Lumin support of MQA?

[Mike]

Peter,

I hope I'm not off topic here, but I found an easier way to listen to TIDAL MQA tracks via my Lumin S1 where no TIDAL desktop app is involved.

Just use the Lumin iPad app and search TIDAL by artist as you normally would. All the MQA albums appear on the search results along with the Redbook version. There's no way to tell the MQA vs. Redbook version from TIDAL's album art so you just have to play each to see which plays at 48kHz, 24-bit.

The SQ is noticeably better than the Redbook version, likely due to the 24-bit depth. I imagine if I used the TIDAL desktop app, the tracks would unfold to 96kHz, but I'm not sure how to play music from my Mac Mini to my S1.

That is true, but you are still only getting step 1 in the 3 step MQA process.

Step 1 is 48/24
Step 2 is 96/24
Step 3 is full blown MQA with the algorithms applied.

 

[wklie]

Just use the Lumin iPad app and search TIDAL by artist as you normally would. All the MQA albums appear on the search results along with the Redbook version. There's no way to tell the MQA vs. Redbook version from TIDAL's album art so you just have to play each to see which plays at 48kHz, 24-bit.

The SQ is noticeably better than the Redbook version, likely due to the 24-bit depth. I imagine if I used the TIDAL desktop app, the tracks would unfold to 96kHz, but I'm not sure how to play music from my Mac Mini to my S1.

You are correct that the desktop app is not really necessary for getting MQA music to play on Lumin - it was mentioned because it shows a Masters category, so you know you're choosing a MQA album instead of only relying on trial and error.

Even without decoding, the SQ improvement comes from the MQA process correcting for the "flaws" of the recording equipment (ADC).

I'm afraid there's no easy way to make use of the Tidal desktop app together with Lumin, because the Tidal desktop app MQA feature is meant to be used with a USB DAC.

Not all hope is lost though.

 

[cycles2]

I purchased a Meridian Explorer2 MQA DAC. I realize it's only $200 and is no comparison to an S1 but I can tell you that the S1 playing TIDAL MQA tracks at 48kHz, 24-bit sounds as good if not better than the Meridian Explorer2 DAC playing TIDAL at MQA Studio level. Most tracks play at 96kHz and some according to the LED lights on the Explorer2 DAC play at 192kHz.

I mainly wanted to see if MQA even on a cheap DAC lived up to the hype many of us have been reading about. I'm beginning to think that the MQA hype may be coming from folks not used to listening to hi-rez tracks on a Lumin.