Benchmark dac2 and mqa

Thanks for the reply guys. Think I understand what’s happening a little better now. I hear a very slight difference between pass through and not. I hear very slight increase in air when I don’t use pass through or maybe I don’t. Don’t think I’ll worry about it any more

One of these settings is “pass through mqa” which is supposed disable software decoding. When I choose this setting the music still plays. Shouldn’t it not work if my dac truly doesn’t support mqa?

MQA audio files are in standard formats (such as FLAC) and compatible with regular audio players. With no decoding, the file will play like a standard audio stream at 1x resolution.

I had the MQA guys, ROON guys, T+A guys, and Wilson guys in the same demo room showing people how good MQA was. They demoed with it on and off. My ears were a little ringing from a prior speaker demo in another room. So when I say I could not tell a difference on an uber expensive system with MQA on and off, there is a bit of uncertainty in that observation.

However, even at home with my DACs (including the Benchmark DAC3B) that both support MQA and do not, I cannot tell a difference either.

Hi Emilio,
Mac Mini with Tidal into a Benchmark DAC 2?  Doesn't sound tech challenged at all, to me!

To your question, I think the dogma goes that independent of "Pass thru MQA" settings, the Tidal software always tries to perform a first core unfold.  Thus any stream to DAC will supposedly have this "better than CD" output.  The Pass thru MQA option switched off induces a second-level software rendering.  But wait!  There's More!  If you buy the ipsy pipsy NEW DAC whose company has paid to license MQA, the final reveal will be granted to you via a final hardware unfold.

So as you've likely already tested, you still get good sound with either setting, and possibly better with no pass thru MQA.   But not necessarily.  With the best asynchronous implementation by high end DACs like your Benchmark,  it is  in some circles debatable that MQA will improve anything.  

Enjoy.