To be honest, I haven’t looked into, nor gotten caught up in, anything to do with MQA.
But, it’s the tweakend. Time to fiddle.
I’m running Ethernet to an ultraRendu, then to the Matrix, to the DSD.
What settings would I use in Roon to properly set the ultraRendu for MQA? Secondarily, is it even worth bothering, or should I just disable MQA support? (Hopefully no cans of worms will be opened.)
If you want to play with MQA- enable MQA core decoder in Roon in the ultrarendu device setup/advanced settings. This will give you the first unfold. The DSD will only fully unfold via the Bridge II up to 24/192. Hope this helps.
Let your ears be your guide
Thank you. I’ll give it a try.
As I recently just started using Roon with my DSD I was interested in hearing MQA. I had just heard an audio manufacturer flatly claim that MQA beats all, no question. When my Roon server saw my Bridge 2 card it knew how to work with the DSD and set everything up. It is so knowledgeable that when I select the Bridge zone it even switches the input on the DSD automatically. Last week I listened to three continuous hours of MQA via the Bridge. The MQA light came on on the DSD display so I know it was working properly. Roon reported that I was listening to MQA at various rates. It sounded swell, just like Qobuz. Did it sound better? Not to me. Did it use less internet bandwidth to sound good? I suppose it did, but that is not important to me.
I find I do not agree with the manufacturers statement that MQA sounds obviously better. The only reason why I reach for MQA now is to see if it is worthwhile. I’d say it is but 24.96 Qobuz files are wonderful as well.
I find listening to the DSD via Roon and Bridge 2 to be very relaxed and easy to do for extended periods of time. It seems soothing in comparison to the Matrix method. When I switch to listening via the Matrix and all it’s related gear it’s perhaps noticeably better, but not relaxed and easy like listening via Bridge 2.
I am sad that Roon knows nothing about the Matrix, so it doesn’t work as a zone on my setup. But my Euphony server tells Roon my Matrix is a Squeezebox device and that makes it possible on my server to use the Matrix output with Roon. Roon also is very familiar with my Chord Qutest, which sounds unbeatable until I switch to the DSD.
My opinion is I could live very easily without MQA. But I don’t mind having it.
(I also could not hear or appreciate what a Gigafoil did in my system, so I don’t miss it at all. Nuther story…)
(My microRendu and UltraRendu are too noisy in my system to be useful. Each adds what sounds similar to clicks and pops on an LP. I talked to tech support and they came up blank. I’d try them with my new server but I can see no reason to do so.)
I agree with you on the lack of merits of MQA. to my ears it had a detrimental effect on the music. Not bad, just an odd effect. It was clearly affecting the music in a way that wasn’t true to the recording.
On your other point, the Matrix merely translates the signal into different output protocols. It isn’t an endpoint. So ROON doesn’t need to see it.
I didn’t have the chance to listen carefully, but over the weekend I set the proper settings for MQA (as above), took one listen, and said, “meh”. I thought it sounded terrible.
I set back to bit perfect and went about my chores.
I’ll listen again, but I was decidedly unimpressed with MQA at first blush.
I also haven’t noticed MQA as being inherently better and it seems to already be an outdated and unnecessary technology given both Quboz and Amazon are streaming 24 bit without MQA. I think MQA primarily benefited beleaguered Tidal due to the lower bandwidth, but I don’t see how it helps the end user. In fact, it seems a completely unnecessary level of conversion these days. There’s no reason to believe that MQA somehow magically improves recordings.