23-Jan-2020, 01:24
I have no experience with Audivarna but I use Roon with an Expert Pro. As far as MQA goes, the situation with the Expert Pro range and the Phantoms is the same: Devialet provide no support at all for MQA. No Devialet product can decode or render an MQA stream.
In the device settings in Roon for your Phantom you should find 2 settings. The first, in the "Audio Device" setting is "MQA capabilities" which provides the options of No MQA support, Decoder and Renderer, Decode Only, Renderer Only. The second setting is in the Advanced Settings which follow the Audio Device settings in the menu. In the Advanced Settings you will find an option for "Enable MQA Core Decoder" with a simple Yes/No option.
The way MQA works with Devialet products is like this:
If a device, in this case your Phantoms or my 140 Pro, is sent an unprocessed MQA stream, it will play a core part of that stream which it sees pretty much as a standard CD quality audio stream. It neither decodes or renders the MQA data in the stream, it simply ignores it.
Some software apps including Roon can decode the MQA stream Before sending it to our respective devices. Struts has said Audivarna can also decode the stream and I'll accept that advice. The second setting in Roon which I mentioned above, "Enable MQA Core Decoder" controls whether or not Roon decodes the stream and there will be a similar setting in Audivarna. If you set that setting to "Yes" the MQA stream will be decoded and instead of a 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz stream, your Phantoms will be sent an 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz stream. That's the "first unfold" in MQA terms but the stream will also include some MQA data for the second and third unfolds which have to be done by a hardware device and can't be done by Roon or Audivarna. Your Phantoms and my 140 Pro ignore that extra MQA data because they don't have the requisite chip to process it but they will play the 88.2/96 kHz stream.
It really doesn't matter what you set the "MQA capabilities" setting to. Devialet products have no MQA capabilities so you may as well set it to none but regardless of what you set it to, Devialet Products can't use the MQA component of the stream and will ignore it. You should hear no difference whatever you set "MQA Capabilities" to because Devialet products do nothing with the MQA data part of the stream, they simply ignore it. All that setting does is to control whether or not Roon strips the MQA code from the stream. I don't know if Audivarna has such a setting.
The only setting which will make a difference for you is the "Enable MQA Core Decoder" setting in Roon or whatever that setting's equivalent is in Audivarna. You should hear a difference between having Roon/Audivarna perform the core decoding step or not. That's the only thing which will make a difference for you. Whether it will sound better or worse to you is something I can't answer because some people like MQA and some don't and the only way for you to find out whether you'll like it or not is to try it.
My recommendation, and what I do, is to set "MQA capabilities" to "No MQA support" and the "Enable MQA Core Decoder" setting to "Yes" in Roon and to use whatever the equivalent settings in Audivarna are. That way you'll get the benefit of the first unfold being done in Roon/Audivarna.
If you decide you don't like MQA, my advice is to select a CD quality or higher non-MQA encoded version of the song/album if that is available from your streaming service. There is an element of lossy encoding involved with MQA which to my ears makes an undecided MQA stream sound slightly worse than a CD quality non MQA encoded stream.
In the device settings in Roon for your Phantom you should find 2 settings. The first, in the "Audio Device" setting is "MQA capabilities" which provides the options of No MQA support, Decoder and Renderer, Decode Only, Renderer Only. The second setting is in the Advanced Settings which follow the Audio Device settings in the menu. In the Advanced Settings you will find an option for "Enable MQA Core Decoder" with a simple Yes/No option.
The way MQA works with Devialet products is like this:
If a device, in this case your Phantoms or my 140 Pro, is sent an unprocessed MQA stream, it will play a core part of that stream which it sees pretty much as a standard CD quality audio stream. It neither decodes or renders the MQA data in the stream, it simply ignores it.
Some software apps including Roon can decode the MQA stream Before sending it to our respective devices. Struts has said Audivarna can also decode the stream and I'll accept that advice. The second setting in Roon which I mentioned above, "Enable MQA Core Decoder" controls whether or not Roon decodes the stream and there will be a similar setting in Audivarna. If you set that setting to "Yes" the MQA stream will be decoded and instead of a 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz stream, your Phantoms will be sent an 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz stream. That's the "first unfold" in MQA terms but the stream will also include some MQA data for the second and third unfolds which have to be done by a hardware device and can't be done by Roon or Audivarna. Your Phantoms and my 140 Pro ignore that extra MQA data because they don't have the requisite chip to process it but they will play the 88.2/96 kHz stream.
It really doesn't matter what you set the "MQA capabilities" setting to. Devialet products have no MQA capabilities so you may as well set it to none but regardless of what you set it to, Devialet Products can't use the MQA component of the stream and will ignore it. You should hear no difference whatever you set "MQA Capabilities" to because Devialet products do nothing with the MQA data part of the stream, they simply ignore it. All that setting does is to control whether or not Roon strips the MQA code from the stream. I don't know if Audivarna has such a setting.
The only setting which will make a difference for you is the "Enable MQA Core Decoder" setting in Roon or whatever that setting's equivalent is in Audivarna. You should hear a difference between having Roon/Audivarna perform the core decoding step or not. That's the only thing which will make a difference for you. Whether it will sound better or worse to you is something I can't answer because some people like MQA and some don't and the only way for you to find out whether you'll like it or not is to try it.
My recommendation, and what I do, is to set "MQA capabilities" to "No MQA support" and the "Enable MQA Core Decoder" setting to "Yes" in Roon and to use whatever the equivalent settings in Audivarna are. That way you'll get the benefit of the first unfold being done in Roon/Audivarna.
If you decide you don't like MQA, my advice is to select a CD quality or higher non-MQA encoded version of the song/album if that is available from your streaming service. There is an element of lossy encoding involved with MQA which to my ears makes an undecided MQA stream sound slightly worse than a CD quality non MQA encoded stream.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
