A potentially naive MQA question: Audirvana+, my software player of choice, announced MQA support in an upcoming version. As a Yggy owner, with zero desire to jump ship, what will this mean for me? Specifically:
– Will A+ be decoding all MQA streams into PCM, or only a subset?
– Does all MQA above Redbook require a compliant DAC, or do they split the difference?
– What exactly will a software-based MQA player be allowed to do, other than passing on the MQA bitstream?
I don't like what they appear to be doing, but I want to understand it. Thanks in advance.
The playback of MQA as is without decoding will give you 24/48, typically on a cell phone or native OS related playback.
Then software decoding level 1 will give you 24/96, which is currently what we get with MQA playback within Tidal on our Schiit dac's.
Then hardware decoding level 2 will give you 24/192 only for MQA certified DAC's, which currently Schiit has stated wont support due to payments and certification process to do this for each DAC to include a HW decoding.
Currently iTunes doesnt support software decoding of MQA, so you will get 24/48 wihtout a MQA certified DAC in iTunes. If you have a MQA certified DAC, iTunes will forward the file to the DAC to do HW decoding to unlock full potential = 24/192.