Sorry, dear
@Andykong, we can't let you get off the MQA hook yet. "We" means that I am trying to find answers to the same questions
@Taz777 asked. Speaking only for myself, I easily admit that I don't understand MQA yet as much as one would like. It seems
@MarkParity understands it better.
Now, I would like to come back to this question of mine:
Now, on a related note, I am left with these questions, dear
@Andykong:
What Settings are the correct ones for using the N6ii as a USB-DAC with Roon (on Windows in my case)? In particular, what Settings regarding the MQA capabilities? And what am I supposed to see when looking at the Signal Path during MQA playback from Tidal integrated within Roon?
@Andykong, your answers usually are truely helpful and comprehensive - great user service. But so very sorry, this one was a bit too short:
Sorry, I am not a ROON user, and Cayin has not tested our product for ROON compatibility, nor submit our product to ROON for testing, we can't provide any guideline or suggestion regarding ROON usage.
I was under the impression that MQA will not output bitstream beyond 88.2/96 kHz over USB or S/PDIF, So your guess is a sensible prediction IMHO.
I need to ask again. In fact, this question of mine actually is NOT about Roon, it is about how MQA is implemented in the N6ii. Roon is just a lens to look under the hood of the N6ii. There are two MQA settings in Roon for the output device in question:
(1) Determine what Roon shall do as a software: Enable MQA Core Decoder = Yes / No
I tend to set this to Yes, so Roon does the first unfold from 44.1 or 48 kHz to 88.2 or 96 kHz
(2) Determine what kind of MQA is implemented in the output device, i.e. the N6ii:
MQA Capabilities = No MQA Support / Decoder Only / Renderer Only / Decoder and Renderer
Thus my / our question is: What type of MQA device is the N6ii? And what should it do then when playing an MQA track?
We had received an answer from
@MarkParity: "The N6ii is a renderer." But we do really need an official statement from Cayin as to that.
I think the difference comes from the fact that the Topping D90 is a full decoder, so better? Maybe? and the N6ii is a renderer.
Q4. What are advantages of an MQA Renderer?
- An MQA Renderer can provide a low-cost or lightweight upgrade for playback of music encoded in MQA.
- Some Class I USB devices can only receive 96 kHz audio. In these cases, a Renderer is able to take in the MQA Core and complete the unfolding up to 384 or even 768 kHz internally.
Its all here, but not necessary self explanatory.
http://bobtalks.co.uk/blog/science-mqa/mqa-playback/
As a side remark, I would really love to see those words decoder and renderer explained by MQA people themselves. Maybe I was too stupid or blind up to now, maybe that's hard to find...
Another point now is: Who should be able to supply the full and definitive answers as to what type of MQA device the N6ii is, and what capabilitites it should have? Should we expect to see all MQA tracks be unfolded to 352.8 or 384 kHz? Should the answer come from the Cayin software engineers?
I'm not sure but my "guess" would be that the MQA code was provided to Cayin as some sort of set of library of functions. Cayin would possibly not know (or care) what a particular MQA stream would unfold to.
I would imagine that the exact details of the algorithms used are a very closely guarded secret too.
Perhaps your observations would be better directed at the MQA people themselves rather than at the middleman (Cayin)
I am thinking about another possibility in addition to that: There are close collaborations between Cayin and HiBy, so possibly HiBy did the MQA implementation for Cayin? HiBy has MQA on their recent R8. My thought comes from reading the HiBy R8 thread here on Head-Fi, where people were happily observing MQA to unfold to 705.6 or 768 kHz on the R8 - just similar to what our N6ii does. If that were true then HiBy software engineers should provide a definitive answer to all this, not only the Cayin engineers. Thus I will be patient and wait for the questions to be forwarded to the most authoritative recipients and then trickle down again.
@Andykong, please ...