Tidal MQA?

[birrr]

Own 2 golds and am loving the sound. Mostly listen from Tidal through Air Play using Roon.
I really want to stream Tidal MQA version (using laptop). Do the phantoms support MQA? If so what do typical set ups look like?

[ragwo]

Own 2 golds and am loving the sound. Mostly listen from Tidal through Air Play using Roon.
I really want to stream Tidal MQA version (using laptop). Do the phantoms support MQA? If so what do typical set ups look like?

Sorry  the Phantom does not support MQA.

[Taucher669]

Airplay is a lossy transmission and will not pull out the full potential of Phantom. If you do not want to refuse using roon - better buy e.g. a Bluesound Node II and stream via optical cable from the Node II to Phantom/Dialog. MQA support via Tidal - Roon - Bluesound is already announced and will come soon. Devialet very likely will NOT directly support MQA - at least this is my information.

[streamy]

Airplay is a lossy transmission

This is not correct. Airplay supports lossless transmission up to 24bit/48kHz, but it is difficult to control that the used app does not transcode to 16bit/44.1kHz (also considered lossless). So MQA can be listened but will not be unfolded, therefore will be 44.1kHz/13bit, as far as I have read. But I think the OP might want to stream a Tidal PC app unfolded (first unfold: 96k/24bit lossy signal) stream to the Phantom. This indeed is not possible without additional hardware connected to the Phantoms via optical input.

[Gremlin]

Some reasons why MQA should be avoided:

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/...t-why.html

[NevB]

According to my research, I believe full MQA unfolding (up to 24bit/192kHz) to the Phantoms can only happen if Devialet support it directly by registering [aka licensing] the Phantom DAC with the MQA group.

Partial unfolding to the Phantoms is available now, up to 24bit/96kHz, via a number of ways including:

Tidal on a PC with a hirez optical out, connected directly to the Phantom
Roon on a PC with a hirez optical out, connected directly to the Phantom [I do this]
Roon on a PC streaming to a Roon Endpoint with a hirez optical out, connected directly to the Phantom [eg a SonicOrbiter]
Bluesound Vault or Node connected directly to the Phantom [these are also Roon endpoints]

Its worth repeating that not all optical ports are rated to 24/96 or 24/192, and some os [eg MacOS] need tweaking to support 24/192

Roon provides details on the signal path and bit rates which can help "debug" your efforts to get MQA partial unfolding working, but its a journey ... good luck!

Hope this helps

[Jean-Marie]

Some reasons why MQA should be avoided:

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/...t-why.html

Indeed. 

MQA, even with complete unfolding is lossy. 
In fact the best that MQA is providing is a lossless 13/44.1 and a lossy reconstruction of what go beyond, which is 11/44.1 + 24/(96 or 192)-44.1 all this lossy compressed into 3/44.1. 

Unless you are Meridian or a content owner trying to lock the market behind a DRM paywall, this is beyond my understanding why anyone would want MQA!

Jean-Marie

[streamy]

Some reasons why MQA should be avoided:

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/...t-why.html

Indeed. 

MQA, even with complete unfolding is lossy. 
In fact the best that MQA is providing is a lossless 13/44.1 and a lossy reconstruction of what go beyond, which is 11/44.1 + 24/(96 or 192)-44.1 all this lossy compressed into 3/44.1. 
Unless you are Meridian or a content owner trying to lock the market behind a DRM paywall, this is beyond my understanding why anyone would want MQA!
Jean-Marie

All you said seems logical to me! But there are still many Tidal users that think they can get a hires offer at the price of 16/44.1 compared to real hires offers e.g. from Qobuz (sublime+) that is a bit higher on price.

[Gremlin]

Some reasons why MQA should be avoided:

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/...t-why.html

Indeed. 

MQA, even with complete unfolding is lossy. 
In fact the best that MQA is providing is a lossless 13/44.1 and a lossy reconstruction of what go beyond, which is 11/44.1 + 24/(96 or 192)-44.1 all this lossy compressed into 3/44.1. 
Unless you are Meridian or a content owner trying to lock the market behind a DRM paywall, this is beyond my understanding why anyone would want MQA!
Jean-Marie

All you said seems logical to me! But there are still many Tidal users that think they can get a hires offer at the price of 16/44.1 compared to real hires offers e.g. from Qobuz (sublime+) that is a bit higher on price.

I know there are, and that is why they need to be informed of the facts! MQA is bad for all of us!!!

Not that anyone needs better than redbook, because they don't (unless they are bats who like noise).

[birrr]

Thanks for your opinion, everyone. I don't want this thread to turn into a debate on MQA... I think there are a plenty of other threads that discuss the MQA topic in depth. I personally don't care if I don't get the full MQA: I just want a better sound quality than what I can get from Airplay because I know my golds can handle much more than that. Having said that, I think I will go with Bluesound Node 2 and connect it directly to the dialog using optical. From what I've researched that offers the best bang for the buck.

My question is, if I did Laptop (Windows 10, probably Bluesound app and Tidal MQA) --(wifi)--> Bluesound Node 2 --(optical)--> dialog, and if I play a 24/192 track, what's the sound quality I will get? I couldn't find a crystal clear answer to this question. Note that I will not be using Roon since I understand the MQA support via Tidal - Roon - Bluesound is yet to come.