Interesting but would this not apply to all Airplay audio streams, such that a CD quality one ought to be better than 256 kbps AAC even allowing for these technical considerations?
Struggling to keep track of so many different options these days, but from your ROON knowledge any idea if ROON can send MQA files to an Oppo 205 which is RAAT enabled (currently anyway). Quick searches indicate local MQA files.
I have a new TIDAL Hi-Fi plus 3 month for free, at the end I will downgrade. Last 12 months with Qobuz, sound good but the organization of the catalog is horrible. Before 5 years always TIDAL.
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Do streamers sound different?
How could they if they merely handle bit perfect digital information?
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Yes it would and I would expect cd quality to sound better than aac. I donāt use Airplay myself as not iOS user so cant confirm it does sound worse or better. I just know that airplay may not sound as good as direct source due to its clocking.
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Its MQA decoder only works via USB drive not streaming. So Roon will send on the first unfold to 88.1/24 lor 96/24 but you wonāt get the rendering stage so itās only half of the MQA process at play. if you turn off Roons MQA decoder for the endpoint you will just get 44.1/24 and no mqa unfolding, whch you choose is up to you.
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Does an nd555 sound the same as the nd5xs?
No.
I was only joking!
forgot to add the smiling faceā¦ 
I thought you might remember the intricate discussions we had on a very long digital cable and switches thread about this topicā¦
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Iāve used Airplay for many years but not all that frequently and in all honesty I think it sounds pretty good, but many of these technologies have inherent compromises. We sometimes worry too much I think.
Thatās a shame.
The 205 might be an option for Apple Music though via iPad/camera connector - must try it.
Agreed, tbh I donāt worry too much about any of it much now. The music itself is more important than hifi, software or transports. They are all means to an end.
If the usb works as that then you might be in luck, but I imagine itās limited to 44.1/16 as thatās all iPods could do.
Thinking of potentially using the Oppo 205 as a USB DAC via camera connector from iPad Pro 2, just as others seem to be using USB DACs to get hi-res from Apple Music.
First I need to update my iPad to iPadOS and backing up is a chore!
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Clare, with your inside information is Spotify HiFi going to happen? Only five weeks left for it to arrive ālater this yearā. Mind you, will it play on my NDX?
As a close partner of Spotify, weāre under NDA, so I canāt say an awful lot other than whatās been publically announced - ie itās on its way. As soon as weāre able, weāll share a full update.
Iāve taken the Tidal change together with having upgraded some of my Naim fleet recently to the new streaming platform to downgrade Tidal to the HiFi tier and sign up to Qobuz. So far feeling very positive about Qobuz - very little that I listen to they donāt have and impression is better SQ (though needs some back-to-back comparisons to confirm). Suspect I might end up just with Qobuz.
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I appreciate the importance of non disclosure agreements and will remain patient. Assuming that the new HiFi version works on my NDX it will be very interesting to compare with Premium as I am one of the few people - on this forum anyway - to reject Tidal and Qobuz in favour of Spotify due to no perceived improvement!
The āblobā of Spotify connect code seems quite different in 3.7.x then 3.6.x. Iām assuming you get the Spotify connect code from Spotify. So it means theyāve been doing some changes.
No idea what to read into that though 
But a 3.8 before the end of the year. Hmm.
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What do you say out of your listening to both?