External DAC and Node2i MQA decoding

Answered

Aris Tsogkas

• January 29, 2022 14:22

Hello there.

I recently purchased the node2i and I can say that I love it. It is my ideal streamer.
I am also into MQA. So I also got an external dac, the new ifi signature one, which sounds amazing connected to the Bluesound. The only problem is that this way I loose the volume control through my BlueOs and Roon soince I have to disable them in order to use the dac.
The question is: Do I still get the sonic abilities from the dac EVEN if I disable it from the blueos app, but still run the node with coax through the zen??

In other words I dont mind the node doing the MQA thing instead of the zen, but I would like to keep the sound of the zen. So if an external dac is disabled in the settings, is it only for the MQA unfolding or for the whole sound delivery??

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• Official comment

  

  Tony W.

  Product Support Manager

  • January 31, 2022 14:45

  Hi Aris

  All questions answered here; https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006191908

   
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  Giovanni

  • December 31, 2022 15:36

  Hi Tony, I still don’t get it, sorry. If I connect an external DAC without selecting the external DAC option in the settings, what happens? Which of the two DAC processes the sound? I understand the if it is MQA then the NODE does the rendering, right? Does this mean the external DAC does the further unfoldings? And what happens with this configuration if it is not an MQA file? Thanks

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• 

  Seppi Evans

  Hi-Res

  • December 31, 2022 20:13

  Only select MQA DAC in the BluOS application if the external DAC supports MQA.

  If MQA external DAC is disabled then the first unfold is done by the NODE and no further unfolding is done by the external DAC.

  If the file is not MQA then it’s handled transparently and passed straight to the external DAC.

   

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  Giovanni

  • January 01, 2023 09:37

  Hi Seppi and thanks for your answer. So, if I select external DAC and the file is MQA the external DAC does all the job, while if I don’t select it, I only get a first unfolding by the Node, correct? What happens if the file is not MQA? Does it go straight to the external DAC in both cases?

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  Seppi Evans

  Hi-Res

  • January 01, 2023 09:47

  Correct, If the file is not MQA then it’s handled transparently and passed straight to the external DAC.
  
  

  if you turn on external DAC and it’s not an MQA DAC and you then play an MQA track then no unfolding takes place at all.

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