to get Roon to play track before it’ll actually play. Track in question is “100 Miles and running” by Logic, from album YSIV. Any ideas? all kit Ethernet-wired. No other issues with Roon, Tidal.
Have you checked Roon still has your ND555 not supporting MQA? That is the default setting. Roon will by default attempt to do the first MQA decode and send the resultant PCM to the ND555 via RAAT which is fine for the ND555
When i am playing an mqa track Naim app shows 24/196… Mac book running core with nd555
So no problem and we wonder if I am getting a 24/192 track, Mac doing the unfolding or whatever:)
The Naim app only selects PCM tracks from Tidal and not MQA tracks.
If you are using the Roon app, select the signal path indicator graphic and it will show the processing chain and whether there is any MQA involved.
In this example, Roon is doing the first MQA decode, and sending the resultant PCM (the uncompressed MQA signal) as 96/24 to the ND555.
The Naim app has a Roon screen mode… which you have selected… and it displays the uncompressed 96/24 PCM that is being sent to the ND555.
All looks to be working perfectly…
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thank you Simon but I still don’t get it…
Am I listening 24/96 or not?
If I am why anyone with a roon needs a mqa dac?
Sorry for stupid questions
Yes you are listening to 96/24… but not the original PCM signal, but the rebuilt PCM after the MQA decompression.
PCM -> MQA compression ~~ streaming ~~ MQA decompression -> PCM2
However PCM <> PCM2… but can sound pretty close and some prefer whilst others don’t.
Roon, like all software only solutions only does the first level decode. An MQA DAC product is licensed to do the additional secondary decode, which decompresses more of the MQA signal.
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Having an MQA DAC gives you the 2nd part of the MQA decoding applying the correct MQA filtering and, unfolding to higher resolutions if its encoded with them. The first unfold will only go to 96/24, MQA can go much higher if its a higher resolution MQA encoded file.Without it you get the first unfold courtesy of Roon but not the 2nd part.
Thanks, Simon. Here are my settings:
Should the ‘enable MQA core decoder’ option be yes or no? In other words does this refer to Roon or the ND555?
The ND555 is correctly set at ‘no MQA support’.
However the ‘enable MQA Core decoder’ should be on… but the core appeared to be MQA decoding anyway, perhaps because the ND555 simply can’t decode MQA … but put it on anyway so you are certain.
Will do. Thanks very much for the help.
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