DIGITAL OUTPUT BLUESOUND PRODUCT
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Is there a product from your company that offers full MQA decoding on digital outputs? We are a lot of active speaker users - some of these speakers are quite expensive Dynaudio Focus 20 XD, KEF LS50 Wireless, Kii Three -. The producers of these speakers recommend using digital inputs to achieve maximum sound quality. If BLUESOUND products make MQA bypass decoding on digital outputs, it means that none of the thousands of active speaker users will benefit from this performance technology.
Is it technologically possible that in the future offer full MQA decoding on digital outputs?
We are many active speaker users and we want this feature - full MQA decoding - for BLUESOUND products, which we consider to be very good.
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Official comment
Is there a product from your company that offers full MQA decoding on digital outputs?
No there is not. Either we decode or we don't as per www.mqa.co.uk.
If your external digital device (DAC or Powered speakers) is MQA Compliant, please see; https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006191908
If it is not, then you will receive a single unfold of MQA up to 24/96 depending on the original recording.
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Thanks for the quick response. Perhaps in the future you will also consider thousands of active speaker users, bringing full MQA decoding on digital outputs. It would be a good thing because BLUESOUND products are highly appreciated.
Thank you.0 -
Hi Chiosa
We would love to, but it's up to the speakers as well. That's the requirement of MQA that every piece in the decoding chain reviews the timing bits. As mentioned, please see www.mqa.co.uk for details
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I am not very skilled in this area. But I read that the CARY AUDIO 550 and 600 offer full MQA decoding at 24/192 on digital outputs. So regardless of the implementation used by active speaker manufacturers, these products offer full decoding on digital outputs. Therefore, active speaker owners can enjoy full MQA decoding.
Thank you.0 -
Chiosa, I would love to see a link to the article you mentioned.
MQA is not intended/designed to work the way you suggest. The main reason is that the end DAC needs to be certified by Meridian/MQA. Because MQA isn't just about the folding, as it is intended to control for corrections at the DAC level as well. An MQA decoder can only unfold to 24/96 and pass that data along. The only way to get unfolded beyond 24/96 is to use a either a full-decoder (like the Node) or a renderer (like using the Node with Roon) to take the signal above 24/96 and make DAC specific adjustments which then output as analog.
It's just not possible to pass along a digital output of MQA beyond 24/96.
You could spend hours reading up on it, but this is a real easy article that to the best of my knowledge and research is accurate (https://www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-decoding-explained)
"An MQA encoded file can be played back in four ways; with no decoding, software decoding, hardware decoding, and a combined software/hardware decode.
If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file using iTunes through a regular DAC (i.e. a non-MQA DAC), you will get a 24/48 file.
If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file through an MQA software decoder like Tidal HiFi, Audirvana, or (soon) Roon, and you are using a regular DAC (i.e. a non-MQA DAC), you will get a 24/96 file. A software decoder does not offer the ability to 'unfold' the original file to resolutions higher than 24/96 (or 24/88.2).
If you play back a 24-bit/192kHz MQA-encoded file through an MQA-enabled DAC, you will get a 24-bit/192kHz file. If you are also using a software decoder like Tidal HiFi, Audirvana, or (soon) Roon, you can have the software decoder perform the first 'unfold'."
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