AudioQuest adds MQA Support to Dragonflies via firmware

[mrvco]

Has any more information been released by AQ or Tidal regarding the MQA update for the Dragonfly DACs?

[mrvco]

On 4/11/2017 at 4:09 AM, ShawnC said:

They lied to increase sales during the initial MQA release on Tidal, brilliant!  J/K

 

Ha, well MQA is working then... in a way.

[mrvco]

23 hours ago, DarwinOSX said:

 

The list is now $199 and has been for awhile.  I got mine from Crutchfield.  Free shipping and no tax.

 

I got tired of waiting for the AQ update and ordered an E2 for work to use with headphones a couple of days ago (curiosity killed the cat), but I didn't realize they ever actually sold for $299.

[mrvco]

I got the E2 yesterday afternoon.  I've been comparing the HiFi and Master versions of some songs that I listen to regularly.  My modest desktop setup includes a MacBook Air and Sennheiser Momentum headphones.  I have not heard a demonstrable difference yet between the HiFi and MQA versions.

 

I haven't found a single "MQA" (green light) stream yet, everything regardless of vintage shows up as "MQA Studio" (blue light).  Apparently there are MQA Studio streams that are 'only' 24/48 (blue light only), which I thought was the source stream (fully compressed w/ no MQA decoder).

 

I haven't a/b'd the E2 with my Schiit Fulla yet, but I'm definitely missing the external analog volume control.

 

I'll try the E2's line-out with my 2ch rig this weekend and see how that sounds.  I up-convert Tidal streams to DxD or DSD128 using HQP, but the E2 doesn't support DxD or DSD, so unfortunately that won't be an apples to apples comparison.

[mrvco]

1 hour ago, DarwinOSX said:

 

The Meridian Explorer 2 does the full decode without Tidal help.

You select Passthrough MQA  which disables software decoding of MQA.

 

 

Where is that setting in the Tidal desktop app?  I thought I remembered seeing it in the past, but when I looked last night, I couldn't find it.

 

edit: Whoops, never mind.  I wasn't hovering my mouse pointer over the appropraite blank space for the little gear icon to appear next to the device.

[mrvco]

1 hour ago, DarwinOSX said:

 

 

I suppose everyones ears are different but I can easily hear the difference.

 

With these headphones at least, I haven't found a song where I can loop a playlist of the non-MQA and MQA versions, get up from my desk and come back after some random period of time and tell which version is currently playing.  I didn't think of it until now, but I should get my SE535s out of my bag and try those... they are a 'bit' more revealing 

 

The pass-thru setting didn't seem to make a difference, the lights on the E2 still light up just the same for any given song and no noticeable difference in SQ.

[mrvco]

6 minutes ago, tomster said:

mrvco.  I'm not sure what you are expecting from the 'green light'.   According to this article, the only difference between green and blue lights are that the blue versions have been approved by the artist or producer.  https://www.stuff.tv/features/everything-you-need-know-about-mqa-future-music-streaming

 

 

I just expected to run into some tracks that weren't "MQA Studio" (particularly older tracks where the artist and/or producer may no longer be available), but so far that hasn't happened yet.

[mrvco]

I had a chance to connect the E2 to my 2ch rig inserted between my µR and preamp.  This is a nice DAC (independent of MQA) , detail is good, soundstage is good, the overall sound is nice and full.  My only outright complaint so far is some listening fatigue from the high frequencies (not as evident with my headphones), but that will probably diminish to some extent with break in.

 

The additional detail in the Hi-Res streams is subtle, but there seems to be that little bit of extra clarity at the edges as compared to the 16/44 streams.  The soundstage just doesn't seem to open up enough to pick out those little details using my MacBook Air and either of my headphones.

 

I'd still prefer to buy music for my collection in a non-proprietary format and not limit my DAC options (now or in the future), but if my DAC of choice just so happened to support MQA, then it's probably a nice little perk for subscribing to Tidal.

 

One oddity, there is an MQA version of Icky Thump from The White Stripes on Tidal and when I play it, the little blue light on the E2 comes on, but neither the 96 or 192 KHz lights illuminate.  I checked the bit-rate and resolution as reported in Roon and Roon reports the stream as 16/44.1, while the other MQA content that I've played reports MQA streams as 24/48.  I'm not sure what's going on there, but it seems that something is amiss with the MQA version.